Melissa Ross
Monday night’s Duval County Republican Party gathering ended with the endorsement of Jacksonville mayoral candidate Lenny Curry (albeit with some complications).
But the meeting had another unexpected bit of drama when 26-year-old Jesse Wilson, a former Republican City Council candidate, writer for Void Magazine, and supporter of Republican mayoral candidate Bill Bishop, was kicked out of the proceedings.
Wilson, who grew up in foster care and is an advocate for kids in the system, says a sergeant-at-arms escorted him from the room after mistaking him for a writer for Folio Weekly, Jacksonville’s main altweekly publication.
Wilson says the episode left him shaken.
“I’ve been a registered Republican since I turned 18. In fact, I was at one point the regional vice chair for the Florida Federation of Young Republicans. And I was a candidate for local office! I couldn’t believe they didn’t know me and kicked me out.”
The dustup sparked much discussion on social media, as Wilson tweeted about his experience, which invited commenters to draw parallels between local GOP factions and the rift between the national party’s Tea Party and more moderate wings (as exemplified, North Florida political observers say, by the rivalry between Bishop and Curry).
“They actually opened the meeting talking about civil rights, saying that Martin Luther King, Jr. was a Republican,” said Wilson.
“But it was so disgusting last night hearing some of the comments people had for the mayoral candidates. The first question from the audience had to do with the city’s human rights ordinance.. and it was ‘What are we gonna do about all the transectionals?‘ That’s how she mispronounced ‘transsexuals’,” he said.
“I’m the type of Millenial candidate, the type of Republican, that they should be embracing. We keep fighting things that are pretty much inevitable, and wasting time and money on it. It was obvious last night, from the moment I walked in the room, you could feel the tension and divisiveness.”
For his part, local party chair Robin Lumb says he didn’t know about the contretemps involving Wilson until after the fact — and he’s taking steps to make sure no party members are embarrassed again.
“Approximately 250 people were in attendance — all Republicans (they were screened at the door to verify party registration),” says Lumb. “This number included REC members, guests and elected officials. It was announced early in the meeting that reporters were not allowed in the room since the meeting was for the sole purpose of conducting party business. At some point in the meeting Mr. Wilson was identified as a reporter and asked to leave by the Sergeant-at-Arms. Mr. Wilson complied and left the room. I became aware that he was asked to leave only after the fact. At that time I was only told that a reporter had been asked to leave the room.
“Going forward I plan to implement a process whereby reporters can be credentialed and allowed to attend REC meetings while still preserving the option to exclude them from Executive Session,” he said.
Meanwhile, Wilson says he remains a loyal Republican, but would like to see the GOP more unified.
“The divisiveness we’ve seen over the last few years will destroy the party,” he said.
