Ahead of 2022 elections, warring factions vie for control of the Horry County GOP

Before former National Security Advisor Gen. Michael Flynn opened a wooden box to draw raffle tickets for an autographed AR-15 rifle and copies of the “Absolute Proof” DVD alleging a Chinese cyber attack influenced the 2020 election, the former aide to President Donald Trump had a plea for the crowd gathered at a farm in Aynor.

“Don’t stand there and say, ‘Those politicians,’ don’t say, ‘those politicians are bad in Washington, or in Horry County or in whatever state capitol, or the mayors,” Flynn told the crowd, gathered around a flatbed truck, sitting in lawn chairs. “If you don’t think they’re so hot...step up to the plate, get involved in this country, get involved in the communities that we have. Get involved in the county, get involved in the state, get involved in the school board.”

Flynn was rallying the crowd in support of Tracy “Beanz” Diaz, who is running to represent the Horry County Republican Party in Columbia, as the local party’s delegation to the statewide GOP. Diaz, a Republican operative who cut her teeth working for former Texas Rep. Ron Paul and in the Tea Party movement of the early 2010s, said she moved to Horry County several years ago and wants to remake the local GOP to make it more true to its conservative roots.

“I’m running for state executive committeewoman for Horry County, why? Because I want to represent you in a way that you can actually trust for once,” Diaz told the Aynor crowd Wednesday evening. “I want to run this party in our county in a way that makes you proud to be a conservative again.”

Together with former conservative radio host Chad Caton, Diaz and a slate of other candidates make up one of the factions currently battling to take over control of the Horry County Republican Party as it undergoes its formal biennial reorganization. In South Carolina, the GOP reorganizes every two years to reassess its direction, platform and elect new leaders.

But this time around, in the deep-red Republican stronghold of Horry County, the reorganization has gotten messy. Meetings have devolved into shouting matches. Leaders have been cussed at. One candidate for leadership even filed a police report alleging Caton cursed and spat at him after an event. Factions of the party have clashed multiple times in recent months, leaving the future of the local GOP uncertain. The two current co-chairs of the party — Dreama Purdue and Ed Carey — aren’t running this time around, leaving the seat up for grabs.

In the middle of the mess is are two questions: Whoever takes control of the party, and in whatever direction they steer it, will they allow Republicans to hold onto power in Horry County, and beyond? Or will inter-party conflict mire the organization, dragging state and local politicians down with it?

Ahead of Saturday’s formal reorganization votes, it’s an open question, some party members said.

For his part, Carey said he’s been all-but frozen out of the local party, and has been able to contribute little to the reorganization. He raised his concerns to state party leaders but never got a response, he said. He said he both disagrees with Caton, and thinks the current leadership has damaged the party.

“I see different factions of the Trump party fighting each other,” he said. “If they want to screw things up and have their battle, there’s (nothing I can do about it). Personally, I think the Republican Party has a long way to go to come out from their shadows, but come Sunday I don’t have to deal with it.”

Warring factions of the Horry County GOP

Ahead of the Horry County GOP reorganization, there’s no official ballot of candidates — each one will have to be nominated on Saturday at the convention. Still, a number of candidates have said they’re running for leadership positions. For party chair, the attorney Resse Boyd III, the businessman Roger Slagel and the realtor Bill Wiegand have said they’re running, and some have been actively campaigning.

Carter Smith, who runs an anti-abortion health center, said previously he was considering running for chair, but is no longer pursuing the role.

For vice-chair, current vice-chair Mary Scofield, former County Council candidate Jeremy Halpin and Valiant Sommers, a procurement specialist with Horry County Schools, have said they’re running.

And for state executive committee-person — a position that represents Horry County to the larger South Carolina GOP — Diaz, retired FBI agent Jim Furry, Nick Katsanos and Mike Connett have said they’re running.

In one camp is Caton — a conservative activist — and the candidates for party leadership that he’s endorsing, including Diaz, Slagle and Halpin who’s running for vice chair. According to Caton, he and the candidates are seeking to steer the Horry County GOP, and by extension the state GOP, in a more conservative direction, away from Republicans who didn’t support Trump, moderates and so-called RINOs (Republicans In Name Only).

“All I am is an activist who wants a real, conservative party, that’s all,” he said. “I’m not trying to say I’m taking over, I’m trying to say, ‘Look, here’s three candidates that want to be part of the leadership and you know what? They care what everyone of you think instead of being told what to do.’”

But others in the Horry County GOP suspect Caton and his slate of candidates have ulterior motives. Some fear that if Slagle, Halpin and Diaz gain power during the formal reorganization vote, they could run more moderate Republicans out of the party, ultimately influencing who runs for and wins school board, county council and state legislature seats. Others suspect their faction is secretly trying to divide and damage the GOP in one the South’s Republican strongholds.

“What (Caton) wants to do is keep the fighting and bickering,” said Jerry Rovner, the head of the Republican Party for South Carolina’s 7th congressional district, which includes Horry County. “When you go into a successful area like Horry that was so red and you try to break it up, (the only) reason why you try to break it up is because you’re a Democratic operative.”

That’s left the less aggressive — though still Trump-supporting and very conservative — factions of the local GOP joining an effort to oppose Caton and his candidates. Reese Boyd, another candidate for party chair, has been vocal about his opposition to Caton and others.

“For some folks, ‘conflict’ is like the oxygen in the air for the rest of us. They only way they live, feel like they add value, or — more to the point, acquire more power — is through conflict. Even if they have to conjure it up,” Boyd wrote in a long Facebook post on April 6. “If you want the GOP to continue to be mired in the ‘all drama, all the time’ swamp that results in zero performance and no accomplishments worth speaking of, then continue to listen to those voices that call you to join the riots that they are happy to sponsor.”

Furry, a former FBI agent based in New Jersey, is another of the candidates attempting to stay above the fray. Furry, who says he’s “not really trying to align with any kind of group except that I’m a conservative Christian Trump supporter,” is running for state executive committeeman. The person in that role represents the county party at state-wide GOP meetings in Columbia. He said that he views the position as less of a political post and more of a public service role.

“If the Horry County organization wants me to take the message that Horry County has purple cows that give red milk, I’ll take that message,” Furry said. “I look at it as being a servant of Horry County and taking the message to Columbia.”

In Caton’s camp, candidates like Diaz say they’re trying to wrest control of the party away from Democratic influence and people who don’t want to see regular, conservative voters have a say.

“We’re in a time right now where we need fearless leaders who will stand up for our conservative values and who will fight for us, hard. They’re not going to kowtow to Democrats and to legacy media,” Diaz, who also describes herself as an investigative journalist, said Wednesday.

“This is how we do it, people,” she continued, “because then we get to make the decisions. We’re the people who are supposed to be making those decisions, not a big club of people (where) you get in, you can’t find information, you can’t get involved, they don’t want you. They keep it small and tight...No more.”

Tensions boil over

But Furry, despite his best efforts, hasn’t been able to avoid the vitriol. After an April 13 candidate event at the Dunes Country Club in Myrtle Beach, Caton confronted Furry in the parking lot, according to a police report Furry filed. Caton had allegedly been engaged in a shouting match with another person, and Furry attempted to intervene.

“Caton loudly told me to get out of his way and I asked him what he was going to do about it?” Furry told an Horry County police officer several days after the incident. As the two shouted at each other, Furry said in the police report, they got within an inch of each other. “This happened for a few times until after again asking him what he was going to do about it, he spit into my nose and mouth area.”

Furry told police that he was “shocked” Caton spit on him, and noted that neither of them were wearing face masks.

“As I stepped toward my car, Caton announced, ‘You piece of s***,’ and I responded, ‘F*** you,’” Furry said, according to the police report.

Caton and Furry both declined to comment on the incident at length, and Furry indicated in the police report that he didn’t wish to press charges against Caton.

“I don’t have enough years left in my life to harbor ill will towards others,” said Furry, 70.

Caton was more candid.

“I constantly have had distractions in this party because the establishment good ole boys don’t want me anywhere near this, and that’s what they’re fighting,” he said. “I’m a Republican, I’m a conservative and I want to see my party party.”

Other members of the Horry County GOP have said shouting matches at meetings are common, and they’ve gotten nastier and more vulger as reorganization has gone underway.

Last month, one such shouting match set the tone for part of the reorganization process. At a March 1 meeting, several party members demanded that the treasurer be allowed to give a financial report. Once the treasurer, Eric Santorelli, got on stage, he accused party co-chair Dreama Purdue of not accounting for $5,000 worth of spending of party funds.

“The only person who knows what that’s spent on is Ms. Dreama Purdue,” Santorelli said, according to a video of the exchange. “She doesn’t turn that money over to me. I’m the treasurer for you guys and I don’t know every single penny that’s spent. And I should. And I do not.”

Purdue has denied that she broke any rules and said she spent the money legitimately on party-related expenses.

But the incident nonetheless helped the set the tone as reorganization got underway.

“We have been told to shut up and sit down for too long! Your gig is up Dreama!” Caton wrote in a Facebook post in the days after the meeting.

“This is why ReOrg is so important!” he wrote in another post. “It’s time to take our party back!!!”

What happens now

To date, Caton’s organizing efforts may be paying off. Both he and party leaders told The Sun News that they expect more than double the attendees at this years reorganization convention — between 500 and 600 people — compared to the convention two years ago when a little more than 200 attended. How much of that turn out is due to Caton’s organizing, and how much is due to other factors is yet to be seen.

Carey said that though he disagrees politically with Caton, he’s impressed that he’s been able to organize and energize so many people this year.

In the meantime, Purdue and others said they’re busy at work trying to pull off a COVID-19-era political convention at the Conference Center at Barefoot Resort. She said she’s working to accommodate a smooth convention before everyone votes for new leadership and she steps down. Barring any last-minute changes, that all but guarantees the party will be under new leadership come Monday.

Moving forward, Rover — the head of the GOP for the state’s 7th congressional district — said that though he’s disagreed with Caton’s methods and politics in the past, he thinks a Republican party that uses Caton’s aggressive style could be successful.

“Maybe its time to go full bore and stop being reasonable,” Rovner said. “In my opinion, it’s time we take the gloves off and start answering (Democrats) radical agenda.”

This story was originally published April 23, 2021 at 6:58 AM.