This page contains the 7th Congressional District's MRA Chapter Overview as well as the Mission and History of the NFRA
The NFRA carries out our mission in two primary ways:
First,
Republican Assemblies work to recruit committed conservative activists
to become involved in the Republican Party, earning and taking
leadership positions within it and displacing RINOs ("Republicans in
Name Only") who do not reflect the overwhelming majority position of
Republicans across America. And we put a lot of stress on earn: we know
that conservatives, while active in election campaigns, have long
ignored the party structure in much of America. We mean to redress that
wrong, increase the ranks of activists, revitalize our Party, and turn
it into an electoral powerhouse Americans can believe in once again.
Second,
we do what other Republican organizations almost never do: we endorse
candidates in contested primaries, so rank-and-file Republicans can
know who the true conservative candidates really are. In the spring of
every election year, liberal Republicans learn to love Ronald Reagan;
ten minutes after clinching the nomination, they remember they love
Teddy Kennedy more. We shuck the corn, with highly competitive
grassroots endorsing conventions at which candidates must secure
two-thirds of our delegates' support to win. And when we're done,
there's no question who is who.
Why do we do these things?
Because the Republican Party is, well, a republic: its people have the
ultimate say, if they organize and make their voices heard. And because
it doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that the current generation
of Republican leadership has shipwrecked the Party Reagan built.
If
you're the kind of person who's tired of talking about conservative
principles and sick of whining about what's wrong with the Republican
Party, join us . The time for talk is past: it's time to act.
A History of the National Federation of Republican Assemblies
Should conservative activists in California work together with
conservatives in Nebraska or Maine? Does the actions of a state
committee in Florida work against the interests of conservatives in
Idaho? When the Republican National Committee targets a race in New
Jersey, does that help or hurt a conservative running for congress in
Arizona?
It was these questions, and others, that brought conservative leaders
from 12 states to Las Vegas, Nevada in December, 1996. After the
disaster of the November, 1996 elections, where the Republican nominee
for president didn't read, and stated he refused to read, the Platform
of the National Republican Party, it was time for conservative
activists from around the nation to respond.
The organizational meeting of the National Federation of Republican
Assemblies was called by the California Republican Assembly (CRA) and
the Arizona Republican Assembly (ARA). The CRA had been formed in 1932
and incorporated in 1934 as a grass root group of "Young Turks" to take
back the GOP from special interests and the elite in California.
By 1964, the Goldwater conservatives had taken over the CRA and made it
the leading organization in California for conservative activists. It
was in the forefront of the Goldwater and Reagan (for Governor)
campaigns, Proposition 13 (property tax reform), Prop. 187 and 209,
among many others. The CRA has had an important impact on the
California Republican Party; the last three chairmen of the CRP have
been active members of the CRA.
The Arizona Republican Assembly was chartered in 1993, with more than 200 people at the organizational meeting.
Together these groups made a strong impact on elective politics and
issues. By 1996 it became apparent that this had to go national, since
the Republican Party was under attack by RINOs (Republicans In Name
Only). So a call to conference went out, and such national conservative
leaders as Phyllis Schlafly and Michael Ferris attended.
It was decided to form a national organization, state by state, of
conservative leaders and activists. This would be a "bottoms up"
organization, with the strength and the power in the community
chapters, not the state or national organizations. These groups would
endorse conservative Republican candidates for city council, school
board, other local partisan and non-partisan seats, as well as state
legislative, constitutional and congressional seats.
Committees were formed to create Principles, Bylaws and the
administrative direction of the NFRA. In August, 1997, representatives
from 18 states met in St. Louis, Missouri to officially form the
National Federation of Republican Assemblies. Since then, more than 40
states have either chartered or organized a Republican Assembly,
endorsed hundreds of candidates, have held national board meetings and
conventions. We have been co-sponsors of the Conservative Political
Action Conference (CPAC), have appeared in the Wall Street Journal, the
New York Times, the Washington Times, the Los Angeles Times, as well as
many other national journals and newspapers.
We understood that liberals, candidates, money and ideas, travel from
state to state. Conservative activists knew that outsiders were coming
into their state to work and control the political agenda. Yet, there
was no network of conservatives working on a grass roots level to
respond to the challenge, investigate, pass information to activists,
and to network with other conservatives. Unlike the D.C. based
organizations, this was, and is, to be a grass roots, community-based
organization that stands for principle, and where precinct workers
could be found, trained and activated.
We have an elected national Board of Directors. This Board consists of
officers and three representatives of each chartered Republican
Assembly. Resolutions and endorsements are based on the Principles of
the organization, rather than temporary political winds. We are not
chartered by the Republican National Committee, but we do work within
the framework of the Republican Party.
Today, on a national level, we are working with other conservative
groups to create a strong strategy to invigorate the movement inside
and outside the Beltway. In the states, we are active with the State
GOP, legislators, and other activists to form coalitions to promote
Constitutional government. On the local level, we are involved with
school boards, city councils, and local issues of both an economic and
moral nature.
As a national organization, we were able to bring information to
conservative activists on a local level through our thrice weekly
e-mail newsletter, THE CONSERVATIVE REPUBLICAN. This was started a few
months after the founding of the NFRA under the title FRAMING THE
ISSUES. Today, we connect with conservatives directly and
instantaneously through social media, including Facebook, Twitter, and
LinkedIn. The NFRA also helps bring financial and up-to-date campaign
resources and technologies to our local clubs.
We are the "Republican Wing of the Republican Party" . The NFRA stands
for principle, the United States Constitution and for conservative
values. Unlike the RINOs, we know that more government means less
freedom.
For Constitutional Freedom, join the NFRA.