OPINION: GOP Leadership in Montgomery County: Are Purity Tests Undermining Party Unity?

Letter to the Editor

Montgomery County Republicans Deserve Better Leadership

Scott McKenzie

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I want to talk about what’s written in the Montgomery County GOP Steering Committee minutes from January 14, 2026, because I have questions—and I think Republican voters should too.

Quick note up front: these minutes have been circulating publicly. They’re not rumors, not hearsay, not anonymous accusations. They are the party’s own words. While we’re all being told that unity is the priority, one of the “web page changes” discussed was a motion to remove all references to local Republican Women’s Clubs from the Montgomery County Republican Party website due to their “lack of support” and a reported boycott of the Gala.

Let me translate that into plain English: You didn’t support us the way we wanted, so we should erase you. Yes, the motion died. That matters. But the fact that it was proposed at all matters more. These ideas don’t come out of nowhere. They reflect how some people think power should be used.

Erasing volunteers and calling it leadership isn’t a strategy—it’s self-sabotage.

These women’s clubs are full of Republican volunteers, donors, block walkers, voters, and people who consistently show up to do the work. 

In fact, many of these same groups recently collaborated to put on a well-attended candidate forum—exactly the kind of grassroots engagement we claim to want. And it doesn’t stop there. The same meeting minutes and subsequent public commentary reveal something even more troubling: a willingness to attack or undermine our own law enforcement leadership when it fits an internal political narrative. 

That isn’t accountability—it’s reckless, and it’s more self-sabotage.

In response to statements made in connection with these minutes, Wesley Doolittle said, “When the Montgomery County Republican Party Steering Committee publicly publishes false information, that is something I will address directly and publicly. The statements made by John Wertz and Jackie Williams are defamatory, inflammatory, and outright untrue.  This is not what Republicans stand for. Attacking law enforcement with false narratives is the kind of dangerous behavior we expect from radical activist groups, not from leaders within our own party.”

Republicans have long—and correctly—argued that reckless rhetoric attacking law enforcement erodes public trust and weakens institutions. When that behavior comes from inside our own party, aimed at our own officials, it doesn’t make us principled. It makes us unserious. 

Supporting law enforcement doesn’t mean blind loyalty, but it does mean rejecting false narratives, public smears, and innuendo—especially when they originate from party leadership itself.

You don’t strengthen a party by alienating volunteers and law enforcement at the same time. You don’t win elections by treating longtime allies like liabilities. And you don’t build trust by replacing persuasion with suspicion, blocking, or character attacks.

This isn’t unity. It’s factionalism dressed up as virtue. 

Montgomery County Republicans deserve leadership focused on winning elections, earning votes, and building coalitions—not settling scores, enforcing loyalty tests, or tearing down people we’ll need again in the next cycle.

Finally, this is why leadership matters. Montgomery County Republicans don’t need more score-settling or factional warfare—we need a reset. That’s why I believe new leadership under Scott Baker, who is running for county chair, represents a real opportunity to right the ship. His focus has consistently been on transparency, voter trust, coalition-building, and winning elections—not punishing perceived disloyalty or narrowing the tent. If we’re serious about unity, supporting law enforcement, respecting volunteers, and trusting voters instead of policing them, then it’s time for leadership that reflects those values. 

We can do better—and we should.

We don’t grow the party by shrinking the tent. 

We don’t win voters by picking fights with our own people.

And we certainly don’t build a governing majority by sabotaging ourselves.