SLO County Republican Party still backs Trump after guilty verdict. Do other GOP leaders agree?
Former President Donald Trump is now a convicted felon, but many San Luis Obispo County conservatives are unfazed by the news — so much so that the local Republican Party is continuing to endorse him for president.
Most people, it seems, expected the verdict — and the conviction didn’t change their opinion of the former president.
On Thursday, a jury convicted Trump on all 34 counts of falsifying records to hide a hush money payment in an effort to influence the 2016 election.
His sentencing is scheduled for July 11, only four days before the Republican National Convention.
The Republican Party of San Luis Obispo County endorsed Trump for the March primary, and they’ll endorse him again in November, according to local party Chairman Randall Jordan.
Like many local Republicans, Jordan called the conviction a political stunt.
“Yesterday’s verdict was a continuation of the progressive left tearing down our once great judicial system,” Jordan wrote in an email to The Tribune. “If a former president can be brought up on charges for his personal lifestyle, we as a nation have no justice or law.”
Other conservatives, however, thought Trump received a fair trial.
Michael Erin Woody, a civil engineer who ran as a Republican for Congress in 2018, is one of those people.
“I was a little surprised it only took (the jury) a couple of days to reach that decision,” Woody said. “It shows that there was a strong legal argument against Donald Trump.”
Whether or not people support Trump, they can agree that the verdict didn’t change the political climate.
“Both Joe Biden and Donald Trump are known commodities. People know what they’re getting,” Woody said. “The party loyalists will always be there for them to a fault on both sides.”
What do SLO County conservatives think of the Trump verdict?
Some local GOP figures did not mince their words when throwing their support behind Trump despite the former president now being a convicted felon.
“We ... urge the nation to re-elect President Trump and move toward healing this nation that has been ravaged by the far left with open borders, runaway inflation, rampant crime and the tearing down of the family unit,” Jordan wrote in an email to The Tribune.
Former Republican Congresswoman Andrea Seastrand agreed, adding that she still plans to support Trump’s re-election campaign.
Echoing a common talking point, she called the trial a “weaponization of the legal system” meant to discredit Trump ahead of the election.
“I figure that Trump is a danger to the Biden Administration and to the socialist Democrats that want to take him out,” Seastrand told The Tribune. “They don’t want to take him face to face in the regular way, so they trumped up this type of trial. It’s pathetic.”
Meanwhile, Woody said he continues to oppose Trump.
Woody voted for Trump in 2016, but he withdrew his support about half-way through the term when “the antics never slowed down,” he said.
Despite the guilty verdict, Woody expects Trump to win the 2024 election with his plans to fight inflation.
According to Woody, Trump will blame inflation on the Biden Administration and pledge to lower rent, grocery and gas prices. Meanwhile, Woody doesn’t expect Biden to respond with a strong enough economic plan to combat Trump’s.
“If all things stay on track: Donald Trump will win this in November,” Woody said. “Voters will always go to the polls and vote bread and butter issues.”
Sam Blakeslee, a local financial planner who formerly served as a Republican member of both the California State Senate and Assembly, is not as certain about the outcome of the election.
When asked if Trump could win in November, Blakeslee said: “We’ll see.”
Blakeslee said he’s noticed a breakdown in people’s trust of the American legal and political system during this trial. He said the verdict “increases suspicion that something is going terribly wrong” on both sides of the political aisle.
While Democrats accused Trump of violating historic norms, Republicans say the media and the courts are the ones violating long-held standards, according to Blakeslee.
“I think there are certain rules about how people engage politically, a certain level of civility, a certain belief that there’s a fair way to fight,” Blakeslee said. “When people think the rules don’t apply anymore, people stop fighting fair.”
Blakeslee expects to see more division and nastier political fights across the country, but he doesn’t think democracy is in jeopardy.
“I don’t believe we’re facing a breakdown of democracy. I think what we’re seeing is a coarsening of our democracy,” he said. “We’ve been through periods like this in our history. This is not entirely new. There were times when political fights were ugly, but it didn’t result in the end of our democracy.”
This story was originally published May 31, 2024 at 3:21 PM.
