When it became apparent that Roy Moore’s response to allegations that he molested women and pursued girls young enough to be his daughters was going to be little more than “FAKE NEWS!”, a number of prominent Republicans fell all over themselves to distance themselves from the former Alabama chief justice. That included the Republican National Committee, which opted to pull out of its joint fundraising agreement with Moore.
But on Thursday, after the White House threw its full weight behind Moore, the RNC reversed itself and resumed funneling money to Moore. That didn’t sit well with one RNC member. Indeed, she was so disgusted by the RNC’s reversal that over the weekend, she resigned.
Joyce Simmons had served as Republican national committeewoman for Nebraska since 2012. While she isn’t a household name even among political junkies, she was well known enough in Nebraska circles that she served as Cherry County chairwoman of Deb Fischer’s 2012 Senate campaign. Fischer and Simmons are neighbors in Valentine, in the Nebraska Sandhills.
But she catapulted into the spotlight when word got out that she resigned her post in protest over the RNC’s decision to throw its weight back behind Moore. Zeke Miller of The Associated Press obtained a copy.
BIG: RNC National Committeewoman Joyce Simmons (NE) quits 168-member GOP governing body over RNC support for Moore. Her email to RNC members: pic.twitter.com/mHK2yxpd8D
— Zeke Miller (@ZekeJMiller) December 11, 2017
Her resignation came less than 24 hours after the RNC formally jumped back into the race. She referred to Alabama’s senior Senator, Richard Shelby, putting Moore on blast on Sunday; he said that he wrote in an unnamed Republican rather than vote for Moore.
Simmons’ stance echoes those of Fischer and Nebraska’s other Senator, Ben Sasse, both of whom have distanced themselves from Moore. Sasse praised Simmons’ decision, saying that “it takes guts to admit when your party is a mess.” For her part, Fischer was taken by surprise when she heard Simmons resigned. While she didn’t comment on the decision, she still stood by her call for Moore to get out of the race.
In the absence of something we haven’t heard or seen, no other RNC members have followed Simmons’ lead. Surely there are more Republican committeemen and committeewomen who are more than a little chagrined at the prospect of propping up someone who has been credibly accused of depraved and debauched behavior. Or is party loyalty that much more important to them than basic decency?
Frankly, the fact that there wasn’t a stampede of resignations this weekend over the RNC changing its mind about Moore says a lot about the state of the GOP–and it isn’t good.
(featured image courtesy Moore’s Facebook)
