Another ‘Operation Chaos’ GOP group makes its choice for SC Democratic primary
More Republican groups hoping to meddle in the state’s Democratic presidential primary on Saturday have decided who will get their vote.
The Greenville Tea Party has chosen to support for Vermont U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, as he has risen in the polls and has won the popular vote in the Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada contests.
Former Vice President Joe Biden has consistently led in the South Carolina polls, but the lead over Sanders has shrunk in recent weeks.
Stephen Brown, the former chairman of the Greenville Tea Party, said a few thousand votes may tip the scales of Saturday’s primary in Sanders’ direction.
“He’s doing well in the polls,” Brown said.
A Sanders nomination would provide a clear contrast with President Donald Trump in November, supporters of the so-called “Operation Chaos” movement say.
But more than that, supporters of having Republicans vote in Saturday’s Democratic contest are also advocates of closing the state’s primaries, now open to any registered voter in South Carolina, where voters do not register by party.
It’s unclear whether the plan to disrupt Saturday’s contest will have any real impact. The S.C. Republican Party, for one, has come out against having Republicans vote, saying the GOP doesn’t want Democrats meddling in their primaries, so they don’t encourage the opposite.
A longtime advocate of closing primaries in South Carolina who once sued to close them, Brown said he did not have an estimate of how many Republicans would actually participate on Saturday.
A survey by Public Policy Polling of likely voters in Saturday’s Democratic primary found that about 14% of them approved of Trump’s job performance.
A separate effort called Trump 2-29 based in Spartanburg, already had called on Republicans to vote for Sanders. According to its Facebook event page, 126 people have said they will vote Saturday and 145 people are interested in participating.
There is no central effort driving the “Operation Chaos” movement, a play off of conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh’s efforts in 2008 to get Republicans to vote for Hillary Clinton. Instead, smaller groups are jumping in the effort.
The state Republican Party has not endorsed the plan being pushed by Upstate Republican activists.
However, the Aiken County Republican Party chairman recently wrote a letter to the editor calling on Republican voters to participate in the Democratic primary.
Republican supporters may be inclined to vote on Saturday because the Republican presidential primary was canceled this year in order to prevent any competition against Trump.
This story was originally published February 25, 2020 at 1:59 PM with the headline "Another ‘Operation Chaos’ GOP group makes its choice for SC Democratic primary."
