Marc Racicot, a former chair of the Republican National Committee and ex-governor of Montana, has responded to his “excommunication” from his state’s GOP with a blistering open letter.
In an essay published by the Daily Montanan on Tuesday, Racicot warned of the state party’s “absolutist ideology, its unsparing demands of allegiance, its relentless pursuit of power and its reckless compulsion to disassemble the Constitution with the intent of controlling all three branches of government.”
Racicot noted the resignation of one “promising young Republican legislator because of the Party’s coercive efforts to influence the exercise of her discretion and to do what she thought was right,” its censure of two others “for not voting the way you deemed appropriate” and the “defection of a growing number of Republicans in your caucus, and across the state, who feel bound to their conscience and their constitution more than their party.”
Racicot served as governor from 1993 to 2001 before becoming RNC chair from 2002 to 2003. He ran President George W. Bush’s 2004 campaign but drew criticism from Montana Republicans with his anti-Donald Trump commentary and his crossing of the aisle to vote for Democrat Joe Biden in 2020.
