Source: Politics<\/p>\n
Lin Wood played a starring role in Georgia\u2019s GOP civil war<\/a> after the 2020 elections. Now the pro-Trump lawyer is taking his roadshow to South Carolina, where he\u2019s campaigning as a \u201cchaos\u201d candidate to lead the state Republican Party.<\/p>\n Wood, who transformed from a top Atlanta trial lawyer to a leading election conspiracy theorist in November, moved to South Carolina in February. Then the firebrand lawyer shocked the political establishment in one of the GOP\u2019s most important state parties by mounting an unexpectedly strong challenge to the incumbent chairman, Drew McKissick.<\/p>\n The outcome has out-sized implications because of South Carolina\u2019s role in GOP presidential primaries \u2014 the state hosts the first primary in the South, and almost always votes for the eventual Republican nominee. It\u2019s emblematic of broader divisions between longtime GOP members and those brought into the Republican fold by Donald Trump, who remains the party\u2019s center of gravity.<\/p>\n Trump has already endorsed McKissick, who went so far as to cancel the 2020 presidential primary in the state when the president ran for reelection. But in Wood\u2019s telling, it was he who carried the true Trump mantle by fighting to overturn election results in Georgia while McKissick did too little to add his voice to the \u201cStop the Steal\u201d movement.<\/p>\n An adherent of the QAnon<\/a> conspiracy theory, Wood contends Trump won the election in a landslide and is still president. Speaking without notes in a style that blends the skills of a preacher and an accomplished trial lawyer, Wood \u2014 who first gained fame as the attorney for the family of JonBen\u00e9t Ramsey and also for Richard Jewell, who was wrongly accused of the Atlanta Olympics bombing \u2014 has built a candidacy around his support of Trump, whom Wood said he supported in 2016 because he thought chaos was good for the country.<\/p>\n \u201cWe need some chaos in the Republican Party in South Carolina. Somebody needs to shake it up,\u201d Wood said Tuesday in the city of Aiken to applause and laughter. \u201cSo here I am, Mr. Shaker.\u201d<\/p>\n A day earlier, Wood heckled McKissick<\/a> during a speech at a Hampton County GOP event and suggested the incumbent doesn\u2019t care about stopping pedophiles. The two then had a face-to-face confrontation<\/a> where McKissick swiped at Wood for raising vague allegations about \u201cChinese pornography.\u201d The chairman\u2019s supporters inevitably describe Wood as deranged, pointing out that the Georgia Bar is investigating his conduct<\/a> and wants Wood to undergo a psychiatric evaluation<\/a>.<\/p>\n The acrimony boiled over notably in Greenville County, the largest Republican stronghold in the state, earlier this month. Bearing \u201cStop the Steal\u201d signs, pro-Wood activists accused outgoing county GOP Chair Nate Leupp of rigging local party elections as they picketed the local party office and Leupp\u2019s place of employment, a Christian music store called Majesty Music.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of crazy going on in South Carolina,\u201d Leupp said, dismissing the Wood-backing activists as \u201cpitchfork- and torch-bearers.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAll the politicos are buzzing with the same question: what in the world is going on South Carolina? You just can\u2019t make this stuff up,\u201d he said. \u201cBig personalities are using a national narrative about Trump to their own advantage.\u201d<\/p>\n The Greenville County GOP produced a split result when it held its county convention April 13. The county party chose a slate of new leaders, but didn\u2019t elect two of the men most responsible for recruiting Wood to run for state party chair, Jeff Davis and Pressley Stutts.<\/p>\n Borrowing a tack from Trump, Stutts disputed the outcome, telling the Greenville News<\/a> that he was \u201cnot buying\u201d election results that were tabulated electronically in the virtual convention<\/a>.<\/p>\n Due to the organizing efforts of Stutts and Davis, however, an overwhelming number of the 79 delegates the Greenville GOP elected to send to the May 15 state party convention support Wood.<\/p>\n In total, 870 delegates will vote at the state convention for a new chair. McKissick backers believe he\u2019s well ahead in the delegate count over Wood, largely due to the chair\u2019s longstanding party connections, Wood\u2019s late start and his lack of deep ties in South Carolina. McKissick also presided over big successes for the party up and down the ballot in 2020.<\/p>\n Out of concern about the spread of Covid and the inability to secure an adequate venue in the state capital of Columbia, the state GOP on Wednesday decided it won\u2019t hold a single large in-person state convention to pick the next chair. Instead, county parties will meet in-person, vote on paper ballots locally or at regional meetings, and report the results into the state meeting, where the final results will be tabulated publicly.<\/p>\n Already, Wood\u2019s supporters are casting doubt on the integrity of the election process. Davis accuses the party establishment of \u201ccheating\u201d by rigging the delegate process, a claim disputed by party officials. He said some county party officials have refused to follow party rules concerning delegate names and qualifications.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople move here and think South Carolina is a bastion of conservatism. No. We\u2019re a bastion of the RINO elite establishment that needs to be taken out,\u201d Davis said. \u201cThey are afraid because this will obviously have an effect on the 2024 election. In 2016, the establishment \u2026 did its damnedest to stop Donald Trump. I don\u2019t think the establishment wants another Donald Trump. South Carolina is first in the South. We have a lot of influence on who will be the nominee.\u201d<\/p>\n Davis predicted problems for former South Carolina GOP Gov. Nikki Haley, who is eyeing a presidential bid in 2024 but has earned the enmity of grassroots conservatives unhappy with her after she criticized Trump<\/a>.<\/p>\n Former state party chair Chad Connelly, a McKissick supporter, agreed with Davis\u2019s comments about South Carolina\u2019s place in the GOP firmament, but said that electing Wood as chair would cause needless problems for a party that wants to win back the White House and keep the state red.<\/p>\n Connelly referred to Wood and those who recruited him \u201ckamikazes, ne’er-do-wells and malcontents.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThey\u2019re not Republicans. They\u2019re not conservative. They\u2019re anarchists,\u201d Connelly said, labelling Wood an outsider as well. \u201cI\u2019ve had clothes at the dry cleaner longer than Lin Wood has been a resident of South Carolina.\u201d<\/p>\n McKissick\u2019s backers also blame Wood for the GOP strife in Georgia and the party\u2019s loss of two Senate seats there on Jan. 5 \u2014 Wood and other pro-Trump activists had suggested boycotting<\/a> the election because they believed Republican Sens. Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue didn\u2019t do enough to question the November election results.<\/p>\n But former South Carolina Republican Gov. Mark Sanford said Republicans are blame-shifting from the root of the problem: Trump, his spreading of conspiracy theories and his destabilizing influence on the GOP overall.<\/p>\n Sanford marveled at how Wood could gain traction against McKissick, who recently oversaw an election where Republicans flipped a congressional seat, sheriffs races, and state House and Senate seats. Sanford, who made a brief 2020 primary challenge against Trump, pointed out that McKissick canceled the 2020 GOP primary in the state, robbing the state\u2019s former governor of the opportunity to have a forum to discuss traditional conservative issues like the national debt and deficits.<\/p>\n \u201cHis candidacy is yet another manifestation of the Trump phenomenon. It\u2019s varying degrees of crazy, a cult of personality,\u201d Sanford said.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat this really says is the party is wrestling with its own Trump demons. It\u2019s one version of Trump versus another, more rabid version of Trump, but it\u2019s all crazy,\u201d Sanford said. \u201cThe fact that Wood can run and there\u2019s any appetite for a new guy from out of state who has not been a part of GOP politics in South Carolina is unusual, but that fits with the era of Trump.\u201d<\/p>\n