Saline County Republican Committee dissolved by state leaders; Lancaster banned from office for 20 years

Saline County has no Republican party, and one member was banned for two decades, after a decision handed down on Monday by leadership on the state level. 

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Joseph K Wood Chairman of RPA released a statement regarding the matter: “Today the Executive Committee of the Republican Party of Arkansas (RPA) voted to adopt the recommendations from two Rules Review committees: one by members of the 2nd Congressional District and the other by Clint Lancaster of Saline County. Those recommendations, effective immediately, remove and bar Jennifer Lancaster from holding office within the RPA and declare the Saline County Republican Committee as vacant.”

In September 9, 2024, Attorney Clint Lancaster, a member of the Saline County Republican Committee (SCRC), filed a complaint to the state committee, asking for certain members of SCRC to be expelled for a period of 20 years. This came after a physical altercation occurred at a local meeting on September 5, 2024. It’s a lengthy letter, but the members listed were John Newcomb; Frank Curtis: Scott Gray; Allison Gray; Angela Gray; Rene Almond: Thomas Harper, and Stephanie Johnson. Read the full letter at this link.

Instead of granting that request, Chairman Wood of the RPA dissolved the entire committee in Saline County. In addition, Wood expelled Clint Lancaster’s wife, Jennifer Lancaster from holding an office in the RPA, for 20 years. She had been the Chair of the RPA in the Second Congressional District.

In Daniela Dehaghani’s article for KATV, Jennifer Lancaster is quoted as saying “So this was clearly a retaliatory action. It’s very unfortunate that this is the direction that the Republican Party is headed. But the people ultimately do rule. We just have to stand together and let our voices be heard and make sure that we are not silenced due to this illegal and improper action.”

The move to dissolve the SCRC removes over 200 members from the committee, including 22 who hold elected office, according to Jimmie Cavin in his article for Arkansas First.

“On September 9th a complaint was filed with State Party Chair Joseph Wood by SCRC member Clint Lancaster against eight members of the SCRC. There was no complaint filed against any other SCRC member or the Committee as a whole. Despite that, Rules Review Committee member Belinda Harris-Ritter put forth a recommendation to the State Executive Committee to dissolve the SCRC as a whole,” Cavin stated in the article. 

Cavin also said two SCRC committee members went to Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ office, to ask for help with the matter, but they did not get any help.

From the comments of Cavin’s November 29 Facebook post warning that the dissolution of the SCRC was coming, there were several comments from committee members. One notable comment came from Stephanie Demuth Duke. She joined Jennifer Lancaster’s efforts and was vocal in Saline County Quorum Court meetings in a few movements. One was to have certain books deemed obscene to be removed from the Saline County Library. Another was a push for paper election ballots. The group also wanted to close Republican primaries so that only registered Republicans could vote in them.

Duke stated in her comment on Cavin’s Facebook post: “The over 200 people who joined the Saline County Republican Committee found out very quickly the local and state Establishment had progressive values the citizens of Saline County did NOT have. They post platform values that are meant to attract conservatives, but in reality do not uphold them. Electing representatives that feel obligated to vote constituent values does not exist anymore…and you don’t find that out until you get involved and try to work for things like allowing a vote for or against paper ballot or taking a stand statewide about the availability of PORN to children. The Republican Party in Arkansas will attempt to DESTROY grassroots Republicans who want platform values upheld. The conservative Christian values of grassroots Republicans from all over Arkansas prevailed at the state convention in June and the AR GOP intends to silence and eliminate the largest county committee in the state on Monday. Be aware leadership will not allow it to function as WE THE PEOPLE.”

Brett Ralston, who is not a member of the now-defunct SCRC, commented: “The One thing the Republican Party of Arkansas has never been short of, Is Dysfunction. I’ve been involved for the past 35yrs. I ran for Mayor of Farmington in the early 90’s and for State Senate 35 against Sen Dave Malone. Even back then, there was a very unhealthy and dysfunctional competition between republicans of who was a more “pure” conservative. I hope and pray we learn to take the plank out of our own eye first, so that we are better suited to help our brother remove the speck from his eye.”

In Samantha Boyd’s article for KARK, Frank Curtis, the Chair of the SCRC stated, “Jennifer Lancaster is the beginning & the end of the trouble at SCRC. Due to a power struggle within herself, she caused a mutiny of the committee back in July which spilled over into the entire state. She broke many of the RPA rules & was banned for 20 yrs from any involvement. The door to shutting down the committee was opened through a frivolous complaint filed by her husband, Clint, in which Jennifer herself requested that the SCRC be shut down. The RPA decided to dissolve the entire committee. The last time Arkansas has seen a couple this deceptive was the Clintons.”

MySaline will update this story with anything new.