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NATHAN DAHM ASKED TO RESIGN FOR ISSUES OF MISCONDUCT
For some, the news of 83 members of the State Committee calling for Chairman Nathan Dahm to resign as OK GOP Chair, came as a shock. To others, who knew more of what was happening behind the scenes, it was met with a sigh of relief. Either way, it is important that the members of the Republican party understand at least some of the issues that have taken place since his election in May 2023.
Some call this "division" within the Party. That is incorrect. This is a battle to remove corruption within the party which has been taking place under Dahm's administration.
I'm sure you will hear more of this in the news in days to come. Here are the facts with hyperlinks to the evidence so you can review for yourself.
It is no secret that the relationship between State GOP Chair Dahm and Vice Chair Wayne Hill, has been a rocky one. But it has largely been a secret as to why. There have been repeated rumors, almost from the beginning, that Hill simply wanted to remove Nathan so that he could be the Chair. Nothing could be further from the truth. I personally believe that was a lie told to Nathan from the beginning, in order to create division and distrust. If so, it worked well.
In June 2023, I received multiple texts from individuals urging me to pray for Nathan because “Wayne is trying to remove him.” That request originated from Dahm. I saw his text which said, “Please pray for me. Wayne Hill has written a resolution to remove me as the Chair. I need your support.” However, no resolution or proof of that claim was produced.
Several people texted me with that “urgent call to prayer” saying Wayne was attempting a coup. As an investigative journalist, I called Vice Chair Hill to find out if it was true and his perspective on the relationship. I didn’t really know Wayne at that time. I would have been considered a “Dahm fan.” In that call I discovered, not only was the claim false, but that Hill had reached out to Nathan immediately after they were both elected to have a meeting at Hill residence and find out how they could work together.
Things went downhill soon after.
For whatever reason, from the beginning, Chairman Dahm determined that Vice Chair Hill would not be given access to the OK GOP database, social media sites or website. Hill also was not allowed to have the entry code into the Oklahoma City office, although other non-elected persons had access to all the above. Dahm defends that action during an interview on the Fresh Black Coffee Podcast here.
“There is no rule keeping you from giving that list to your Vice Chair” challenged the host David Van Risseghem to which Nathan responded, “There is no rule approving that either.” (you can hear that conversation at approx 38:37 mark with the final statement above at the 42:50 mark. Link: https://bit.ly/DahmInterview
Chairman Dahm has revoked access to the GOP database, but only for some members in the Party. In addition to the Vice-Chair, this included some precinct and county chairs who had previously had access. Suddenly, they found their access was denied with no notice. Requests for re-instatement for this important tool were met with silence. Leaders were then unable to access information on the people in their own areas to connect with them while other leaders still retained full access.
This past fall when CD-5 State Committeewoman, Claire Kennedy, started volunteering across the state to help train members on how to grow their precincts, she was notified by Chairman Dahm that she had to “cease and desist.” She was told others would do it, which so far hasn’t happened. Efforts to grow the party and educate members were getting canceled and it made no sense.
June 27, 2023–After an upset election by the grassroots in Washington County to gain control of their GOP, the County Committee removed their vice chairman for submitting to the Oklahoma State Election Board, without authorization or knowledge of the Chairman, a duplicate form for the Washington County Election Board Member. The disagreement continued. Ultimately Chairman Dahm stepped in, exerting authority not within the scope of his power, and invalidated the removal. (More details here.)
He refused to acknowledge the replacement of the vice-chair position and then published a statement announcing his choice as the winner, stating Hill was also in agreement with his decision.
This was false. Wayne demanded Nathan retract the untrue statement, but his request was met with silence. The true winner was not allowed to be seated in his position until the October State Committee (SC) meeting in which SC members overruled Dahm by a near unanimous vote to seat the individual the County Committee had elected.
June 28, 2023 – Wayne again requested access to post to the State GOP social media and access to the email/delegate database “NationBuilder.” Each time these requests were either ignored or denied. He was, however, allowed to submit information to the State GOP office, so that non-elected people, who did evidently have access, could post the information for the Vice Chair, if it was approved.
Aug 12, 2023 – Two months into his term, Chairman Dahm still hadn’t called a budget committee meeting. Budget committee members emailed numerous times to request a meeting, but received no response.
A Budget Committee (BC) member sent an open letter to Nathan Dahm and OK GOP Budget Committee members, after numerous requests for a meeting had gone unanswered. In the end, three BC members called a meeting, as per the rules, after the Chair refused.
Sept 4, 2023 – OK GOP Volunteer Coordinator and Budget Committee member, Vince Scofus, emailed Nathan requesting unity and an end to divisiveness. Vince had been instrumental in recruiting a volunteer base to work at the State GOP office.
When the date for the BC meeting arrived, the budget committee discovered the locks had been changed at the State GOP office so they could not enter. They reconvened at another location and held the meeting anyway. Click the hyperlink for that evidence with two videos documenting that meeting.
Evidently, for his attendance at that meeting, Vince was “fired” and removed as volunteer coordinator and locked out of the State GOP offices. Most of the volunteers he had assembled to work at the office, quit as a result of his unfair treatment.
October 2023 – The State Committee met with approximately 126 state committee members in attendance. In the meeting six resolutions were passed along with a motion to censure the rogue entity “Chickasaw Warrior.” However, afterwards Dahm did not allow the resolutions to be published or made available to the GOP members.
Nov 14, 2023 – Chairman Dahm, who had stopped communicating with his Vice Chair, sent an email with the first of two “task dumps” in which Hill was given just 3-4 weeks to accomplish:
- Raise $10K by Dec. 3 for a Republican candidate running for office.
- Raise up “a dozen” volunteers to show up each Saturday to knock on doors for the candidate.
- Research all 77 counties in Oklahoma and create a spreadsheet with the following information:
- County name
- County population (2020census)
- Registered Republicans currently
- Registered Democrats currently
- Registered Independents currently
- Registered Libertarians currently
- Number of votes for Stitt 2022
- % of vote for Stitt 2022
- Number of votes for Hoffmeister 2022
- % of vote for Hoffmeister 2022
- % of vote for other remaining Gubernatorial candidates 2022
The tasks were completed and returned, but with no acknowledgment from Dahm.
Dec 2023 – Twenty-two donations to the OK GOP/Oklahoma Leadership Council caught the attention of a budget member because they were so unusual. (These could be seen online, not because financials had been provided.) The donations were listed as $500.01, $500.02, $500.03… That’s not normal. The BC member recognized the name of one of the donors and called her. “Did you happen to give this amount recently to the OK GOP?” he asked. The woman confirmed she hadn’t made the donation, and yet her name was there as the donor. Ongoing investigation has confirmed others listed who made no such donation.
After discussion among some of the BC members, they contacted the Federal Election Commission (FEC). Misreporting donations is a felony and something was amiss. Considering the Budget Committee was still denied access to the bank statements, credit card statements and financials, even after numerous requests, they alerted the FEC of a possible issue. However, before the investigation launched, someone made an amendment to the page and the strange donations vanished in the second month of reporting.
When the next FEC report came out, those donations were gone. The OK GOP Treasurer stated that those donations were an error, a computer glitch where they supposedly "auto-populated" and he amended the report. If just a glitch, why the ongoing refusal to produce bank statements and other financial reports? Those donations came from somewhere and went somewhere.
Dec 2023 – Nathan called me asking how I thought things were going in the party. It was my chance to ask and hear first-hand from him why so many bizarre things were happening under his administration. I asked him what he was going to do when Feb. 1 came and the Oklahoma legislature began. He would be working full-time as a senator again with a heavy workload. “You aren’t keeping up with things now,” I commented. “Are you going to finally be willing to work with Wayne and let him step in and help?”
That’s when Dahm told me he was hiring two people to help him accomplish his role and said, “I will never work with Wayne Hill.” He then proceeded to hire Stan Stevens to replace Josh Kraft as executive director, even though the Budget Committee had instructed him he was not to hire anyone unless they got to see the scope of duties and approved the hire regarding the budget. The first the Budget Committee knew of Stan’s hire was in a meeting where he was introduced.
Nathan now denies that conversation ever took place.
Jan. 2024 – Numerous Republican Party members sent communications to Nathan requesting a statement from the OK GOP regarding Senator Lankford’s “border bill.” Although Lankford had insisted publicly that the bill was to provide money to protect our borders, what it did was send way more money to Ukraine so they could protect theirs. Additionally, according to the bill, the small amount of money designated for our borders was actually to be used to process illegals faster. Lankford betrayed Oklahomans. As a result, members felt a comment from the Party was important. Nathan remained silent.
A State Committee (SC) meeting was already scheduled for January mid-month. Nathan canceled the meeting so that he could attend the Iowa caucus which left SC members frustrated that no action would be taken against Lankford. Wayne Hill reached out to Nathan for a joint call to reschedule the meeting at the end of the month. Nathan did not respond to the request. Within 24 hours, Hill called the meeting, as was his right per the rules, and it was set. His email to Dahm asking him to Chair the meeting was ignored.
What Dahm did instead was to send an email to SC members instructing them not to attend the meeting.
Like many, I emailed Chairman Dahm asking him to stop the divisive actions and unify the party. I received no response.
Despite Chairman Dahm's attempts to block the meeting, the State Committee convened on Jan. 27 with a full room and 124 State Committee members in attendance to do business. It was almost exactly the same number as had attended the October State Committee meeting. According to Party Rules the SC is the supreme authority in the Republican Party—not the Chair (rule 10b). The group voted almost unanimously to censure Senator Lankford.
A press release of the censure was released to the national media which caught fire. Lankford obviously wasn’t happy. Within a couple of days both Dahm and former chair A.J. Ferate issued statements claiming the censure was invalid calling the meeting illegitimate. However, it met all the criteria and rules for a legitimate meeting. Dahm just didn’t want it to happen. The minutes and the nine resolutions that were passed, including the censure of Senator Lankford and Labor Commissioner Osborn, were not made public by Dahm as he did not publish them as required.
Feb. 23, 2024 – Nathan emailed the members of the OK GOP with a video email call for “clarity for unity” the day before the Tulsa County Convention. In that video he called “some members divisive.”
Feb. 23, 2024 – In a rare communication from Nathan, Wayne received an email with “task dump” #2. It was a list of job responsibilities, which in effect were ALL of Nathan’s job responsibilities as the Chair in the area of raising funds for the FEC investigation of the Party. Hill was given a week-by-week deadline of how much money he had to raise and was told to provide progress reports each Monday to Nathan Dahm and Stan Steven (the hired executive director).
March 5, 2024 – Nathan emailed Wayne asking why he hadn’t received any update reports regarding the fundraising task assigned. Remember Wayne was not given access to the database, social media or website in order to contact individuals, but the task dump required he contact people. Although Hill had complied with the first task dump, he was not willing comply to the outrageous assignment of the entire Chair’s responsibility for fundraising. He emailed Dahm to let him know when he followed the rules, they could discuss the assignment. Dahm never responded.
April 6, 2024 – the District Convention for CD1 was held in Tulsa. As part of CD1, Nathan inserted himself into the process and rules created for the convention. After the Rules Committee met and agreed upon the rules, Dahm talked with the District Chair for CD1 and changed them. The Rules Committee never met after that as a group to approve them but were contacted individually to approve the Dahm changes and told they were necessary. The new rule determined that the important vote to be held at that convention for six national delegate/alternate positions to attend the Republican National Convention be condensed to only allow each delegate to vote once. Not once for each position, but one vote total for the 3 delegate/3 alternate national delegate positions. Whoever received the most votes would get the first position. Whoever received the next highest number would be the second position. Essentially rank choice voting which is a democrat’s scheme.
It took over an hour of that convention for GOP members to introduce and pass a rule change so that delegates could have a voice and vote for each of the six positions.
But that wasn’t the end of the manipulation that day. Dahm and the District Chair had also inserted a rule that the convention had to end by 1 p.m. and whatever elections hadn’t been finalized Dahm could then appoint individuals of his choosing to the remaining spots! There were two positions/two elections to be held at the time of their attempt to close the meeting.
We learned the security guard, recognizing we needed more time, had called the pastor of the church where the meeting was held and asked if we could stay longer. The pastor agreed. But Dahm and the Tulsa County Chair refused the offer and held to the 1 p.m. time limit. It seemed they were intent on turning over our voting rights to Dahm so he could appoint delegates of his choosing. Thankfully, their attempt to shut down the convention, was greatly overruled by party members frustrated by the manipulation of the election. The elections were completed, but not without ongoing frustration by their games.
April 10, 2024 – The fees for the 2024 State Convention were announced and were $30 higher than the already high price from the year before. It essentially required GOP members to “pay-to-play” in order to vote.
April 15, 2024 – Charity Linch, wrote an open letter to Dahm challenging the fees and the burden it put on Party members. Some already had to drive several hours to attend, plus hotel and food expenses, on top of the highest convention fees ever for a State Convention. When asked for an accounting of the costs for the state convention, he did not respond. It was estimated, based on the cost of the room rental and other services, that the State GOP made a six-figure profit off the members from the event using it as a fund-raising platform.
April 2024 – Dahm also added a $670 mandatory fee to those elected as national delegates to go to the Republican National Convention for the state and $400 for their guests—over $30,000 profit. Individuals in Oklahoma who went as delegates in the past did not remember any such fee when they went in previous years.
When we checked with other states, we learned some charged fees as well. But they were more in the area of $50-$100 per delegate. None were as high as Oklahoma’s fees which didn’t go toward anything for the delegates already high expenses. When one of the delegates went online to pay the fee, it was deposited in an account to remove the liberal judges coming up for re-election. It appears it was just another mandatory fundraiser by the OK State GOP office.
May 2024 – The morning of the State Convention, the State Committee met and voted to approve the minutes and resolutions that had already been passed, but ignored by Dahm, from the October and January State Committee meetings. This should have never required a vote to force the Chair to do what he is required to do.
After the convention concluded, weary delegates, who had been elected as National Delegates to the RNC, were instructed to meet briefly before leaving. Procedure is that these delegates would vote in people from their body to fill important committee positions. However, as the group met, they were informed that people had already been chosen by Dahm and the Oklahoma Trump campaign person. It was explained that they were “Trump’s picks.” Funny since Trump didn’t know any of them.
The group was asked if they approved of the picks. The already weary delegates, most who didn’t know how the process was supposed to work, went along with the appointments, except one brave soul who contested. It was another election stolen for lack of knowledge that these were not to be appointed positions by the Chair but elected by the people.
So here we are in June and the people have spoken. We are tired of the manipulation of rules, tools, elections and finances. Nathan Dahm may have been a great senator for the state of Oklahoma, but he has been a very poor and untrustworthy GOP Chair.
These are at least some of the reasons why Nathan Dahm was asked to resign. The State Committee will meet at 4:00 p.m. June 29 in Oklahoma City where SC members will vote whether he stays or goes.
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