Trump loyalist wins another term as GOP chairman

Michael Barnett, chairman of the Palm Beach County Republican Party, is a loyal supporter of Donald Trump— but isn’t ready to welcome him to post-presidential life in Palm Beach. Not yet, anyway. “I’d rather have him in D.C. in the White House,” Barnett said. “I firmly believe he won the election.”

Joe Biden’s inauguration as the 46th president is scheduled for Jan. 20. At that point, Trump is widely expected to take up residence at his Mar-a Lago Club in Palm Beach.

Barnett, who was over---

whelmingly reelected as chairman of the county party this week, is among many Republican leaders who are going along with Trump’s claims that he actuallywon reelection on Nov. 3.

“We want President Trump to know we still support him. Until he concedes— if he concedes — so be it. But until that point, we’re still firmly behind him,” Barnett said. “We’ll followhis lead.”

Biden won 306 electoral votes — the same number Trump won in 2016 and proclaimed a “massive landslide.” This year, Trump has asserted that voter fraud is the only way Biden could havewon. Courts and election officials fromboth parties have said that’s not true, but few elected officials and leaders in the Trump- dominated party have disagreed publicly with him.

Barnett has plenty of company among Florida Republican leaders in supporting Trump’s assertions, but he’s unusual in another way: He was an early supporter of Trump’s 2016 presidential candidacy at a time when many Florida party activists were supporting one of the state’s favorite sons — former Gov. Jeb Bush or U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio — for the party’s nomination.

Only 28.6% of Palm Beach County’s registered voters areRepublicans, far less than the Democrats’

42%. ButTrumpdid relatively well this year in the overwhelmingly Democratic county. Biden won the county, 56% to 43.2%, as Trump was winning Florida with 51.2% of the statewide vote.

But that doesn’t give the full picture. Trump received 28.7% more votes inPalm Beach County than he did in 2016 — a more significant increase than his 22.8% improvement statewide.

Biden also received more votes in 2020 than Hillary Clinton did in

2016, but his Palm Beach County performance was just 15.7% better than Clinton’s. Biden’s improvement was lower in Palm Beach County than statewide.

In Palm Beach County, a Republican is highly unlikely to win countywide. But in overwhelmingly Democratic South Florida, there’s another measure of success. In statewide elections, the Republican objective in South Florida isn’t to win the county, it’s to produce enough votes to hold down the size of the Democratic advantage.

Locally, success is more elusive for Republicans. The countywide elected offices are all held by Democrats. Six of the seven county commissioners are Democrats (in the mid-2000s, four of the seven were Republicans). Eight of the 11 members of the state Legislature who live in Palm Beach County are Democrats.

“Local races gave us trouble,” Barnett said. “We are outnumbered by Democrats, and that kind of hurts us in local races. But we are a huge county by populationWe have a lot ofRepublicans andwe help turn out those votes [for statewide candidates].”

Barnett and the other three party officers were first elected in 2014. They were reelected Wednesday night by Republican committeewomen and committeemen elected by precinct throughout the county.

The Republicans held an in- person election, unlike the Democrats who conducted their leadership contests virtually because of the coronavirus pandemic. That mirrored the pattern of the 2020 political season, during which Democrats pulled back much of their in-person voter contacts until the end.

Republicans continued in-person voter contacts, and voter registration efforts, something Barnett said paid off on Election Day.

Barnett received 116 votes to 35 for Derek Schwartz.

In 2018, Schwartz had announced his candidacy againstU.S. Rep. Lois Frankel, D-West Palm Beach. But less than 24 hours before the deadline for candidates to qualify, he said he wouldn’t run after all. Frankel was returned to office automatically because therewasn’t anyone challenging her.

Besides Barnett, Vice Chairwoman Tami Donnally, Secretary Cheryl Mullings, and Treasurer Jane Pikewere reelected.

Barnett said his group is a “strong, unified team” that has one goal: winning elections. Besides organizing voter outreach efforts, he said events such as the annual LincolnDay Dinner at Mar-a-Lago help raise lots of money that pays for election year activities such as renting offices.

Leading up to the 2022 elections for governor and U.S. Senate, Barnett said the party would continue extensive voter registration efforts. And he wants to restore Republicans’ trust in Florida’s vote-bymail system.

Republicans dominated mail voting in Florida — until this year when Trump said voting by mail was unreliable and rife with fraud. After months of attacks on the concept, he declared that the Florida system worked well. By that point, some Florida Republicans lost faith in the system.

“We have to do better at convincing our base that Palm Beach County and Florida gets it rightwhenit comes to vote-by-mail,” he said. “Itwas really difficult for us and the state party and the [Trump] campaign to convince some Trump supporters.”

Barnett