As part of LaRouche PAC’s campaign to free California from its current regime while building the economic agenda which can unify the nation, weekly zoom organizing calls were set up in the weeks prior to the Convention which included over 100 Trump-supporting delegates. It is clear that Washington Republican elites are attempting to execute a plan in which California delegates to the 2024 Republican Convention are pledged to Ron DeSantis or similar alternative candidates.

The zoom calls highlighted Trump’s announced agenda for 2024, including election integrity, a true war on drugs, sovereign borders, and ending the war in Ukraine, as well as expansion of that agenda to include economic imperatives either undertaken in his first term or required in the second based on large scale water management for the West, nuclear power and energy development, space exploration, tariffs on trade to restore manufacturing, and much more.  The exciting and optimistic perspective flowing from these calls was then taken to the Convention where a major public fight over Trump and the Ukraine war took place and Trump emerged, ‘unquestionably” as the leading candidate. 

Despite a highly publicized University of California Berkeley poll released prior to the State Convention, which alleged that Ron DeSantis was the new champion of the Republican Party, these media lies did not fool the overwhelming majority of delegates. 

As the online edition of the news service Cal Matters reports, “If the attendees at the latest California Republican Party convention are anything to go by, former President Donald Trump is still unquestionably the man to beat as he seeks his party’s nomination for a third time.”

A grassroots straw poll conducted by delegates via an online survey found support for Trump at 73%, DeSantis at 15%, and the rest split among Nikki Haley, Mike Pompeo and a few others.

Mindy Pechenuk, along with fellow delegates from Alameda County Alison Hayden and Mark Zulim,  submitted three resolutions to the Resolutions Committee. The first called for Trump to be called in to negotiate between Russia and Ukraine to end the war; the second called for massive support for nuclear fusion power research and development given the recent breakthroughs at Livermore National Lab; and the third denounced ranked-choice voting in California.  

The “Trump as Peacemaker” resolution became a center of attention in a convention which otherwise avoided politics as much as possible. On Saturday, the Resolutions Committee, a group of six, barred any discussion in the committee meeting, and recommended a no vote on that resolution, as well as the one on fusion power. They also refused to make the resolutions available to the delegates! 

At the convention’s final session Sunday afternoon, when the Resolutions Committee report was given, both Mindy Pechenuk, the author of “Trump the Peacemaker,” and Alison Hayden, author of “Fusion Now,” asked the entire convention to override the Committee with a two-thirds vote. The first resolution called to the floor was “Trump the Peacemaker.” Despite the growing threat of world war, CAGOP Chairman Jessica Patterson tried to ram the vote through. She failed when the delegates rebelled from the floor, insisting on a debate. Mindy was given two minutes to speak, Resolutions Committee Chairman Bob Bogozian two minutes to oppose, and then Delegate Debrah Baber two minutes in support. Following the debate, delegates demanded to actually see the resolution. 

The Chair responded from the mike to say “You can read it on the website,” but–low and behold–it wasn't there! The committee had decided Friday night not to make it available. It took them ten minutes to scramble and post it on the Convention screen. 

It read:

Resolution in Support of Donald Trump's Role in Negotiating an End to the Russia-Ukraine War

“Whereas the continuing escalations of Biden’s US administration and NATO toward outright war with Russia in Ukraine, are increasing a danger of nuclear war, and,

Whereas President Trump has offered to negotiate an end to that war,

Therefore, be it resolved that the Republican Party of California calls for immediate efforts to negotiate an end to the war and calls for Donald Trump's role as a negotiator to be adopted.”

Trump’s overwhelming support from the delegates, his efforts towards peace, and the compromising of the current CAGOP leadership were indisputable, even though the resolution failed 75-25%. There were many broad, smiling faces from both Executive Committee members on stage, as well as delegates on the floor, and many came up and voiced their support once the convention ended. One Board Member even emailed Mindy, thanking her for the guts to stand up and defy the powers that be.

Thoroughly outmaneuvered, CAGOP Chair Jessica Patterson took no more chances. She called to table the “Fusion Now” resolution until the Fall convention to avoid, as she described it, another discussion on a resolution getting out of her control. That passed, so there was no more discussion on fusion.  

As the delegates left the hall on Sunday, they encountered LaRouchePAC organizers Ed Malik and Richard Iaria with a sign declaring "Trump is the ONLY anti-war candidate," and distributing hundreds of leaflets in support of Trump’s economic agenda, and against Ron ‘DeSanctimonious’. 

Cal Matters reported that the volunteers from LaRouchePAC were there to "shore up support for a man they worried might get pushed aside by party insiders after his contentious loss in the 2020 presidential elections,” and quoted Malik, "It’s going to be a battleground," with a live link to the LaRouchePAC website for updates.