Report from the RPOF war with MAGA Battlefield – More MAGA Purges
We recently reported on the purge of the Chair of the Brevard Republican Executive Chair Rick Lacey by the Republican Party of Florida (RPOF). Today we update that report with information about the purging of Charlotte County REC chair Dave Kalin on the same day Lacey was purged. His crime you ask? Our belief is he had the audacity to run for the RPOF Chair position against lobbyist Evan Power. Kalin is 100% MAGA! He lost that fight and remains a vocal critic about what the RPOF is doing and more importantly what they are not doing. What they are not doing is serving the people of Florida. What they love doing is working for their donors and their interests. What is more they have no interest in supporting President Trump’s agenda but only their own interests. Read Dave Kalin’s post below. Then we think you should read Cathi Chamberland’s recent Substack post discussing her purge and her commentary on RPOF’s war on MAGA. If you want to be heard and get in the fight think about attending the MAGA rally in Orlando on November 7th at the quarterly RPOF meeting. A flyer is shown after Cathi’s article.
DAVE KALIN X Post
As former Chairman of the Charlotte County REC I was removed this morning for having another ” non approved” Republican speak at our REC. Evan Power and his henchman Bill Helmich are using Third Reich tactics all while preaching “Unity” does not sound like the Republican Party.
CATHI CHAMBERLAND SUBSTACK POST
·RINOs are Destroying Trump’s Base in Florida
Oct 22, 2025
Like many, I’ve devoted much of my life since President Trump descended the escalators in 2015 towards his success. Having published the best-seller Rules for Deplorables: A Primer for Fighting Radical Socialism in 2019, a counter book to Saul Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals, I spent the next 6 years warning Trump’s base about the left and Democrats targeting him.
Speaking to hundreds of Republican clubs in Florida over the years, I’ve met some amazing Patriots who also care deeply about our country and what could happen if the wrong people are in control.
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Never would I have thought that Trump’s own Party members would become his worst enemy. But now I’m convinced that is exactly what’s happening.
Many groups I’ve spoken to have been “Republican Executive Committees” (RECs). For those not familiar, every county has an “REC.” All 67 fall under the state’s Republican Party of Florida (RPOF). Each consists of Precinct Committee members (PCs) who are Republican voters that represent their voting precincts by getting out the vote. These positions are not easy to fill so one would think Party leaders would have some respect for these grassroots volunteers. They don’t. And they are proving it more every day.
As a nearly ten-year loyal PC of my Pinellas County REC, imagine my surprise when the Florida state Republican leadership decided to file four grievances against me and suspend me from the Party for two years. Unfortunately, under the current wayward leadership of Republican Party of Florida (RPOF) Chairman Evan Power, I am hardly the only America Firster being purged. Someone should get word to President Trump before his entire base is dismantled in his own home state.
On September 29th I received an email from the RPOF Grievance Committee advising me that Bill Helmich, the RPOF Executive Director (a man I’ve never met), had filed four grievances against me. The content and tone of those grievances left little doubt as to the intentions behind them.
Where was my REC Chairman, Adam Ross, on this? Surely he must have known. These grievances and the way they were handled expose who we have running our Party in Florida.
I can only guess what prompted this decision since most of the grievances relate to my actions as long as four years ago. Why now?
On August 15th of this year, I reached out to Mark Cross, the RPOF’s Grievance Committee Chairman, to get some questions answered about the unprecedented suspension of the America First-majority Manatee County REC (MREC) in 2024.
Mark and I have been friends since 2019. Over the years he has invited me to speak several times at his Osceola REC and even at an RPOF Quarterly as keynote to the 67 REC Chairs. He was a huge supporter of my first book.
During my phone conversation with Mark, I told him I was writing a sequel and devoting my final chapter to the RPOF’s suspension of the MREC. I’d already spent three weeks interviewing some of the key members of that group and had questions about how a grievance they filed against their Chairwoman was handled. They accused her of spending REC funds without authorization, among other things.
I especially wanted to know how the RPOF Grievance Committee reached their conclusions given that neither Mark nor any other Committee member interviewed any of the key witnesses, according to them, about the accusations leveled. It seems logical that would have some bearing on their final decision.
Disappointingly, Mark never got back to me with answers despite multiple attempts to get his comment on record.
Instead, within ten days of speaking with him in good faith, Mark’s Grievance Committee was busy conspiring grievances against me! I was quite surprised since I had given Mark my word that anything I wrote from his answers could be approved by him before publishing.
According to an email I received from Mark on September 29th requesting a response to four grievances filed against me, the Grievance Committee had met on August 25th, a mere week after I reached out to Mark, to review the grievances. That email included an attached “staff report” outlining the grievances with a recommended two years’ suspension from the Party.
What is most befuddling is that all four grievances are based on actions I took to defend our President and protect our MAGA base!
The first grievance quotes me from a news article saying that we have RINOs (Republicans In Name Only) right here in Florida. I found that grievance ironic since Trump himself has called RINOs out by name, which I pointed out in my reply. While my newly-published sequel, Rules for RINOs: Alinsky Tactics to Fight Republicans In Name Only, wasn’t released until after the Grievance Committee met, the RPOF leadership exposed themselves to be exactly what my book would come to describe.
My affiliation as state Ambassador to Defend Florida, the only grassroots all volunteer group with the guts and fortitude to challenge the 2020 stolen election, was the source for the second grievance against me. Even our President has never backed down that the election was stolen. Why are our own Party leaders so divided from our President?
The third grievance accused me of founding a Patriot group in 2023 called “Pinellas Watchdogs” (true, I did) for the purpose of checks on our local REC leadership (true, it was). Last I looked, we all still have freedom of speech and assembly. Apparently our state’s Republican leaders don’t agree.
Finally, my “judgment and alignment with lawful democratic processes” were called into question by my support as Campaign Manager for an incarcerated J6er who ran for a House seat in 2022. President Trump again seems to agree with me that the great Patriots who showed up to protest the 2020 election on January 6, 2021, are heroes who were unjustly targeted, persecuted, and incarcerated because they dared challenge an electoral college vote that was based on a dubious elections process. That truth is bearing out in the news today, too.
All grievances against me, together with the numerous anti-MAGA actions the RPOF has taken over the past several years, could not make the RINO war on MAGA any clearer.
(For those who want to read the RPOF grievances against me and my replies, visit my website at: www.RulesforDeplorablesBook.com/rules-for-rinos.)
For the past five years, the Republican Establishment has been targeting me and many MAGA/America Firsters (AFs) for challenging the stolen election and supporting J6ers. It’s precisely why I chose to write a sequel about what I believe is Trump’s biggest threat today.
Where my first book was based on my belief that the Democrats and the left were Trump’s biggest enemy, I am convinced this time around it’s RINOs. These are old guard Establishment party members. Some are actually Democratic Party members posing as MAGA. Many are anti-Trumpers. They believe they can wait out his term while purging his base along the way so the Mike Pences of the Party can step up.
I believe the RPOF knew my book was coming out and decided to attack me and my reputation prior to its release on September 21st. I can’t prove that, but by attacking me they exposed themselves to being exactly the kind of RINOs I write about in my book.
Fortunately, many who agree with me are speaking up. I’ve received emails/calls from leaders whose groups I’ve spoken to in the past to let me know their local REC leaders have warned them they could lose their Republican Party club charters if they allow me to speak. This isn’t surprising since chartered club Presidents in my county told me years ago they’d been threatened, too, when I began speaking out about the inconsistencies in our voter rolls. Many of those contacting me today have made it clear they are incensed by the RPOF’s actions and plan to stand by me. Is your charter worth selling out your beliefs?
While I’m sure I’m losing business over my stand against an RPOF leadership I believe is hurting Trump’s base, those who’ve told me they are standing firm give me hope.
Some MAGA members may be tempted to leave their RECs. Others may pressure their REC Chairs to take a bolder stand. We need to keep the Party together, especially before the 2026 primaries. Why the RPOF chose this time in history to purge the President’s base is a question to be answered.
If your REC Chair is sympathetic to MAGA but doesn’t want to give up their RECs, don’t give them a hard time. We need them there while MAGA figures a way to replace the current RPOF RINOs with those who have allegiance to Trump rather than lobbyists selling out our state. At the very least, Evan Power and Bill Helmich have got to go and MAGA needs a deciding seat at the table.
That’s why, on Friday, November 7th, many of us are gathering in Orlando to make our voices heard. If you care about the direction of our state politics, this IS the event to be. It was not MAGA that created this war, it was the RINO minority. But it will take the MAGA majority to end it.
There will be more unprecedented attacks on MAGA by the RPOF, count on it. The latest victims were REC Chairs David Kalin in Charlotte County and Rick Lacey in Brevard County both purged on October 21st. If we don’t take a stand now, the RPOF under Evan Power’s poor leadership will only increase in strength and destroy our Party like the TEA Party fifteen years ago. We cannot allow that to happen.
Join the American Patriot Executive Committee on November 7th at the Hilton Orlando at 11am to let your voice be heard. For more information and to join our movement, email [email protected]. We are the solution.
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