Covering tracks: Kevin Hern and the Republican Main Street Partnership

Grassroots activists who support Kevin Hern for Oklahoma's 1st Congressional Candidate say they've been told by the candidate and his campaign that he never accepted the endorsement of the crony-capitalist, open-borders Republican Main Street Partnership or donations from the organization's affiliated Republican Mainstreet Partnership PAC. (Note the subtle difference -- the 501(c)(4) group has a space between main and street, the PAC does not, at least not in their FEC filings.) Michelle Malkin has described the RMSP as "pro-bailout, pro-debt, pro-amnesty, anti-drilling."

Tulsa 9/12 Project leader Ronda Vuillemont-Smith said this in a public Facebook comment: "I asked the candidate directly if he has accepted any endorsements from this PAC to which he said he has not. He also has stated that he has never received any money from that PAC or through that website."

Despite apparent recent attempts to sweep away the record of this connection as the primary approaches, an abundant trail of evidence remains.

On December 13, 2017, the Republican Mainstreet Partnership PAC gave congressional candidate Kevin Hern a $5,000 donation, transaction ID SB23.16118.

Six months later, on June 11, 2018, the same group reported that the contribution to Hern had been returned to them.

Up until about a week ago, Kevin Hern had his own page on the Republican Main Street Partnership PAC site as one of their new candidate endorsees. That page was taken down recently; Google's cache shows it was there as recently as 14 Aug 2018, 17:35:57 GMT. Bing's cache also has it as of this post. ("View source" to find Hern's name listed among the other RMSP endorsees.) Like many political organizations, mainstreetpac.com blocks archival websites (e.g. the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine) from taking snapshots of its site.

The RMSP endorsement of Hern was widely reported in the spring:

Roll Call, in an April 26, 2018, story, lists Hern among 10 candidates endorsed by Republican Main Street Partnership for the 2018 election:

A Republican PAC that supports lawmakers from the "governing wing of the GOP" is making its first non-incumbent endorsements of the cycle.

Republican Main Street Partnership is backing 10 recruits this week, all of whom have received the maximum primary contribution from the PAC. The PAC is also supporting its 75 House members.

"Our members are the majority makers, and this fall Republican control of the House runs right through Main Street," Sarah Chamberlain, the group's president and CEO, said in a statement.

"Main Street is proud to support these candidates who are committed to governing in the Republican tradition," Chamberlain said.

The new candidates Main Street is backing are:...

Kevin Hern (OK-01): The businessman is running in the June 26 primary for the Solid Republican seat vacated by Jim Bridenstine, who was recently sworn in as the administrator of NASA.

The other candidates listed in the April 26 Roll Call story: Shantel Krebs (SD-AL), Young Kim (CA-39), Conrad Lucas (WV-03), Troy Balderson (OH-12), Dino Rossi (WA-08), Anthony Gonzales (OH-16), Mike Miller (FL-07), Luke Malek (ID-01), Cresent Hardy (NV-04).

Oklahoma conservative political blogger Jamison Faught noted the RMSP Hern endorsement on May 2, 2018, with links to the above Roll Call story, to Hern's page on the Republican Mainstreet Partnership PAC's website, and to the Republican Mainstreet Partnership PAC's list of 2018 endorsements on their website.

I called attention to Hern's endorsement by Republican Main Street Partnership and Republican Mainstreet Partnership PAC in a June 15 article that also discussed his contributions to McDonald's Corp PAC, which supports left-wing candidates like Congresswoman Maxine Waters and Chuck Schumer, leader of the Senate Democrats.

A Politico story just before the primary cast the 1st District race as a proxy battle between Andy Coleman, champion of the Freedom Caucus conservatives, and Kevin Hern, representing the moderates of the Republican Main Street Partnership.

Another crowded GOP field could also yield a runoff in the 1st Congressional District, left open since former Rep. Jim Bridenstine was confirmed as the administrator of NASA. A number of House Freedom Caucus members have supported Andy Coleman, a veteran and attorney, but Coleman has tangled with Kevin Hern, a businessman supported by the moderate Republican Main Street Partnership.

It was also just before the primary that former Congressman Bridenstine called attention to Hern's part in a plot to unseat him in 2016. Bridenstine issued this statement a week before the primary:

Kevin Hern has been using my name and image in his campaign ads for Oklahoma's First Congressional District. Voters should know that Kevin Hern initiated a run against me in 2016 and poll tested messages that included terrible lies about me. I learned of this when the pollster called my home. Now he uses my name and image in ads as if we are close. Kevin Hern's later support of me was opportunistic and based on self interest knowing I had limited my terms.

This organization, Republican Main Street Partnership, which has opposed and resisted conservative candidates, congressmen, and ideas in Washington, endorsed Kevin Hern, and Mr. Hern didn't seem worried about this connection until very recently. RMSP issued a press release in April listing Hern among its 10 endorsed candidates. Their affiliated PAC gave him a $5,000 check in December. It was widely reported in the press; Jamison Faught had the story in May with links the April story in Roll Call and to the references to Hern on mainstreetpac.com, which have recently (within the last week) been deleted. And now he appears to be trying to convince his supporters that none of this ever happened.

Tim Harris was my third choice in the primary, and I had my disappointments with the way his office handled issues involving local government, but Kevin Hern has earned my complete distrust with his handling of questions about his ties to this group, as well as questions about his McDonald's PAC contributions, and I'm alarmed at how willing some of my fellow conservative activists are to believe a story that doesn't align with the facts on record.

(P. S. As of this writing I made three attempts to speak to someone at Republican Main Street Partnership about the disappearance of Kevin Hern from the mainstreetpac.com website. On the first try, I reached a receptionist but was told that the executive director and press team had gone home early. On the second and third tries, I got voice mail. A list of emailed questions have not received a reply. I find it hard to believe that a Washington political group would issue an endorsement without the knowledge or consent of the candidate.)