Open Letter to Oregon Republican National Committeeman Solomon Yue

Mr. Yue,

My name is Nadine Hanhan and I am writing to express my severe disappointment with the Oregon Republican Party.

On June 23, I attended the District 4 Convention in Roseburg with fellow Republicans as a precinct committeewoman to vote for delegates, alternates and other elected positions. I was excited to participate, to run as an alternate delegate, to record my video, and to see how our Republic works first hand. I was proud to see that others had cheered for me upon watching me give my speech on the screen—most people did not get cheers. I have never been so passionate about politics until this election, and I was very excited to participate for the first time in my life.

My family has a very unique background. My father is Palestinian but was raised in Jordan. He grew up in poverty and then moved to the United States in his late 20’s. He, along with my grandparents and uncles, was a Christian, a minority, living in a predominately Muslim nation. They moved to this country to make a better life for themselves and to gain better opportunities. As a result, I was able to go to college and graduate school and get a real education. My father never even graduated high school.

My mother’s story is a little different. She also grew up in poverty. She is Nicaraguan, and she left her war-torn country after the socialist Sandinista regime took over her country. I can remember her stories of how horrible her nation became after the Sandinistas took over. The school system suffered, the infrastructure after an enormous earthquake hit her country did not improve, and she could feel that if she stayed, she would not have a chance to gain a better life. They met in America, had a family, and now my father owns two businesses and has given me and my siblings a life that he never had.

As a child, I learned in school about the Founders and the great nation they started. I never really knew what this meant until this election. I started reading a lot about what Obama has been doing to the Constitution, and I am horrified about the direction this nation is headed. So, as you can see, I was more than happy to participate in this election, and to advocate for REAL “change”.

As the district convention was delayed, I was pretty shocked when Fred Dayton announced that he was going to adjourn the convention and later that Terri Moffett had walked out, unannounced, with our ballots! This is absolutely not how our Republic works! This was especially startling because previously at the convention, we had voted that we were not going to stop the process until every single position had been duly elected. Many of us—supporters from all different types of campaigns—felt that what was being done to us was completely out of line and unfair, and we motioned to continue voting—and we did.

I am proud to say that I was duly elected as an alternate delegate for my district!

So, you can imagine my shock and horror when I received an e-mail from Allen Alley [Oregon GOP Chair] with no explanation, no apology, and no legal references stating that I was not chosen as an alternate.

This is absolutely unacceptable.

I am a duly elected alternate, and I deserve to be at the convention. I put in my time, effort, and sweat in being an alternate delegate, and to be so disrespectfully treated really shatters my hopes about the future of the Republican Party.

Nadine Hanhan
Corvallis, OR