More than 200 gather indoors for GOP meeting as party chair Louis Gurvich wins re-election

More than 200 Republican activists and elected officials gathered inside a Baton Rouge church Saturday for a state GOP meeting where Louis Gurvich, chairman of the party, fended off state Rep. Lance Harris’ bid to unseat him.

The Republican State Central Committee, the sprawling elected body that comprises the infrastructure of the state GOP, voted 134-61 to re-elect Gurvich to head of the party, putting an end to a battle between Gurvich and a faction of Republicans who pushed for change at the party’s helm.

Party leadership didn’t enforce what they called a mask requirement, and the vast majority of people attending the meeting at Parkview Baptist Church in south Baton Rouge were not wearing masks for most of the roughly five-hour gathering. A small section of the pews were adorned with signs saying they were reserved for “mask wearers only.”

The meeting came less than a week after former state Rep. Steve Carter, a well-known Baton Rouge Republican, died battling COVID-19, and a month after Republican Luke Letlow died of COVID-19 complications just before taking office as congressman for Louisiana’s 5th District.

Read more: https://www.theadvocate.com/baton_rouge/news/politics/elections/article_034291c2-634d-11eb-9c75-5b343edf33b7.html
(Baton Rouge Advocate)