(NOTE: Conducted just after Randall Terry’s nomination, 27 April 2024.)
IPR: What’s it like to win the nomination; how do you feel?
TERRY: I feel thankful. I feel relieved. And I’m ready to set my sights on the future for the next six months of battle.
IPR: When we talked earlier, before the election, you were expecting 134 votes and a win in the second round. You came out with 144 and a win on the first round. Any other surprises?
TERRY: There were several states that split their vote in order to help us. It was a deliberate tactical maneuver on their part. It helped us to not have to go to a second round, because it could have been ugly.
IPR: Some delegations went with a winner-take-all vote.
TERRY: It’s up to the state. And the party rules allow states to split their vote, but the state can decide to do a winner-take-all.
IPR: What’s next?
TERRY: Raising money. Traveling to the swing states that have ballot access already and helping them recruit candidates to be on the ballot.
IPR: To run down ticket?
TERRY: Yep.
IPR: How many states is the Constitution Party on with ballot access now?
TERRY: Hold on. (Turning to campaign manager, Joe Slovenec) Was it 12? Do you know? We’re probably at 12, we might be at 14.
IPR: Do you have petitioning going on now in some states?
TERRY: Every four years the same thing happens with the party. We start the process with 10 or 12 or 15 states that are perennial, that we’re just on the ballot. But then we have to go through the process again in New Hampshire, in New Jersey, in Tennessee, in Virginia, in Mississippi, which is what we’re doing now.
IPR: By November you expect to see . . .
TERRY: We will be on at least 21 ballots. Our goal is 35.
IPR: Mr. Broden, it would appear you are the likely vice-presidential nominee. What would you like to add to what your running mate has just shared? (NOTE: This interview was conducted on a lunch break between the Constitution Party’s presidential and vice-presidential nominations.)
BRODEN: Well, I think the Constitution Party has an opportunity to present itself to America in a way that it hasn’t before. Our campaign will access some of the platforms that have not been available to this party before, major media, TV, radio, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, so forth. We’re going to bombard them with information about the party and about our campaign that will give us visibility across this country and give us credibility across the country.
Americans are looking for an option and alternative, because there’s a lot of frustration right now in the public square with both political parties. And so this is an opportunity for the Constitution Party to present itself in a way that will attract those who are looking. And I think with the kind of marketing sophistication that we have and the message that we have, that we’re going to be attractive to them, and we can point them to our website and to this party in ways that has not been done before.
IPR: Thank you and premature, perhaps, congratulations.
BRODEN: It’s done; they do have the opportunity to put in a vice president, but if the candidate is coming with a vice president, they typically just endorse.
IRR (directed to campaign manager Joe Slovenec): You started off with a strong presentation to the delegates yesterday. Yours was the only one of the eight campaigns that had a video presentation; pre-produced advertising. Is there anything you’d like to add to what your likely VP, and your presidential nominee have shared?
SLOVENEC: Well, the key for me as the campaign manager is just helping move this thing forward, and the key that I think that we have is our ability to raise money. My goal was by this convention to have basically just $100,000; we hit $110,000 on Tuesday, and our next step is by September 6th, we hope to cross over the one million mark.
We have, you know, certain people that we have lined up, and they’re coming on board on Monday, a PR firm, and an advertising agency that is buying ads for us. We’re looking to buy ads immediately on the Black Entertainment Network in Michigan. We can’t get onto most (media) with our ads because of potential censorship, but they can’t censor our ads 60 days prior to the election. But according to our advertising people, some of these smaller stations are willing to take it. They need the money, so they will take it. So we’re going to try to get some of those ads placed to start garnering some media attention. Once those get out there to create a little bit of a firestorm, and then we’ll be able to take that to the next step as far as the interviews that will come after that, which will enable us to even raise more money.
So this was a key step in getting this nomination. We started off going as an independent, and as I mentioned to Randall a number of weeks back – he was in Idaho working with our volunteers there getting ballot access, and I said, wait a second, why don’t we try to get on the ballot with the Constitution Party? Because they have ballot access. We could give them name identification, and they could give us the ballot access that they have, and we don’t have to go and spend our money and time now and spend it on more important things. So we started down that process.
I immediately met with Jim Clymer, their chairperson, and some other key leaders in Pennsylvania and different parts of the country, and said, okay, this is a viable option.
IPR: That was in January?
SLOVENEC: I would say that we were probably in February when that happened. And then we were setting up Zoom calls with the different executive committees in different states and presenting our campaign to them. We wanted to come into this convention with some sense of assurity, because we couldn’t give up those number of months going after ballot access, just hoping for something in the future. So I needed to know going into this that we were pretty well solid. And we were. There were a few little shenanigans yesterday, but everything worked out fine.
IPR: That was in the Rules Committee, and an attempt to change the process so that only in-person delegates had a vote?
SLOVENEC: Yes. The (proposed) change was really, really to come after us.
We had a number of states, Florida, for example; Florida only had one delegate here.
IPR: But that one delegate had the authority to cast votes for those not here?
SLOVENEC: Yes, that’s 34 votes. That’s in the bylaws. That’s how it’s been for 30 years.
IPR: In order to save people money for travel?
SLOVENEC: Yes. I’ve talked to so many of the state chairs, state chairmen, and they said, I’m working. Or, I can’t afford it. And so it wasn’t an easy thing for people to come from South Florida to Utah.
IPR: Did you intentionally save Florida to cast their votes last? Was that guy really just delayed trying to check out of his room?
SLOVENEC: It added a lot of drama. It certainly did. It’s like, oh, he has to be here. And that’s 34 votes. But, no, we did NOT plan that.
But there was a number of states that we had locked. We thought we had Michigan completely locked; they split a little, but they gave us the majority, which really was helpful. When that vote came across, because I thought we only had 14 of theirs, and then Joel (Skousen) would have had 13, they decided to split it 19 to us, which those five votes were critical because going into today…
IPR: To win on the first round.
SLOVENEC: Right. Going into today, I knew I was one vote off.
IPR: But you would have won on the second?
SLOVENEC: We would have won on the second. But that could get messy. And, you know, prior to this weekend, I thought we had it completely locked. And then a few things in discussions, and all of a sudden they put forth a new candidate yesterday. And that kind of put a little wrench into the works. But I think that person only got 30 votes or so.
IPR: One last question. If you raise a million dollars, what are your priorities? Ballot Access or advertising or . . .?
SLOVENEC: You will see the advertising ratcheting up more and more. Because of having the party’s nomination, we’ll have their ballot access.
IPR: That’s only 20 or so states.
SLOVENEC: A lot of them don’t start (the ballot access process) until after the convention, because in some states it is required to have the presidential candidate’s name on it, or the electors for the candidate. So some of them are just starting now, but some of them are in process.
TERRY: The chair was very confident that I’ll be on in 35.
IPR: Any states you’ve given up on?
SLOVENEC: Oh, New York. . . I’m trying to think . . . We are going after Virginia, but not after D.C., but Virginia gives us the ability to advertise in D.C.
So having 10 is all we need to buy national ads. And that was the first priority.
If we weren’t able to do that by our (pre-Constitution Party Convention) ballot access efforts, then we probably would have dropped to four states – a couple swing states, but make sure we have Virginia that gives us the ability to advertise in D.C. and New Jersey and Pennsylvania – that gives us the ability to advertise in New York City, Philadelphia, you know, to have some major success.
IPR: Coming into the convention, you already had ballot access as an independent in several states?
SLOVENEC: Yes. We had achieved it in Idaho. In Louisiana, we need eight electors and a $500 fee. We have our eight electors, and we’ll turn those in at the earliest possible date, which is July 16th. We have New Jersey well underway, and Virginia, and Pennsylvania. We have people working in those two states. So that’s where we . . . I think that would be duplicating the efforts of the Constitutional Party now. Pennsylvania, especially, because Bob Goodrich, the chairman, is very, very capable, and they’ve gotten ballot access just about every year. And he was totally positive they’d have it in this year.
So we might be able to pool our efforts
IPR: Thanks for your time.
SLOVENEC: My pleasure.
The thing about the Florida delegates was the issue in the rules fight over proxy votes. How would you ideally solve inability to travel vs trusting a single person to vote for their state? Virtual convention?
Interesting interview. As someone who changed their registration from Republican to Constitution Party in 2021, it doesn’t give me a lot of faith in the fast and loose way they run our nominating conventions though.
I commented on the IPR report of Terry’s nomination that the whole thing seemed to be unashamedly orchestrated in Skousen’s favor. But trusting a single delegate to accurately cast all Florida’s votes in a representative fashion also seems very dubious. Not to mention, allowing people who aren’t members of the party themselves to come in a few weeks prior in a bid for the nomination.