Midlander Gary Glenn plans to attend the Republican National Convention as one of two at-large Michigan alternates supporting former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee for president.
The convention Sept. 1-4 will be at the Xcel Energy Center in downtown Saint Paul, Minn.
It will be Glenn’s second GOP national convention.
He was an alternate supporting George H.W. Bush at the 1988 convention at New Orleans’ Super Dome. Glenn’s wife, Annette, was an alternate supporting Ronald Reagan at the 1984 GOP national convention in Dallas.
In an e-mail message, Gary Glenn wrote that if Sen. John McCain hasn’t wrapped up the presidential nomination before the convention:
* more than eight Michigan delegates might not vote for McCain and
* Huckabee supporters are confident that a convention dominated by social conservatives will eventually turn to Huckabee. In part, that’s because he’s “the only candidate who has always supported both a Human Life Amendment and a Marriage Protection Amendment,” Glenn wrote.
Also, Huckabee believes protecting people’s First Amendment rights of free speech is more important than McCain’s campaign finance legislation “that violates those rights to protect incumbent politicians from accountability,” Glenn wrote.
Huckabee’s continuing campaign “ensures that more socially conservative delegates will continue to be elected” in states which haven’t yet voted, Glenn added. Those additional delegates “will strengthen our ability to protect and preserve principles in the Republican platform which Sen. McCain does not support, such as constitutionally protecting both prenatal life and one-man, one-woman marriage,” Glenn continued.
Glenn has been president of the American Family Association of Michigan since October 1999.
In the Michigan Republican primary election Jan. 15, Huckabee’s statewide vote earned him two at-large delegates. They are newly elected Republican National Committeeman Keith Butler of Southfield and Bill Voorheis of Clio.
Chosen recently as GOP national convention delegates from the Fourth Congressional District, of which Midland County is a part, were Kim Emmons of Clare County, Carolyn Curtin of Evart and state Sen. Jason Allen of Traverse City. Curtin is a State Board of Education member and chairperson of a Fourth District Republicans’ organization. That GOP group annually raises money at events in Clare and Mount Pleasant to support Republican candidates.
The three national convention alternates recently elected by Fourth District Republican activists are Wilma McQueen of Leelanaw County, former Saginaw County Republican Chairman Ken Shapley and Gerald Wall of Roscommon County.
The district — represented in the U.S. House by Midland Republican Dave Camp — includes part of both Saginaw and Shiawassee counties and all of 12 other counties.
