'Unite the Right' marcher elected as county PCO

James Allsup, former Washington State University College Republicans president who marched at the Aug. 12 "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville, Va., was elected to a minor post with the Whitman County Republicans last week.

Allsup was the sole candidate for Republican precinct committee officer of the county's 129th precinct. Whitman County Auditor Eunice Coker confirmed Allsup was elected to the position Saturday.

"If you file during candidate week for PCO and there's no challenger, then you don't go on to a vote of the people, you are just deemed duly elected," Coker said.

Allsup, 22, gained national attention during the 2016 presidential campaign when he erected a "Trump Wall" on the WSU campus, a move many students protested and criticized as divisive.

Last summer, when he was still the president of the WSU College Republicans, Allsup was filmed marching with the alt-right group Identity Evropa at the "Unite the Right" rally, where one counter-protester was killed in a vehicle-ramming attack; Allsup later resigned.

County Commissioner Art Swannack said as PCO, Allsup would be responsible for contacting constituents in his area, raising party awareness and representing his precinct in meetings of the Whitman County Republican Central Committee.

Also as PCO, in the event an elected position opens, Allsup will meet with other PCOs and the Republican central committee to vote on who they want to nominate to the vacant position.

Swannack, also the state committeeman for the central committee, said the central and executive committees can still block Allsup from assuming the post.

Swannack made it clear he does not personally believe Allsup represents the views of the GOP, let alone Whitman County Republicans.

"I'm not even sure he represents the right-wing. If you want to talk right-wing, normally that's conservative politics," Swannack said. "James Allsup seems to represent more of a fascist, neo-Nazi (viewpoint), and I wouldn't even call it right wing. I'd just call it extreme."

Allsup received similar condemnation from the Republican National Committee and Washington State Republican Party Chairman, who reportedly said, "We condemned this hateful ideology before, we condemn it today and will continue to condemn it in the future."

Allsup told the Daily News the criticism he received from Republican leaders is a misguided campaign to win votes from more liberal voters.

"(The Republican establishment is) politically inept. They are addicted to losing, and they constantly feel trapped in the left's morality," Allsup said. "Any Republican who thinks that condemning or disavowing people to their right is going to somehow win them favor from the left is an idiot."

Allsup said he views himself as part of an oncoming new wave of young, social-media-savvy, conservative politicians who will incite change within the party.

Allsup insisted he and those like him are not racist, but "identitarians" who embrace so-called identity politics and are looking out for the interests of their identity group - in this case, Americans of European descent.

"I don't think there's anything necessarily wrong with being pro-white," Allsup said. "I think you can be pro-white just like people can be pro-black or pro-Hispanic without being anti-any other group."

Allsup said the political issues that are close to his heart are immigration and the country's shifting demographics.

He said as these demographics - with the help of loose immigration policies - continue to absorb higher and higher concentrations of black and Hispanic populations, certain aspects of American identity are jeopardized.

"This process, that has been referred to by Ben Shapiro as the 'browning of America,' that's going to have some very real political implications," Allsup said. "It's going to come with the end of free speech as we know it. It's going to come with the end of small government as we know it, (and) the end of individual gun rights as we know it."

Moving forward, Allsup said this is only the beginning of his political aspirations.

"I've got to figure out what I'm doing as a PCO first. There's certainly going to be more politics in my future," Allsup said. "(The RNC) thinks that by putting out this dopey little statement, they're going to stop it. They're not going to stop it."

Scott Jackson can be reached at (208) 883-4636, or by email to sjackson@dnews.com.