Recent news that the Chairman of the North Carolina Republican Party, Robin Hayes, was indicted on federal corruption and bribery charges may come as a huge surprise to Republican onlookers and NCGOP stalwarts, but not to me. While a great number of people cannot see the forest for the trees, many party activists have known that these charges have been years in the making.

While the fundamental issues in the NCGOP (and politics in general) started long before I got involved, I trace the roots of this scandal to events that unfolded just a few years ago. I know that because my compatriots and I tried to put a stop to this sort of behavior back then.

I got involved in politics as a young libertarian Republican in 2011, part of the Ron Paul renegades, the “liberty” wing of the party. It was a youthful, populist movement, energized by a passion for free markets, individual liberty, and limited government. You would think the Republican party would be welcoming to young people with a zeal for original principles, but we were not welcomed with open arms, not even close.

Nevertheless, I got as involved as humanly possible. First, I joined my local Young Republicans group, then was elected chair of my precinct. I then became an NCGOP state delegate, and finally served as policy director for the North Carolina Young Republicans. I was involved in campaigns at the local, state, and national level. I was invited to black tie events with senators, congressmen, and even the governor at the time, Pat McCrory. To put it bluntly, I got an inside look at how the North Carolina Republican Party worked, and was disturbed by what I saw.

I saw first hand what deep down everyone already knows, that the political establishment of both parties largely works on a pay-to-play, quid pro quo system, aka cronyism. Individual X donates a certain amount of money to the right people, handshakes are exchanged, backs are slapped, and magically, legislation they support gets passed. If you’re a politician and don’t play along, they fund your opponents until you’re out of office. The politicians who accept and engage in this kind of activity say they have principles, but they’re mostly interested in maintaining power. Their “principles” are just marketing slogans they use during campaigns to convince gullible uninformed people to vote for them.

The fundamental problem is that this kind of cronyism does little more than solidify market positions and increase profits for what are usually the largest corporations. Regulatory capture and rent seeking, more often than not, hurts the little guys; small business owners, start-ups, and every day wage earners. It also entrenches incumbent politicians who build up a large war chest of crony money, making it difficult to challenge them on election day. The damage then results in the public blaming “capitalism” for economic woes and feeling powerless to effect change in their government. It fuels the populist movements that have been sweeping both sides of the political spectrum; “Drain the Swamp,” “Feel the Bern,” etc.

In other words, this kind of behavior ironically undermines the party and breeds contempt for the very system the GOP openly promotes and professes to support: Free market capitalism. This contempt is especially apparent in young people, who are regrettably showing support for socialism in ever greater numbers. This was a fundamental problem that my friends and I set out to fix, but more than anything, we sought to restore honesty, integrity, and actual fidelity to limited government principles to our party… A party and system that people are quickly losing faith in.

In 2015, after 4 years of training, hard work, and organizing, we finally had a major breakthrough. Against all odds (running against a candidate endorsed by nearly every GOP official in the state), Hasan Harnett, a TEA-party backed, libertarian Republican, shocked the system by being elected the first black Chairman of the NCGOP. When he won, I shed tears of joy. Being directly involved in organizing his campaign was one of my proudest moments in politics.

The party establishment, on the other hand, was apoplectic. Namely, because they knew that business as usual was over. No longer would the party be run by mealy mouthed flimsy establishment-anointed hacks who would keep the crony gravy train rolling. We had won fair and square, finally having a principled man of integrity at the helm to right the ship.

Man, was I naive.

The establishment quickly realized that Chairman Harnett would not show favoritism to their preferred candidates, play ball with the corrupt Raleigh political class, or use contributions from their preexisting network of lobbyists and donors for their desired purposes — something party leaders had always done. In effect, they had lost the ability to control party money.

So, in response, in just three short months, the North Carolina General Assembly, led by a GOP super majority, had crafted and passed a bipartisan bill to setup “Affiliated Party Committees,” which were basically separate PACs controlled by the leadership of each party caucus in the house and senate. These entities could be used to raise and spend unlimited funds, outside of the official party structure (a breakdown of who voted for the bill can be found here. Notably, Dan Bishop, who is running for congress, is one of them). It even allowed party leaders to insert themselves into primaries, something forbidden under normal party rules.

In vain, Chairman Harnett tried to blow the whistle by sending out an email from NCGOP headquarters, warning the party, in a last-ditch effort to galvanize activists to contact their representatives and kill the bill. For doing so, he was accused of misusing official email and flagrant misconduct by party officials. It only got worse from there.

During his tenure, Hasan was sabotaged by establishment loyalists working under him in party headquarters (notably Dallas Woodhouse), locked out of his own email account so he couldn’t work, and sidelined in his fundraising efforts by caucus leadership diverting funds to their own newly formed affiliate committees. Coincidentally, this had the effect of draining the party of resources, or at least causing donors to withhold their money until someone acceptable was behind the purse strings again.

What happened next was both despicable and infuriating. After behind the scenes maneuvering by the late Tom Stark and Robin Hayes, the NCGOP Executive Committee impeached Hasan Harnett after 10 short months on charges of “gross inefficiency” and “violating party rules.” Basically, he didn’t play ball with the powers that be, so they trumped up charges (like trying to access his own blocked email and “hack” into a website that he as the party chairman was supposed to have access to) and impeached him.

It was a soul crushing defeat. Out of sheer disgust, I quit the party. After all, what was the point?

Enter Robin Hayes.

Chairman Hayes, a former congressman who had previously served as party chair was selected to fill the void left by Hasan Harnett. This was no surprise since he was directly involved in what was effectively a coup to remove him from office. With Hayes at the helm, business as usual could resume again. We were back to square one.

Unfortunately for Robin Hayes, he tried bribing the wrong public official. You see, during our years in the political wilderness, we had been cultivating and throwing our support behind a plethora of candidates for office. The most consequential of those candidates (that were actually elected) being State Treasurer Dale Folwell and Insurance Commissioner Mike Causey, who we believed to be respectable, honest men of integrity.

We were right. When Robin Hayes allegedly funneled a bribe to Mike Causey of $250,000, with up to $2 million total promised, Commissioner Causey acted honorably, in a way that deserves the gratitude of every North Carolinian, and turned the money over to the US Marshalls Service. The story continues to unfold.

What happens next is anyone’s guess. I’m hoping these events will serve as a clarion call and the NCGOP will voluntarily change (maybe they’ll even elect Jim Womack as chairman), but I don’t expect them to. What I do know is that the party, and by extension all Republicans in North Carolina, will suffer the consequences, whether through the legal system or at the ballot box. Our citizens not only deserve to be led by honorable public officials, but they will demand it. Change is coming, whether the party likes it or not.

Robin Hayes’ indictment serves as an affirmation of my decision to support men like Hasan Harnett and Mike Causey, and vindication, for what my friends and I had been saying about the North Carolina Republican Party, all along.