Sam R. Hall

The Clarion-Ledger

The chairman of the Mississippi Federation of College Republicans has resigned his post and "will be changing my party affiliation to Democrat in the next few days."

Evan Alvarez resigned his post this morning, which was made public by a release sent out by MFCR with a copy of his resignation. In the letter, he says that tea party activists have too much of a voice in the party, "and because of that, the platform of the Republican Party has shifted too far to the right in my opinion." In a separate email to me, he says he has already begun talking with Democrats about joining their party.

First, here's the background:

Alvarez's resignation comes after the MFCR board decided not to remove Kolby Busby from the organization. Busby faced impeachment charges because he issues two robocalls on behalf of Chris McDaniel in the Republican Party primary and primary runoff for U.S. Senate. In the robocalls, Busby affiliated himself with MFCR, which violates the organization's policy of remaining neutral in primaries.

Alvarez came under scrutiny from McDaniel supporters and some members of MFCR who criticized him and others for openly supporting incumbent U.S. Sen. Thad Cochran. Alvarez defended individual members' support of either candidate so long as they were not doing so in an official capacity with MFCR.

The impeachment hearing was scheduled for Saturday at the downtown Jackson headquarters of the Mississippi Republican Party. Approximately 35 McDaniel and tea party supporters showed up to protest any impeachment of Busby. In the emailed statement to me, Alvarez described the decision not to impeach Busby as follows:

When we informed him there wasn't going to be an impeachment, but simply a reprimand and apology his attitude became more ignorant and cruel. He said he was not apologizing for anything and refused to be reprimanded for the two robocalls. At that point myself and the staffer at the GOP decided to cancel the meeting that day, and push it back to another Saturday in the coming month. We came to that conclusion because there was no way we would be able to have an effective meeting with roughly 35 yelling tea partiers in the lobby of the building, that were feeding Busby's ignorant attitude.

At the end of his written statement to me, which was in response to my asking about the outcome of the impeachment hearing, Alvarez wrote:

After that whole event and a lot of thought up to know, I am leaving my position in the organization and have begun to speak to members of the Mississippi Democratic Party and will be changing my party affiliation to Democrat in the next few days. I have attached my letter to this email explaining the reasons that I can no longer be Chairman, and why I can no longer standby and identify with the Republican Party.

You can read Alvarez's full resignation letter below:

I over the last 48 hours or so, I have been in deep thought about the future of MFCR and of the Republican Party. I have come to the conclusion that I no longer want to be the leader of the Mississippi Federation of College Republicans. I refuse to simply let people break the rules and think they don't have to answer for their actions, admit they were wrong, or even apologize. When I ran for Chairman in the spring, I ran to be Chairman of the Mississippi Federation of College REPUBLICANS, not the Mississippi Federation of College "Tea Partiers". Also, I believe that the Republican Party has allowed these groups of extremist to have too much of a voice and because of that, the platform of the Republican Party has shifted too far to the right in my opinion. For example, the drastic cuts on needed federal funding that these groups of Republican extremists support would leave society weak and crippled. Secondly, their far right stance on immigration is not only ignorant, but it is cruel. After all our country is a nation of immigrants and should welcome immigrants from every country. My father was an immigrant from Cuba and came to America in 1959 because of the freedom that this nation offers. This freedom should be available to each and every individual that wants to come work hard and pursue his or her goals in America. Finally, I believe the Republican Party has not done enough to put a stop to the hatred and cruel words and actions of the far right extremist in the party. The Republican Party consistently says they are trying to appeal to minorities, but this will never happen when we allow members of party to say cruel and ignorant things about Women, African Americans, Hispanics, and other minorities in our country. I simply cannot be apart of organization that have members who support these far right extremist views, much less be the Chairman of the organization. So in conclusion, I, Evan Alvarez, am hereby resigning my position as Chairman of the Mississippi Federation of College Republicans, as well as my membership at the Mississippi State Chapter of MFCR. This change is effective immediately!