2020 Royalist National Convention

  

2020 Royalist National Convention

Convention
Date(s)	December 1–4
City	Phoenix, Maricopa
Venue	Phoenix Convention Center
Chair	James Garner
Keynote speaker	TBD
Notable speakers	James Garner Johanna Reagan Diana Jeong George Barton Preston Barton Evan Hutchison Joshua Garrett Alexander Lee Nemesis Heartwell Isaac Dillon Greg Abbott Verônica Elza de Assunção
Leadership nominee	Kenneth O'Conner

The 2020 Royalist National Convention was the leadership nomination convention in which delegates of the Royalist Party of Sierra select the party's next leader. It was held on December 1, 2020 through December 4th, and will be hosted in Phoenix, Maricopa. Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic in Sierra, plans to convene in the traditional large-scale convention were cancelled during the initial planning stage of the convention. Instead, the event will be largely online and televised, with a thousand attendees, mainly party officials and invited guests, being allowed in the convention center. The RNC followed pandemic guidelines issued by the Maricopa provincial government.

The 2020 RNC was chaired by James Garner, who is also the chairman of the Royalist Party. The list of convention speakers was confirmed on November 15th, with the list being publicly released the following day. Some of the most notable speakers include Johanna Reagan, Diana Jeong, Isabelle Huynh, Evan Hutchison, Nemesis Heartwell, and many others. Kenneth O'Conner, the Shadow Minister of Defense, was selected to become the party's next leader on December 1st following the 2020 Royalist Party leadership election. He gave his acceptance speech on the fourth and final day of the convention.

Background

On October 23, Nemesis Heartwell had submitted her formal letter of resignation to the Royalist National Committee to step down as both Leader of the Royalist Party and Leader of the Opposition and appointed Alexander Lee to serve as her acting leader. Lee himself stated that he had no intentions to continuing as party leader and so preferred that a leadership election be held to succeed Heartwell, which the RNC accepted and scheduled to take place on December 1. Debates were scheduled to occur beforehand, but the final event would take place on December 1 on the first day of the national convention. The news had come as a shock as Heartwell had high approval ratings amongst the Royalist Party's base despite low support from the general public and criticisms from many Royalist MPs in the wake of the party's poor showing in the 2020 Sierran federal election, which Heartwell said was a "long overdue wake up call" in a pre-recorded speech she gave announcing her resignation.

Party platform

Due to the abrupt nature of the convention and leadership election, the Platform Committee stated that it would not be able to finalize a complete party platform until after a victor had emerged in the leadership election, though would publish a list of policies that most of the party and the leadership candidates largely agree with. Originally the committee was going to skip forming a new platform in favor of stating their "formal and unifying support behind the successor to Nemesis Heartwell", but the decision was denied by RNC chair James Garner who favored crafting a new party platform instead and stated that it would be influenced by whoever won the leadership election. After O'Conner was elected the party's leader, he would help with the development of the party's platform. On December 3, a full platform was published listing the following policy proposals:

• Opposition to normalizing relations with the United Commonwealth.
• De-nationalize/privatize the Sierran healthcare sector and repeal the National Health Protection Act of 2020.
• Divest from and impose harsher sanctions on China and reduce its economic influence.
• Oppose normalizing relations with Mexico and support a border wall in the El Norte territories.
• Support establishing formal diplomatic relations with the Antilles.
• Support all police departments in Sierra and oppose efforts to defund them.
• Support and maintain loyalty towards the Sierran monarchy.
• Oppose republicanism and support a more aggressive stance in the Styxie conflict.
• Support Sierra's commitment to the ISAF in the Syrian Civil War.
• Support Sierra's commitment to its allies in the Conference of American States and European Community.
• Support and expand the Trans-Pacific Allied Community to contain China.
• Reform the education system and eliminate precieved anti-conservative bias.
• Favor same-sex civil unions over legalizing same-sex marriage.

Site selection

A number of cities were considered as possible sites for the convention. Some of the more prominent ones were the San Antonio Convention Center in San Antonio, Inland Empire, the Las Vegas Convention Center in Las Vegas, Clark, and the Phoenix Convention Center in Phoenix, Maricopa. Phoenix was chosen largely due to Maricopa's lax COVID-19 restrictions, which would allow a medium sized audience for the convention. The site was also chosen in Phoenix because of the large Royalist support in Maricopa, which went unchanged even after the party's disastrous results in the 2020 snap election.

Schedule

Day 1

Leadership election

Following the traditional procedures of leadership elections, the 2020 Royalist Party leadership election was held on December 1st, the first day of the convention. In-person and Drive-by voting began at designated times in each province, with the earliest being San Francisco at 5:00am and the latest being Zion at 3:00pm. Along with that, hundreds of mail-in ballots were also counted. Mail-in voting for the election began on November 26th, with ballots being collected up until the designated ending period in each province. At around 6:40pm, Kenneth O'Conner, the Shadow Minister of Defense was declared the presumptive winner of the election, with most of the major candidates conceding. However, Laura Jones would not concede until December 2nd. She placed fourth place, and would not be able to become leader. O'Conner will be the presumptive nominee until the party delegates convene on the final night of the national convention.

Convention Day 1

James Garner gave the opening statement which began the convention with day one being centered around leadership, political unity and partisanship in the modern era, and criticisms of the Kwon government for being divisive, unrepresentative, and focused on promoting and enforcing the left-wing agenda of Prime Minister Kwon. Garner focused on the successes of the Royalist Party while in office including their victory in the 2016 Sierran federal election and gains made under the premiership of Nemesis Heartwell. Garner then concluded his speech by emphasizing the need to protect Sierra's constitutional rights as a transition to Channing Smith who focused on the issue of gun rights and accused Kwon of threatening them with her stance on gun control and proposed legislation in regards to firearms and accused her of seeking to establish a de-facto Landonist dictatorship, an accusation that was repeated heavily throughout the day from Sar Leonard accusing the National Health Protection Act of being government overreach to Johanna Reagan citing the incident in which she was attacked during the George Floyd protests and criticized the Kwon government's response Mueller's comments on the incident.

Speakers

Day 1

Speaker		Position/notability	Location	Speech topic
	James Garner	Chair of the Royalist National Committee	Phoenix Convention Center in Phoenix, Maricopa	Opening statement and Royalist Party successes while in office.
	Channing Smith	President of the National Rifle Association of Sierra	Phoenix Convention Center in Phoenix, Maricopa	Gun control and Sierran gun rights
	Sara Leonard	Healthcare worker	Phoenix Convention Center in Phoenix, Maricopa	Response to the COVID-19 and the National Health Protection Act of 2020
	Cory Grumann	Governor of Maricopa	Phoenix Convention Center in Phoenix, Maricopa	Rural and suburban representation in a "urban dominated" political system
	Johanna Reagan	Right wing journalist attacked during the George Floyd protests	San Francisco, San Francisco Province	Left wing political violence under the Kwon government
	Marcus Gutierrez	Leader of the Senate Opposition	Phoenix Convention Center in Phoenix, Maricopa	Political unity and relationships with opposing views
	Reverend Alexander Carrington	Evangelical preacher	Riverside, Inland Empire	Religious liberty
	Rex Langford	Monarchist activist	Phoenix Convention Center in Phoenix, Maricopa	Loyalty to the Crown and Radical republicanism
	Joe Millard	former Minister of Foreign Affairs	Phoenix Convention Center in Phoenix, Maricopa	Sierra's commitment to it's allies and Royalist foreign policy achievements
	Isabelle Huynh	former Surgeon General	Phoenix Convention Center in Phoenix, Maricopa	Royalist leadership during difficult times

Day 2

Speaker		Position/notability	Location	Speech topic
	Lance Price, 4th Earl of Henderson	former Minister of Veteran's Affairs	Phoenix Convention Center in Phoenix, Maricopa	Opening statement and Veteran's rights
File:Erin Mendenhall Mayoral Headshot (2020).jpg	Jacinda Townly	Area Commissioner of Zion	Monticello, Zion	Deseret's role in Sierra
	Kyle Gomez	President of Young Royalists of Sierra	Phoenix Convention Center in Phoenix, Maricopa	Conservative Youth and Education Reform
	Sister Patricia James	Catholic nun and anti-abortion activist	Phoenix Convention Center in Phoenix, Maricopa	Abortion and the defunding of Planned Parenthood
	Carlitos Pacheco	Governor of Inland Empire	Riverside, Inland Empire	Hispanic involvement in the Royalist Party
	Andrew Whitmer	Contiental exile	Phoenix Convention Center in Phoenix, Maricopa	Dangers of far-left extremism and criticism of Susan Kwon's policy on the United Commonwealth
	Kim Vasquez	Lawyer for Alliance for Protecting Liberty	Phoenix Convention Center in Phoenix, Maricopa	Protection of the Constitution of Sierra
	Benjamin Grant	Minority Leader of the San Francisco Provincial Assembly	Phoenix Convention Center in Phoenix, Maricopa	Failings of "ultra-progressive" governments
	Allan Benjamin	Actor	Porciúncula, Gold Coast	Left Wing bias in the Film Industry
	Diana Jeong	former Prime Minister of Sierra	Phoenix Convention Center in Phoenix, Maricopa	Accepting mistakes and working to fix them

Day 3

Speaker		Position/notability	Location	Speech topic
	Preston Barton	Member of Parliament from Inland Empire	Phoenix Convention Center in Phoenix, Maricopa	Patriotism in Sierra
	Evan Hutchison	former Leader of the Opposition	Phoenix Convention Center in Phoenix, Maricopa	Conservatism in the Modern Era
File:Rep. Todd Novak.jpg	Scott West	President of the Castro Royalists	Phoenix Convention Center in Phoenix, Maricopa	LGBTQ+ inclusion in the Royalist Party
	George Marcos	President of the National Police Association of Sierra	Phoenix Convention Center in Phoenix, Maricopa	Policing in Sierra, George Floyd protest, and the Defund the Police movement
	Tory Laderdale	Teacher and former union activist	San Diego, Laguna	Left wing bias in education and differences between union leaders and members
	Carl Pittman	Cancer survivor and Right-to-Try advocate	Phoenix Convention Center in Phoenix, Maricopa	Patient's right to try
	Ever Cooker	former PTA members	Phoenix Convention Center in Phoenix, Maricopa	School choice advocate
	Leslie Steele	former Prime Minister of Sierra	Phoenix Convention Center in Phoenix, Maricopa	Senior care
	Wen Zhou	Chinese civil rights activist	Las Vegas, Clark	Reliance on China
	George Barton	former Governor of Inland Empire	Phoenix Convention Center in Phoenix, Maricopa	Sierra's status as a world power

Day 4

Speaker		Position/notability	Location	Speech topic
	Aurelius Jordan	former star Basketball player	Porciúncula, Gold Coast	Politicization of popular sports and the Black Lives Matter movement
	George Bachelor	Descendant of Frederick Bachelor Sr., Sierra's first prime minister	Phoenix Convention Center in Phoenix, Maricopa	Sierra's historical greatness
	Joshua Garrett	Leader of the American Conservative Coalition	Seattle, Astoria) (headquarters of the Conference of American States)	The CAS and how it negatively affects Sierran lives.
	Steven Barristor	War veteran	Phoenix Convention Center in Phoenix, Maricopa	Sierran foreign policy
	Alexander Lee	Current Leader of the Opposition and interim party leader	Phoenix Convention Center in Phoenix, Maricopa	Modern-Day Royalist Party and it's successes since leaving the government
	Nemesis Heartwell	former Prime Minister of Sierra, Leader of the Opposition, and outgoing leader	Phoenix Convention Center in Phoenix, Maricopa	Farwell address
	Isaac Dillon Charles Griffith Anietta Johnson	Leaders of the Conservative Coalition in Superior	Duluth, Superior	Endorsement of Leadership Nominee and Nominee's effect on Superior-Sierra relations (Apart of video montage)
	Julia Harris	Parliamentary Leader of the National Party of Astoria	Seattle, Astoria	Endorsement of Leadership Nominee and Nominee's effect on Astoria-Sierra relations (Apart of video montage)
	Greg Abbott	Vice President of Brazoria	Austin, Brazoria	Endorsement of Leadership Nominee and Nominee's effect on Brazoria-Sierra relations (Apart of video montage)
	Justin Spencer	Government Leader in the House of Commons of Manitoba	Toscouné, Manitoba	Endorsement of Leadership Nominee and Nominee's effect on Canada-Manitoba relations (Apart of video montage)
	Kenneth O'Conner	Newly-elected Leader of the Royalist Party of Sierra and Shadow Minister of Defense	Phoenix Convention Center in Phoenix, Maricopa	Acceptance speech

Notable Speeches

Johanna Reagan

Under Susan Kwon and her landonist Social Democrats, political violence against conservatives have increased, and have been encouraged. Shortly after my attack, the Surgeon General and Green Party leader, Jonathan Mueller wrote a tweet on his official account saying, and I quote: “Remember everyone, in the name of democracy, we should totally be within our rights to purge the Derzh for their despicable, hateful ideology.” Instead of being reprimanded for his comments, which the majority of Sierrans found disgusting according to multiple news sources, Susan Kwon fell silent. It seems like the façade of unity that Kwon and the “tolerant left” has been trying to project since May has faded.

—Johanna Reagan at the 2020 Royalist National Convention

Johanna Reagan is a prominent right-wing journalist in Sierra, working as the host of Prime Time with Reagan on EBN and a co-host of Voice on the Street. In July 2020, Reagan was viciously attacked by members of Antimo and surrounding protesters in San Francisco City during the George Floyd protests. Video captured by surrounding protestors shows Reagan covered in powder and a red liquid, which would later be confirmed as pigs blood, while blacked hooded protestors followed Reagan as she fled, calling her derogatory and offensive names. Reagan would be admitted to San Francisco City Hospital for light head trauma from objects thrown at her. She would make a full recovery.

In her speech, Reagan would heavily criticize the Kwon Ministry for its response to left-wing political violence, claiming that Susan Kwon privately supported the attacks, saying Kwon has a "record of supporting violence that advances her goals". Reagan would also criticize the Kwon Government's response to Surgeon General Jonathan Mueller's comments shortly after her attack became public, in which he encourage more violence against "the Derzh", which he would later clarified as being "right-leaning agitators that are against progress". Reagan suggested that Kwon's message of unity was a "façade". After her victory in the 2020 Sierran federal election, Kwon promised to "mend the division in Sierra" by "promoting multi-partisanship and unity between political opposites". However, legislation and actions by the Kwon government has been panned as "extremely left wing", with the Kwon government rarely working with the opposition. In her closing, Reagan called Kwon "a spineless, back-stabbing politician" and claimed that her silence over left-wing political violence was the "first signs of a Landonist tyrant".

Isabelle Huynh

Especially with the COVID-19 virus, the world can seem harsh, cruel, and downright idiotic. But the Royalist Party has faced much worst before. It was the Royalist Party who built the strong foundations of our country even with harsh political opposition. It was the Royalist Party that lead our country through one of the most destructive wars in human history. It was the Royalist Party that lead our nation through the Cold War, a time of paranoia and fear. And it was the Royalist Party who responded swiftly to the September 11th Attacks. With this in mind, I hope all of you realize the great leadership skills our party has shown, both in the past and in the present.

—Isabelle Huynh at the 2020 Royalist National Convention

Isabelle Huynh is Shadow Surgeon General, previously serving as Surgeon General under Nemesis Heartwell. She is a member of the Red Tory Association, which is a caucus in the Royalist Party that has been described as moderate and less conservative than the rest of her party. She was considered the most popular cabinet member, even compared to Heartwell, winning the respect of many across the aisle. She was also commended for her coronavirus response, while Heartwell was criticized for the same thing.

In her speech, Huynh took a largely passive stance compared to other speakers, rarely attacking the Kwon Ministry. Instead, she invoked messages of unity and resolve, reflecting back on previous Royalist ministries, praising their ability to lead during hard times. In her speech, she would say "Without Royalist leadership, we would not be at the same level we are today". Huynh also mentioned the role of the deputy leader and how they too "have a role to play in policy making". Huynh is considered the possible frontrunner for the 2020 Royalist Party deputy leadership election if she were to run for the position, which is scheduled to occur after the national convention.

Benjamin Grant

San Francisco, my home province, is the greatest example of progressive incompetence in our country. Under almost forty years of absolute progressive rule, homelessness has risen to critical point, taxes have increased to a point where more people are moving out then in, places of worship and small businesses are closed and destroyed by lockdown, but weed shops and Planned Parenthood clinics remain open, and thousands of extremists are allowed to protest and riot with government legal protection. With the Social Democrats at the helm of our nation, I fear that these progressive policies will soon translate nationwide.

Benjamin Grant at the 2020 Royalist Convention

Benjamin Grant is the Minority Leader of the San Francisco Provincial Assembly since 2015 and has been the leader of the Royalist Party of San Francisco since 2014. Grant gained attention in 2014 when he was elected party leader and outperformed in opinion polls in the 2015 San Francisco gubernatorial election despite having lost the election. He would run again in the 2020 San Francisco gubernatorial election against Terry Scott and while he lost, he won 35.1% of the vote, one of the best performances of a Royalist gubernatorial candidate in San Francisco since the 1980s.

Grant has gained attention for his vocal criticism of the progressive nature of San Francisco and has criticized the province's politics for being too narrow-minded and "politically intolerant" against Royalists and anyone that deviates from the "ultra-progressive orthodoxy" and has been famous for his opposition towards Terry Scott. During the COVID-19 pandemic in San Francisco, he criticized Scott for being "overly protective" and for creating a "nanny state" due to the strict lockdown restrictions, closure of businesses and all non-essential public venues. Grant was invited to speak at the 2020 Royalist National Convention where he spoke on what he calls the "failings of ultra-progressive" governments accusing Scott and the San Francisco Democratic-Republican Party of ignoring widespread poverty in San Francisco City, avoiding bipartisanship, promoting left-wing political tribalism and for leaving "no room in the political discourse" for conservative values. He Brought up Kwon coming from San Francisco and accused her of threatening to bring the "ultra-progressive failings" to all of Sierra.

He criticized Kwon's National Health Protection Act of 2020 and said how similar legislation in San Francisco, the San Francisco Healthcare Act of 2018, was an "omen for what was to come" and accused her of "undermining and eroding innovation and freedom in healthcare" and also voiced opposition to the proposed Menstrul Paid Leave Act of 2020. Grant spoke heavily on how it was the duty of every Royalist to remain steadfast in their values and defend them even in areas where they are distinct minorities and how they should remain defiant of what he calls the "ideological dogmatism and intollerance" of Kwon and her government. He then concluded by speaking about his faith, how it was the duty in his mind of every devout Christian to be vocal of their beliefs and how it motivates his continued investment and involvement in politics.

Kyle Goezman

The Sierran conservative youth is growing ladies and gentlemen, and mainly for one reason: the educational system. Before my time, schools used to be a place of learning and diversity, where you weren't afraid of sharing and debating your point of view with your peers. But now, our institutes of learning are places of ignorance and bias. Each day, young conservatives like myself are silenced by our schools for "offending" other students. We are humiliated and ridiculed through cancel culture and teacher bias. We are taught to hate our nation's history, to believe that we are a backwards society. And we are taught to praise our enemies, both former and current. This is why, ladies and gentlemen, our conservative youth movement is growing. As students are finally pushing back against a system that is in dire need of reform.

Kyle Goezman is a youth conservative activist and President of the Young Royalists of Sierra, the Royalist Party's youth wing, since 2017. Before becoming President of the Young Royalists of Sierra, Goezman was a conservative social media activist, running one of the most popular youth conservative social media pages in Sierra. He was also a member of Turning Point Sierra, which is apart of the Anglo-American Turning Point Anglo-America. Goezman would gain national attention in 2016 after successfully suing is high school after being suspended for expressing "controversial and offensive political ideologies".

During his speech, Goezman attacked the Sierran educational system, calling it "inherently anti-Sierran", and called for extensive reform through legislative actions. He also criticized the Kwon Ministry, more specifically Minister of Education Ryan Kaneko for "complicity in the degradation of our educational system". He also questioned Kaneko's patriotism, suggesting that he was "working to ensure our youth grows up hating our nation." Nearing the end of his speech, he expressed his support of the creation of "a similar proposal identical to the 1868 Initiative in Superior". The 1868 Initiative is a proposal educational reform initiative proposed by Leader of the Opposition Isaac Dillon of Superior that would rework the educational system in order to create a more "patriotic education". He concluded his speech calling upon his fellow Young Royalists to resist "leftist education".

Andrew Whitmer

Andrew Whitmer is a political activist and Continental exile who fled to Sierra from the United Commonwealth in 1996 with his family as they were dissidents and sough to flee the country before being sent to Kentucky Bend or other infamous prison and re-education camps in the United Commonwealth. They originally fled to Superior, but would later move to Sierra and settle in Flagstaff. Whitmer himself grew up in Michigan which the Commonwealth annexed in the 1930s from Superior during the Crimson Spring.

During his college years, he was supportive of Diana Jeong and her government over their stance against the United Commonwealth and after the 2008 Sierran federal election, lead a petition to Steven Hong to "be cautious" of the Commonwealth and urged him to avoid formal normalization of relations. Whitmer himself has become more active and outspoken since the election of Susan Kwon due to her vocal support for normalizing relations with the United Commonwealth calling it a "disastrous move" for Sierra. Whitmer has been a vocal supporter of Heartwell and was invited to speak at the convention where he talked about his personal experience of having to flee his home country due to persecution. He also brought up his family's plight, the struggles they went through and the lengths they took in order to escape and how it motivates him to remain politically active. He brings up the human rights violations of the Continental government, and its historic aggressive stance against Sierra and its allies in Anglo-America. He concludes his speech by talking about the signs of an emerging dictatorship and how its the moral obligation of all Sierran citizens to oppose tyranny whether it's at home or abroad.

Responses

Demonstrations and protests

Leadership election protests and threats

Throughout the duration of the 2020 Royalist Party leadership election, many protests and civil demonstrations were held. A majority of the protests were directed at the Royalist Party and its 2020 Party Platform, its leadership, and an election being held during a increase in COVID-19 cases nationwide. A majority of the protests were held at polling places or local Royalist campaign offices and attendance varied by each province, with left-leaning provinces having more protest turnout than right-leaning provinces. A majority of the protests and demonstrations held were peaceful. However, in San Francisco, protestors, mainly self-proclaimed members of Antimo, would verbally assault and threaten voters outside of polling places. Once voting closed in the provinces, many protestors would continue to protest overnight, with some marching to local Royalist officials homes and demanding their prosecution. At exactly 11:35pm on December 1st, these protests would be declared a provincial riot by Governor of San Francisco Terry Scott, who previously was a vocal supporter of the protestors. In San Joaquin, multiple polling stations were closed after a self-proclaimed member of the Provisional Sierran Republican Army threatened to bomb polling places. It was determined that the bomb-threats were not credible and the potential bomber was identified as a fired poll worker who had no association with the Provisional Sierran Republican Army.

See also

• 2020 Royalist Party leadership election
• 2017 Royalist National Convention