Mark Peake’s resignation is only the beginning for a true Republican Reformation.

by Ken Reid

Legend has it that Augustinian priest Martin Luther launched the Protestant Reformation  on Oct. 31, 1517, by nailing his 95 Theses to the door of All Saints’ Church in Wittenberg, Germany  — which urged substantial reform of the Roman Catholic Church and power of the papacy.

In reality, his Ninety-five Theses was titled:  “Disputation on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences,” and was not nailed to any door, according to Wikipedia.

However, Luther’s activist manner and outrage at the Roman Catholic Church launched a necessary Reformation that made Christianity and humanity better over time.

Today, a conservative activist in Virginia, who also is very passionate and lacks political correctness, has issued a call to reform the Republican Party of Virginia in wake the recent statewide election debacle

I am not equating Loudoun County Republican Committee Chairman Scott Pio with Luther, but reformation of the RPV, its State Central Committee and entire focus is critically needed, or else Virginia is destined to be a corrupt, one-party Democrat state for years to come, and thus unlivable for millions.

While the Loudoun GOP has few victories to brag about in the Trump 2.0 era, it has moved miles ahead of other Republican units in terms of fundraising, support for candidates, data gathering and analysis, use of social media, and most significantly, outreach to non-white population groups Republicans desperately need to cultivate in order to win any majority in local and state elections.   Loudoun GOP also offers all of its candidates the largest donor profiling system in the entire country, Pio says, and a Candidate Support binder “that can save thousands of dollars” for candidates.

In the interest of full disclosure, I served the last year as vice chair of the LCRC’s Candidate Search and Support Committee – and have worked with Pio for two years now.  While this IT geek’s style of working with people had led to an exodus of experienced GOP activists from the LCRC — one friend called him a “one man wrecking ball” — he has built a cadre of amazing enthusiastic volunteers, and from different voter groups.

Pio issued his version of the 95 Theses within days of the Nov. 4 disaster, calling for wholesale changes in RPV leadership, including the resignation of chairman Marke Peake and Executive Director Ken Nunnenkamp Jr.

“The results of Tuesday’s election are not just disappointing—they are a damning indictment of the RPV’s entrenched leadership,” Pio, 43, said. “For too long, the RPV has operated as a dysfunctional entity, prioritizing personal gain and complacency overgrowth, strategy, and victory. The fault for these losses lies squarely at the feet of the current RPV Chairman [State senator Mark Peake], executive leadership, and State Central Committee (SCC) members who have allowed the party to atrophy while Democrats built a formidable machine.”

Pio criticized RPV “assuming existing voters would suffice without investment in new coalitions in the largest Indian, Arab and Latino minority communities.”

Pio went on to announce a “’Mount Vernon Project,’ modeled after Turning Point USA’s successful campaign against the RNC” to unseat Ronna McCaniel.  However, he is not going to run for RPV Chair and will instead support former FEMA Acting Director Cameron Hamilton, who Trump ousted in May,  and who lost the GOP nomination for Congress in the 7^th district in June.

Pio’s indictment of RPV is too long to print here, but it’s well-worth reading in entirety HERE  or watching it on  YouTube  But in a nutshell, he blames RPV/SCC for failing to raise money, recruit and nurture candidates, use data properly, become less beholden to consultants – and most important reach out to non-white voter groups in Virginia, who are wedded too much to the Democrats.

In a John Fredericks radio interview following Pio’s 95 Theses, Peake called Pio a “goofball” who lost badly to him for Chairman in an April SCC vote.

This did Peake no good with GOP activists, and possibly a lot of donors.

Peake announced Dec. 1 he would not continue as chair  beyond Jan 1 to devote more time to being a state senator and trying to stop the Democrat majority from getting rid of bipartisan redistricting so they can gerrymander US House districts, and also GA districts – a move that could solidify one-party Democrat rule forever.

His resignation comes within days of the Dec. 5-6 annual RPV Advance outside Williamsburg – kind of like a retreat, which it should more aptly be named, given Republican retrenchment over the past decade.

RPV was running Black Friday sales for tickets, a sign of low interest.

Peake was only named in April to serve the balance of former Chair Rich Anderson’s term through July 2028.  Anderson, a former state delegate from Prince William County, resigned despite winning a 2^nd term in 2024, because he became an assistant secretary of the U.S. Air Force (where he served for some 30 years).

My only criticism of Pio’s diatribe is he didn’t lay a glove on the House and Senate caucuses for miserable fundraising and messaging, and the House caucus’ part in losing 13 seats to the Democrats.  He also did not criticize Winsome Sears for being a horrible candidate.

I feel both RPV and the caucuses should abandon tradition and help with candidate recruitment, given the fact they often leave a number of Democrat-held General Assembly seats uncontested – 15 of the 100 House districts this year.  In addition, Democrats outraised and outspent Republican House candidates 3 to 1.  Is it any wonder why Republican voters stayed home in record numbers?   Money is the mother’s milk of politics.

As for the State Central Committee, Pio said it “is riddled with consultants who view the party as a personal ATM, prioritizing lucrative contracts over electoral success.” Consultants also rule RPV and the Caucuses.

The GOP lacks good messaging and voter data.  RPV uses GOP Data Center and a bad mobile app called Pulsar (formerly, Campaign Sidekick), while the caucuses use the better I-360 app and database.  This means local and state candidates can’t canvass together using the same data, whereas all Democrat candidates in Virginia, local, state and federal, use the VAN system.     RPV also does not allow candidates to use the Pulsar phone app to minimize the number of calls voters get.  Really dumb, and LCRC has invested in its own data set and mobile app.

The 79-member SCC is predominantly white, male, with too many seats held by women’s clubs, Young Republicans and College Republicans, and none by other GOP groups – – i.e. the Virginia Hispanic Republican Assembly.  There are also several “chairs” that the SCC appoints without a vote from Republican voters that could go to minority GOP groups, and decisions are made based on personality vs. performance.  SCC is pretty much a power-trip clique that does little to grow the GOP base and is overly influenced by consultants.

Whether Pio and other insurgents can move the RPV and SCC in a new direction remains to be seen.  After all, the Catholic Church continued on the same path for centuries after Luther’s disputation – but over time, Christianity became better for it.

Ken Reid is a former Loudoun County supervisor and Leesburg Town Council member who was the GOP nominee for State Senate in District 37 in Fairfax County in 2023.  He also is a journalist by trade, and published newsletters in the FDA field for 30 years.