Operation Chaos 2020: Movement encourages Republicans to strategically vote in SC primary

GREENVILLE, S.C. (WLOS) — A statewide movement is encouraging Republicans to vote in the upcoming Democrat Presidential Preference Primary on Feb. 29, 2020.

A press release says the movement, Operation Chaos 2020, comes at an opportune time for Republicans since any registered voter is permitted to vote in the primary. Operation Chaos aims to influence the outcome of that day.

In the release, Stephen H. Brown, former chairman of the Greenville County GOP, stated the following:

We are doing this openly, and loudly, to make a very public protest in opposition to open primaries. We want the South Carolina General Assembly to change the election laws to permit certified political parties to hold closed primaries. While our first objective is to protest open primaries, our second objective is to assist the reelection of the President by extending and exacerbating the division among the Democrats. For decades now, South Carolina Democrats have meddled in our primaries, voting for the weakest Republican candidates and cancelling out votes for more conservative candidates. We want them to understand how serious and egregious this is.

Voting in the Feb. 29 primary won't impact anyone's ability to vote in either primary of their choice, Republican or Democrat, in June, the release added.

According to the release, Joe Biden has the majority of South Carolina's Democratic support.

However, Tuesday, Brown announced the group is asking South Carolina Republicans to vote for Bernie Sanders on Saturday.

"We as Republicans think there is a very reasonable chance that Democrats might deny the nomination to Bernie Sanders," said Brown. "And if they were to do that, we believe that it would enrage the left, cause the Democratic Party to split and only help Donald Trump in his re-election."

News 13 asked Brown Tuesday if he can see why some people might think this strategy could appear shady.

"Well, if you mean in the sense we are meddling with the other sides primary. We don’t like people meddling in ours. Yeah, I get that. Sure. You might say we’re poking the bear," added Brown.

Over in Western North Carolina, political experts say there's a similar trend -even though it's not an open primary.

"It appears that the unaffiliated voters who can choose either the Democratic or the Republican Primary are choosing the Democratic Primary more than the Republican Primary," said Chris Cooper, WCU Political Science Professor. "We don’t know why that is. It could be because the Democratic Presidential Primary is just more interesting, there’s more candidates or it could be some sort of sign as to what they might be do in the general."

Watch the press conference on Operation Chaos 2020 below that took place Feb. 25, 2020 at 12:00 p.m.

The South Carolina Democratic Primary is this Saturday, February 29th.

We will keep you updated on the latest results on-air and right here online.

Be sure to tune in to News 13 at 10 and 11 on Saturday for complete coverage.