Montco Republican Loses Ground in District GOP Over Endorsement of Kamala Harris

Montgomery County Republicans voted Monday to recall a local committee member and party leader who publicly endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris’ presidential bid.

Matthew McCaffery, a Republican from Upper Merion, was removed from office Monday night following a Zoom hearing, days after McCaffery said he was punished following an appearance on CNN in which he spoke of his support for Harris and opposition to former President Donald Trump.

The hearing was scheduled before the swatting incident. McCaffery has become a prominent anti-Trump voice in the Philadelphia suburbs in recent months. Last month, he wrote an op-ed in The Inquirer detailing why he, a veteran, could not vote for Trump. His face appears on Republicans Against Trump billboards across the state, and he has been vigorous with Republican organizations that oppose Trump.

Local party leaders said the actions violated regulations that prohibit officials from actively promoting candidates from other parties.

In the letter announcing his removal from power, which McCaffery posted on X, Christian Nascimento, chairman of the county Republican Party, said the party’s disciplinary committee found McCaffery would continue to violate the rules based on his continued activism after a complaint was filed against him.

“Furthermore, during the disciplinary hearing, your continued lack of remorse and admission of knowingly breaching the rules confirmed the committee’s belief that similar behaviour would continue if you were allowed to retain your seats, only to the detriment of the party,” he wrote.

In his post, X McCaffery simply commented, “I guess they sensed my apathy.”

“I thought they were polite and professional,” he said in an interview. “I broke the rules and I respect their decision.”

On Friday evening, after the CNN interview, police responded to McCaffery’s home in reference to a “swatting” incident, in which someone calls a phony emergency to attract police to a specific address, according to a video McCaffrey posted to X. Upper Merion police did not respond to a request for comment.