Letter from John Meo

Before we turn our attention to this November and the most important election of our lifetimes as we fight, fight, fight to get Trump elected, I would like to extend, on behalf of the Collier GOP, a heart-felt thank you to all of our dedicated Republican volunteers and donors who sacrificed much and worked tirelessly in the 2024 local Collier County primary. I would also like to thank all of our Republican candidates for their willingness to run for political office and serve the members of our wonderful community. 

In addition, and on behalf of the Collier County Republican Party, we congratulate each of the newly elected Republican representatives, and we welcome the opportunity to work with all local elected (newly or otherwise) officials who have a desire to advance the principles of the Republican party platform locally. 

As Republicans, it is important for us to know that in each of the local contests during the 2024 primary, not a single registered Democrat ran for local office. We have to ask ourselves why Democrats didn’t run a single Democrat candidate locally this election cycle? 

As we prepare for future elections, perhaps the following from the Collier Dems will shed some light on the local Democrat/RINO Uniparty playbook this past election cycle (see two attached images in this post).

As no registered Democrat ran for local office, this helps explain the low Democrat turnout that brought overall turnout rates lower in 2024. Local candidates running against our endorsed candidates ran to the right and attempted to “out Republican” each other in the primary. For example, some candidates told voters that they were “endorsed” Republicans and that they were running on the “DeSantis Education Agenda,” just like our Collier GOP endorsed candidates did in 2022. Imitation is indeed the highest form of flattery.

Hats off to the opposition who opposed our Collier GOP endorsed candidates, as they put historic sums of money and effort into attacking the Collier GOP Republican endorsed candidates and running to the right and seeking to “out Republican” the Republican Party this election cycle. 

That being said, the 2024 primary election was decided by mail-in-ballots and before thousands of Collier voters learned about our Collier GOP endorsed candidates. In 2022, the Collier GOP’s endorsed candidates won mail-in-ballots as we got our message to our Republican voters early and well before the election.

Our 2024 primary election mail-in ballot campaign efforts, unfortunately, was a little too late, which was a missed opportunity. However, 2024 primary election data from the Collier County Supervisor of Election’s Office irrefutably confirms that our Collier GOP endorsed candidates won on Election Day as well as in the early voting. 

As we look forward to future local elections, a key takeaway is that once we got our Republican message to our Republican voters, we won the vote count and we won big considering the historic effort made by Democrats, Uniparty RINOs, unions and PACs. They understand and know that Collier County voters support the principles of liberty, limited government, lower taxes, etc. and they cannot win unless they confuse and divide Republican voters. 

In that regard, we have heard reports of voters who told poll workers that they were confused by deceptive materials (e.g. misleading use of the Republican name, Republican endorsement, Republican elephant, etc.) and confused as to who were in fact the official Collier GOP endorsed candidates. We ask that any Republican voter, who was impacted by deceptive campaign materials, contact me, Collier GOP Chairman John Meo, at chairmanmeoccrec@gmail.com to report it and obtain assistance in how to file a formal Florida Elections Commission complaint. 

As Republicans, we know that the principles of liberty and limited government in our party platform WORK and bless all Collier County residents - Republicans, Democrats and NPAs alike.

For example, by electing MAGA Republicans to the Board of County Commissioners in 2022, $63 million dollars stayed in taxpayer pockets in 2024. This was a massive and historic tax cut and win for Collier taxpayers. 

Thanks to your hard work and the tireless efforts of MAGA Republicans, we were able to get the Collier County Health Freedom ordinance adopted, protecting individual liberties of Collier County residents, and we finally got fluoride out of our Collier County water supply in an effort to allow others to use their agency and in protecting the health and welfare of all Collier residents. 

Another great example of the impact you are making is the much-needed teacher pay increase that our 2022 Collier GOP Republican endorsed School Board candidates achieved in 2023. All of our 2022 Collier GOP Republican endorsed candidates ran on getting this done for our teachers as part of the Governor DeSantis Education Agenda. In fact, it was our 2022 Collier GOP Republican endorsed candidates and the platform that they ran on which resulted in this historic and long overdue win for our local teachers in 2023. 

As Republicans, we know that the policies promoted by the Democrat Party DO NOT work. For example, we saw local businesses and churches shut down during COVID-19. We saw our prior local School Board and County Commissioners force the masking of our kids and the community during COVID-19. We also saw authoritarian vaccine mandates as well as transgender drag shows in local public parks where young children play. We cannot allow this to ever happen again in our precious county. 

We confidently look forward to the future and to uniting as Republicans around our central effort to get President Trump, JD Vance and other Republican leaders elected/re-elected in November (among other things) to save America and protect our Constitutional Republic from Democrat authoritarianism and flat-out communism. 

Thank you for your continued support of the Collier GOP and let’s fight, fight, fight and get to work!

John J. Meo, Jr., Chairman

Collier County Republican Executive Committee

239-732-0885