Louisiana GOP Removes Despot As Chairman
Despot was removed as chairman in 1985 by a group identified with the "Religious Right", a number of whom had been supporters of former Governor David C. Treen though it was unclear whether Treen was involved in the plot against Despot.
George Despot encountered opposition from conservative groups that flocked to the Republican Party over social issues, such as abortion and opposition to homosexual preferences. In 1988, Despot even lost his own seat on the GOP central committee when supporters of the presidential candidate, the evangelist Pat Robertson of Virginia, captured a third of the 144 seats on the committee. Despot wrote a prophetic internal memo at the time in which he warned that the Robertson forces wanted "to take control of the state Republican party." Beyond support of Robertson, the overriding issue was abortion. To Louisiana party loyalists, such as Despot, most of whom already opposed abortion, the challenge from the Robertson forces brought intraparty upheaval, which led to disastrous Republican election results in Louisiana in 1991 and 1992.
According to Rebecca Despot, an unnamed aide to then U.S. Senator John Breaux told her that the outcome of Louisiana elections "right after my father was ousted would have been different had he still been the chairman. I don't think people understand the passion he felt about what he was doing and that he was a man with a mission. They took his mission away, and people will never know what that did to him."
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