In June, Allyn Meyers was elected chair of the Rhode Island Republican Party. The computer systems analyst from Tiverton replaces Joe Powers, who resigned earlier this year.
Meyers sat down with Ocean State Media political reporter Ian Donnis to discuss his thoughts on how to help more Republicans get elected in the upcoming 2026 elections. He also offered his thoughts on several national issues, including immigration and the 2020 presidential election.
Interview highlights
On how to increase Republican representation in the Rhode Island General Assembly
Allyn Meyers: Last year, our focus was to build our bench. The problem really is we didn’t have a bench. A lot of the town councilors, school committee seats, is a birthplace of our legislators. We didn’t have those places.
We took a lot of seats last year. That isn’t something that’s in the news. We picked up four fresh faces in the Republican caucus in the legislature, but the big news is that we took a lot of town council seats. Portsmouth turned red, turned more conservative. So even if they weren’t all Republicans, we had a lot of independents that were conservative that seemed to come forward. So I think as our bench builds, we’ll find more and more legislative candidates.
On the Rhode Island GOP’s approach to the 2026 elections
Meyers: Well, speaking about Rhode Island, our economy’s not good and hasn’t been good. It hasn’t changed one bit. I think it’s a lot of the policies of the McKee administration. I think other places in the country, they’re seeing very low inflation. They’re seeing better gas prices, kitchen items. This is where it hurts people.
Our energy costs, I think it’s 38 cents a kilowatt. I mean, the energy is killing us here. Our Act on Climate 2021 bill absolutely is driving up prices. It’s going to hit our seniors, our people on fixed incomes. Rhode Island has a large population of senior citizens – probably one of the highest in the country. A lot of these people on fixed incomes, they cannot absorb that kind of cost. We have to do something to fix it.
On federal immigration enforcement in Minnesota
Meyers: Well, law enforcement’s a dangerous job, as we all know. Back in 2017, 2018 in New York, we saw officers having lunch, sitting in their cars, getting shot; just people walking up to the doors and shooting them and running off. So I think there’s a heightened fear in law enforcement of this kind of thing. They’re on edge.
Mistakes are always made. When you’re in a high fear environment and you’re working in a place where you have a lot of tension, there’s going to be mistakes made. I can’t say that everything has been done perfectly. I can’t say that.
On the legitimacy of the 2020 presidential election
Meyers: Well, he certainly was the president for four years and he was our president of the United States – and there’s no disputing that – for four years.
I think stolen is a hard word. I think we’re seeing some irregularities that are being brought up now in Pennsylvania and other places. But President Biden was the president for four years, and that’s my story.
We have stories now that are coming out. We have, actually, prosecutions happening. They have indictments happening for some election-based things.
We’re not going back to 2020. It’s not like we can reverse time. So I think that right now, we fix our voting system and we move on.
