History

The Dauphin County Republican Party Committee exists to register Republican voters, develop potential Republican candidates for elected office, raise money for the Republican Party, and promote our Party’s candidates. We are dedicated to selecting assisting, and endorsing qualified candidates for public positions who demonstrate leadership and integrity.

The County Committee Members are elected every four years to represent their local precinct. Our county committee is sub-divided into eleven areas, and representatives to our Executive Committee are elected from each of these eleven areas, from the properly elected committee men and women of the county.

As Republicans we believe that sovereign citizens of a free society have the right and the responsibility to provide for the needs and desires of ourselves and our families. Like Ronald Reagan, we recognize that “a government big enough to give people everything they want is also big enough to take away everything they have.” We follow the footsteps of Abraham Lincoln, as we seek a new birth of freedom, so that “government of the people, by the people, and for the people shall not perish from the earth.”

The Dauphin County Republican Committee has By-Laws in our archive dating back to 1916. While the history of our local party is still being chronicled, since the 1960’s we have been led by the following elected Chairs:

• William “Doc” McBride 1960’s
• Robert Smith - 1960’s
• Jim Keiser - 1970-1972
• M. Crawford Murdoch - 1972-1974
• Robert “Bob” Dick - 1975-1980
• William T. “Bill” Smith - 1980-1984
• Robert “Bob” Dick - 1984-1986
• Richard “Dick” Koch - 1986-1988
• Bruce Miller - 1988-1990
• Stanley Lawson - 1990-1991
• Barbara Layne - 1991-1992
• Michael Liptak - 1992-1996
• Robert “Bob” Dick - 1996-2006
• John J. McNally, III - 2006-Present