CityandStatePA.com reported on Thursday (August 12), and the Inquirer reported on Tuesday (August 17), that Ethan Demme, a former Lancaster County GOP chair is heading up a new political party in Pennsylvania called Serve America Movement (SAM).
According to the Inquirer – Demme, 39, registered the party with the Pennsylvania Department of State in June.
https://youtu.be/i3pfCJW6jc8
City and State wrote – “I think people are disenchanted with the process in America, and specifically in Pennsylvania, people don’t think that their vote matters,” Demme told City & State. “How do we make it so more people participate in that process? How do we make it easier to vote? How do we make it worthwhile for people to vote, and how do we make people think that their vote matters?”
Demme said he and other Republicans in Lancaster thought not only that their party was “not reformable from within” but also that the entire system needed major reform. In conversations about how to combat polarization and get more people involved in democracy, they came across SAM.
SAM began in 2017 out of Colorado, making its way to states like New York and Connecticut before growing into Pennsylvania. The party’s website says they want candidates who “rely on proven problem-solving principles to understand the challenges facing their communities.”
Demme Became Lancaster County GOP Chair at Age 29
In 2011, at the age of 29, and still serving in his first term as a Committee Person, Demme was elected as Chair of the Lancaster County Republican Party. In 2016, early in the primaries, he was an outspoken “Never-Trumper.” Demme ran for the 13th District State Senate Seat in 2016, but finished a distant third.