Chelan County Democrats

Will tRump, Hegseth, and Vance continue to blunder on? Read to learn more.

Utopias of Violence The Unlearned Lesson of the Iran War

Can you attend?

On June 24th, 8 PM EST join Lincoln Project for a special "Midterms 2026: Taking The Fight To Trump" live town hall, hosted by LP Co-Founder Rick Wilson and LP Senior Advisers Matthew Dowd and Joe Trippi. Moderated by Tessa Gould.

Sign Up: https://action.lincolnproject.us/062426_town_hall_signup

With a limited # of BIG campaign signs (they are expensive) we look for HI TRAFFIC - HI VISIBILITY locations, on private property.

Pls contact us if you have such a place!

1 S Chelan St, Wenatchee, WA 98801
(509) 436-8899
[email protected]

Hopefully you've now seen who is running for office in NCW and across the Mountains in the Legislative and Congressional fights. Join the effort to keep MAGA candidates and The Christian Nationalist party of GCC at home and not in office. Here is a concise summary of the important races and candidates leanings! Talk about it, share this, rally all to defend our DEMOCRACY!

Your Z List for the week. Join our coalition to keep our local government healthy and wise. A government that serves everyone!

The Founders wrote our Constitution - NOT the Apostles. They added the Bill of Rights - NOT The Ten Commandments. Their intent was Freedom of Religion - NOT control by Religion. They created a Democracy - NOT A Theocracy. Christianity is NOT a political party! Stand up for Democracy and against Christian Nationalist trying to take over our Government!!!

Stronger Man at the Gorge – and What We Need to Do

First, a quick word about pre-bunking. Then we're going to talk about what's happening in our own backyard this weekend.

Pre-bunking is a research-backed communication strategy developed by psychologists at Cambridge University working with Google and BBC Media Action. It works like a vaccine. Instead of waiting until someone has already encountered misinformation and trying to correct it — which is less effective and often backfires — pre-bunking explains the manipulation technique before people encounter it. When you know what a manipulation looks like in advance, you develop what researchers call "mental antibodies." You recognize it when it arrives.

If you’ve been following Dominick Bonny over the past year – this ties right into his work. He’s reporting what’s happening. We can amplify that message to inoculate our community against it.
This post is pre-bunking. Because what is happening at The Gorge Amphitheater today and tomorrow is something every Wenatchee-area voter needs to understand before they see candidates supported by this movement knocking on their door, appearing in debates, or showing up on their ballot.

Freedom Con '26: Rise of the Statesman

Today and tomorrow — June 19 and 20, Father's Day weekend — a conference called Freedom Con '26 is being held at The Gorge Amphitheater near George, Washington. The goal, according to organizers, is to bring 20,000 men together to plan how to "take back" Washington state. As we know, they’ve not come close to their goal and they’re trying to recruit to bring in those numbers – but even half those numbers is a concern.

The event is organized by Stronger Man Nation, a group founded by Josh McPherson, executive pastor of Grace City Church in Wenatchee. McPherson put out the call to what he described as men oppressed by taxes, "government schools," and the "trans agenda."

According to reporting from the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism, the conference tagline is "Rise of the Statesmen" — and the name is not metaphorical. In his own words, as reported by Dominick Bonny, McPherson has told his followers exactly what the plan is:

"We need people who are suspicious of government and who are frustrated and tired of it running for office, positions of power in it — so they can get inside and just start dismantling it."

He has also said, from the pulpit, that people need to stop saying they live in a democracy. He has stated his belief that the United States was founded as a Christian nation. He has said that his goal is to "liberate Washington state." Liberate FROM democracy. To what?

These are his words, in his sermons, documented by Dominick Bonny. His reporting is linked in the first comment.

Who Is Grace City Church?

Grace City Church is based in Wenatchee's Sunnyslope
neighborhood, where it operates a 12-acre compound. According to Dominick Bonny's financial reporting, the church has raised approximately $44 million from its members over its first 15 years.

A single fundraising campaign at the end of 2023 pulled in $15.5 million in pledges over 10 weeks — in Chelan County, where the median household income is a fraction of that figure.

The church draws thousands to three Sunday services weekly. It has started a private K-12 school. It has established satellite operations in other states.

Former members have described the church's leadership as cult-like, according to reporting by YourSourceOne.

The conference this weekend features speakers who have made documented statements disparaging women, according to Roy's Report, which reviewed speaker records. Mark Driscoll — McPherson's self-described mentor and close friend — is on the bill. Driscoll is a disgraced former pastor who was removed from Mars Hill – a scandal-plagued Seattle church that collapsed due to multiple types of abuse. Several conference speakers have spent time inside the Trump White House in the past year, according to the Global Project Against Hate and Extremism.

Women are not permitted on the floor at the conference. Those who wish to attend pay for the privilege of serving the men.
McPherson himself has stated in a podcast: "Empathy is dangerous. Empathy is toxic. Empathy will align you with hell. And — this will be controversial — women are especially vulnerable to this."

What Christian Nationalism Actually Means for Local Government
Christian nationalism — documented by scholars including sociologists Andrew Whitehead and Samuel Perry in their book Taking America Back for God — is not simply Christianity in politics. It is a specific ideology that holds that the United States should be governed according to Christian law as interpreted by its leaders, and that this divine mandate supersedes democratic process, constitutional rights, and the legal standing of people who fall outside its definition of belonging.

When McPherson says he wants people who are "frustrated and tired" of government to run for office and "start dismantling it" — he is describing the implementation of this ideology at the local level. School boards. City councils. County commissions. State legislature. The strategy is specific, patient, and organized.
It is already operating in North Central Washington.

Who Is Running in Our Local Races

Confluence Indivisible’s Election team has been circulating a graphic to let people know which candidates are aligned with Grace City Church.

The following candidates in North Central Washington races have documented affiliations with Grace City Church or its leadership network, according to Confluence Indivisible research:

Spencer Meline – running against Kim Shrier for US House of Reps Dist 8
Amanda McKinney – running to replace Dan Newhouse for US House of Reps Dis 4
Brian Burnett – WA Legislative District 12 (former Chelan County Sheriff)
Adam James – WA Legislative District 12 – GCC Executive Pastor
Shon Smith – Chelan County Commissioner – GCC Friendly
Brandt Cappell – Acting Auditor – GCC friendly
Marty Young – County Clerk
Adam Musgrove – Douglas County Sheriff

These are not 8 candidates who simply attend church. These are 8 candidates whose political involvement has been shaped by the specific ideology being promoted at The Gorge this weekend — an ideology whose stated goal is to get people inside government in order to dismantle it. And 8 elected officials promoting the same church in a small town like ours is a really big deal.

Voters deserve to know this before they cast their ballots.

This Is the Pre-Bunking

Here is what the mental antibody looks like for this particular movement:

They will use language that sounds reasonable. They will talk about families, community, freedom, and protecting children. They will say they just want good government. They will say their faith informs their values, as it does for many people across the political spectrum.

The difference is that Christian nationalism — as McPherson has stated explicitly and repeatedly from his pulpit — is not about values informing governance. It is about replacing democratic governance with theocratic governance. It is about getting inside institutions specifically to dismantle them. It is about a divine mandate that, by definition, supersedes the votes of people who don't share the theology.

Now Here's What We Need You to Do

Confluence Indivisible does not exist to inform you and send you home. We exist to build power together in this community. And what Grace City Church is doing — organized, patient, and already underway — requires an organized, patient, community-wide response.

That response starts with you. Right now. This week.

Become a pre-bunker in your own circle. You understand the mechanism. You know the pattern. The single most effective thing you can do is share this information — not online, but in person — with people you know and trust before they encounter Grace City-affiliated candidates at their door or on their ballot. Talk to your neighbor. Talk to your co-worker. Talk to your family member who might be susceptible to the "frustrated with government" framing. You don't need to argue. You just need to name the pattern first. That's pre-bunking. You can do it today.

Show up at local government meetings. School board. City council. County commission. Port authority. These are the rooms where this strategy is designed to take hold. Your presence matters. Your public comment matters. A room full of engaged community members is a fundamentally different environment than an empty room. Find out when your local bodies meet and put those dates on your calendar. We’ve done this together. We need to continue.
Know every race on your ballot — and make sure your people vote in all of them. Grace City's political strategy depends on low information and low turnout in local races. Most people don't know who their school board members are, let alone who is running to replace them. Change that. Look up every race. Share the candidate list with friends. Turn out your people for every election, not just the big ones.

Run for something. We need people on school boards, library boards, planning commissions, and city councils who share our values. It’s too late for this election cycle – but exactly the right time to start planning for 2028. Rural People’s Voice provides training so you can be successful when you run.

Read and share Dominick Bonny's reporting. Local journalism on an organization with this much money and this much political ambition is extraordinarily valuable. Subscribe to his Substack. Share his articles. He has done years of careful, documented work on Grace City Church so that the community has accurate information. Make sure people know it exists.

Join us if you haven't. Confluence Indivisible meets Monday, June 22 at 6pm at 3330 School Street. We track local races, organize canvassing, and coordinate civic action in North Central Washington. This is not the kind of challenge any one person solves alone. It's the kind of challenge an organized community solves together.

Grace City Church has a 12-acre compound, $44 million raised, and a pastor who is telling thousands of men this weekend to get inside local government and start dismantling it.

We have each other, our neighbors, and the truth about what is happening.

That is enough. But only if we use it.

Share this post. Talk to someone today. Show up.

--Meliesa Tigard, Confluence Indivisible

A day we remember.

Juneteenth marks the celebration of America's second independence day. President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation declaring enslaved people free as of January 1, 1863.

But freedom did not reach some areas of the country still under Confederate control until years later. In the case of Galveston, Texas, it took until June 19, 1865, when Union troops arrived and announced the proclamation would be enforced.

Like the people in this photo—Texans celebrating Juneteenth in 1900—we know that progress hasn't made our union perfect. But we can recommit to reaching toward that more perfect union together. Happy Juneteenth.