The Nevada Republican party on Saturday voted to remove its opposition to gay marriage and its pro-life stance from the party platform, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
State party Chairman Michael McDonald told the Review-Journal that he was pleased with the outcome of the vote.
“I think it was about inclusion, not exclusion,” he said about the platform. “This is where the party is going.”
A party committee proposed a new party platform without a stance on the two social issues, after the Clark County, Nev. GOP voted to remove them earlier in April.
The old party platform in Nevada defined marriage as between a man and a woman and stated that the party was “pro-life,” both of which were removed from the official platform.
Nevada Republicans told the Review-Journal that they felt it was time for the party to step away from some social issues, especially after numerous court rulings striking down state bans on same-sex marriage.
“The issue was how can we back out of people’s personal lives,” Dave Hockaday, a member of the platform committee, said. “We need to focus on issues where we can have an impact.”
Taking it out of the party platform, does not mean that their candidates have changed their positions.
On one hand this could be encouraging. On the other, they may just be undertaking better marketing. . .
This is just recognition of the strong Libertarian bent of the younger conservatives in the state. We’ll see if they get any blowback from the social conservatives, they tend to yell the loudest when they think they are disrespected.