Margot Herzl of Searcy County has joined Republican Party of Arkansas Chairman Joseph Wood and Hot Spring County Republican Mike Shnaekel in jockeying to be elected by the GOP’s State Committee on Dec. 7 as the party chairman.

On Nov. 8, Wood announced his re-election bid in an email to State Committee members. According to Shnaekel, he also filed paperwork on Nov. 8 to run for party chairman.

In August of 2023, Wood was elected as party chairman by the Republican Party of Arkansas’ State Committee over Sarah Dunklin, the party’s 1st Congressional District chair. Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders supported Wood to be elected as party chairman in August of 2023 and is backing Wood to be reelected as the party chairman.

Herzl, who has served as secretary of the Searcy County Republican Committee, announced her bid for state party chairman over the past weekend and said she is a married Christian homeschool mom of five kids, with a sixth on the way. In 2020, she ran unsuccessfully as a Libertarian candidate for a seat in the Colorado House of Representatives.

She said Wednesday that she has lived in Marshall since September 2021.

“I’ve seen deep divides in the Republican Party

throughout my time here, and the divisions seem to be getting deeper,” she said in a written statement. “I’ve been asked to run for Chair by a number of friends within the party, mostly chairs from other counties — but the reason I finally decided to run is that we need someone who can be chairman of the whole party.”

Herzl said “Chairman Wood has had an opportunity to try to bring the party together, and instead he has chosen to be a chairman for half the party, and has put a large part of his focus on suppressing the other half of the party.”

Arkansas Republicans “saw the Arkansas Democrats pick up a seat for the first time since 2014 in the biggest red wave election of my lifetime; several Republican candidates did not receive support from the party and lost their bids to overturn Democrat held seats; many Democrats ran completely unopposed,” Herzl said in her written statement.

Asked about Herzl entering the Republican Party of Arkansas chairman race, Shnaekel, who has served as chairman of the Hot Spring County Republican Committee, said Wednesday that he is encouraged to see more individuals taking a stand against the disappointing actions of the current Republican Party of Arkansas executive leadership, where a lack of accountability has persisted in recent years.

“Despite these challenges, the RPA has continued to achieve success, thanks to the dedication and strength of our county and district committees,”

he said in a written statement.

“I firmly believe that I am the right choice for the position of RPA Chairman,” Shnaekel said. “My strong leadership background, combined with my unwavering commitment to the RPA platform and its guiding principles, sets me apart.”

Wood said Wednesday in a written statement that “As the only candidate with a record of success at the RPA, I am, running for re-election to continue working with our Governor, supermajorities, and grassroots leaders as we keep winning and taking Arkansas to the top.”

Dunklin, who lost to Wood for party chairman in August 2023, said Wednesday that she is not supporting any candidate in the race for state party chairman.

“Arkansas Republicans need a State Party Chair who is both qualified and a good fit for the specific role to be successful,” she said in a written statement.

Last week, Shnaekel said he pleaded guilty to violations of the state’s hot check law in 1995 for checks of about $6 and for about $12 as a young man, made mistakes, and has learned a lot since then.

He has said he served in the Army from 2008-2018 when he retired because of injuries incurred while in service, and the highlight of his career was “being (Non-commissioned Officer in Charge) of Special Operations Intelligence Division for NATO forces with emphasis on target and raid packets.”

According to Shnaekel, he was elected as constable of Gifford Township in 2022, and he later resigned after he learned he was not eligible to serve in the post as a result of

the violations of the state’s hot check law.

During the Dec. 7 Republican Party of Arkansas’ State Committee meeting, Sharon Wright and Kandi Cox are vying for the party’s first vice chair post to succeed John Parke, and party treasurer and former state Rep. Nelda Speaks faces a challenge from Michelle Graetz, according to the party.

Sharon Stuthard and Jennifer Hopper are running for party secretary to succeed Julie Harris, and John Nabholz is running for the party’s second vice chair post to succeed June Wood.

In late October, attorneys for Joseph Wood and state election officials each submitted new motions seeking to dismiss a lawsuit filed by a group seeking to close the party’s primaries to non-Republican voters.

The briefs are in response to an amended complaint filed Oct. 7 by the plaintiffs in the Eastern District of Arkansas, who are convention leader Jennifer Lancaster of Benton and nearly two dozen other delegates to the party’s state convention.

The plaintiffs filed their initial complaint Aug. 26 against Joseph Wood and John Thurston “in his capacity as secretary of state and as chairman of the state board of election commissioners.” The amended complaint adds William Luther, Jamie Clemmer, Johnathan Williams, James Harmon Smith III and Sharon Brooks in their “official capacity as (members) of the state board of election commissioners.”

The lawsuit stems from a dispute that arose when the party closed its primaries in a voice vote at its state convention. In late July, the Republican

Party of Arkansas’ Executive Committee voted to declare the vote null and void. The plaintiffs accused Joseph Wood and Thurston of depriving them of their civil rights by refusing to comply with the delegates’ votes. The plaintiffs asked the court to declare, among other things, “the RPA has the authority to close its primaries” and the delegates’ actions “were a proper change of RPA rules to close the primaries.”

On Sept. 30, U.S. District Judge Brian Miller denied a request for a preliminary injunction that asked the judge to require Joseph Wood and Thurston to close the party’s primaries to non-Republican voters and to declare that its convention leader is authorized to certify its electors. In his text-only order, Miller said he found the request moot.

Lancaster said in a text message not long after Miller issued his order that “the dismissal of the preliminary injunction was agreed upon by both parties.”

Primaries to pick party nominees for elected office in Arkansas have historically been open. That has meant voters could choose the party primary in which they wanted to vote, even if they were not a registered member of that party. The rule approved at the convention in June, however, would have required that voters “be registered as a Republican before being issued a Republican primary ballot to vote in a Republican Party primary election.”

When delegates to the state convention in July 2022 voted to declare state Republicans’ endorsement of closed primaries as part of the party’s platform, then-Arkansas Republican National Committee

member Jonathan Barnett of Siloam Springs told delegates that Democrats were crossing party lines to vote in the Republican primary.

In December 2022, the party’s Rules Committee recommended against closing the primary, and the push fell short of the two-thirds vote of State Committee members needed for the committee to consider the changes. At the time, then-Committee Chairman Steve Lux said holding a closed primary would necessitate action by the state Legislature and governor.

In August 2023, Joseph Wood, then-secretary of the state Department of Transformation and Shared Services, was elected by the Republicans’ State Committee as the party chairman.

Joseph Wood was elected to the post after former chairman Cody Hiland resigned from the post in July 2023 and then Sanders appointed Hiland to the Arkansas Supreme Court to serve in place of Justice Robin Wynne — who died in June 2023 — until January 2025. In December 2022, Hiland was elected chairman of the Republican Party of Arkansas to succeed Jonelle Fulmer, who had served in the post since December 2020, after Sanders signaled her support for Hiland to be the party chairman.

Before joining Sanders’ administration in January 2023, Joseph Wood served as a Washington County judge. In 2022, he made an unsuccessful bid for the Republican nomination for lieutenant governor. He previously served two terms as the state GOP’s treasurer. In 2008, he lost a bid for state party chair to Doyle Webb.