Jackson, Mich. (WKHM) — On the Friday before Labor Day Weekend (August 29), the Jackson County GOP made multiple posts on social media announcing that they had no affiliation with the Under the Oaks (UTO) PAC, saying that they view mailers from the PAC as a “trick” by local democrats to promote liberal candidates and agendas.
They cited data from Transparency USA that listed a $2,000 contribution to the PAC from the Jackson County Democratic Executive Committee, and the political alignment of Kelsey Heck Wood (UTO PAC Founder and Treasurer) and her husband Conner Wood (Record Keeper).
“Under the Oaks” is the place where the Republican Party was formed, where more than 1,000 people gathered in Jackson to protest the expansion of slavery on July 6, 1854. The meeting was moved to a park (now Under the Oaks Park) due to the hall not being handle the massive amount of people.
Russ Jennings, Chairman of the Jackson County GOP, reiterated to WKHM the primary message of the party on this matter is that it is in no way connected to the UTO PAC.
Chairman Jennings said that the Jackson GOP and other Republican entities consistently use Under the Oaks imagery in their promotional efforts, which he says could lead voters to believe that the UTO PAC is also the GOP’s doing.
The party believes that the PAC will be focusing its efforts on upcoming non-partisan elections, with Chairman Jennings expressing surprise that nobody with the Republican Party thought to use the Under the Oaks name on a PAC before someone else did.
The Founder and Treasurer of the Under the Oaks PAC, Kelsey Heck Wood, told WKHM that the PAC was formed in 2022, and that the name is a geographical reference to where she and her husband lived when they first moved to Jackson.
When asked about the GOP’s assertion that Under the Oaks imagery is primarily viewed as a conservative moniker, Wood said that the area where the Under the Oaks Park resides and the City of Jackson in general has mainly voted Democrat for decades, and that she believes the Republican Party’s values have changed between 1854 and now.
Wood also said that information about the UTO PAC, including who it is registered to, who has donated to the PAC, and its expenditures were and still are all publicly available to anyone with access to the internet.
Moving forward, as the November election comes closer, it has now been made clearer than ever to Jackson voters that the Jackson County GOP and the Under the Oaks PAC have no affiliations with each other.