Postcards From a Honeymoon: Von Kays and His Passionate Patriotism 

This is the third in a series of interviews of Washington state District Captains. Today, we feature Von Kays of District 5. As a seasoned veteran with COS, Von brings a wealth of both knowledge and wisdom to the table. Because he has so much to say on so many different topics, it seemed appropriate to use a slightly different format for his interview, so you will notice the use of headlines. Enjoy! 

KG: Von, you've been a part of Convention of States since 2016 in Legislative District 5. How did you get involved?  

VK: As I recall, prior to 2016 I just got fed up with the Republican Party. I wanted out. We had tried getting the right people in Congress. We'd given the Republicans support. We voted for them, gave them money, showed up at their events. But once elected, our Republicans went to DC and “drank the Kool-Aid,” forgetting what they'd promised us. So, I was just dissatisfied, disenchanted with them. I decided I would still support local candidates, but I wasn’t going to send any more money to the Republican National Party. 

But then, I followed the 2016 primaries and found some interesting Republican candidates for President. First Carly Fiorina, then Dr. Ben Carson. Then, when both fell out, I became interested in Donald Trump. So there I was, back in Republican politics again. Up to my ears. And we got some great results here in the state. 

I found out about COS through being involved in some LD-5 campaigns for Republicans, Paul Graves and Jay Rodney. There, I met a woman who told me about a meeting in Puyallup which was a Q & A being held by Eric Minor (state director for COS here in Washington). The whole thing made a big impression on me. When I got home I told my wife, “I found something that for the first time in 60 years I think has a chance of working. I’m gonna get involved in this!” I signed the online COS national petition on March 26, 2016 and worked as an informal “co-District Captain” (DC) for a few months. When the DC stepped aside, I stepped up and I have been the LD 5 DC since the fall of 2016. 

The Floor Fight. The 2016 Washington State Republican Convention was held in Pasco, Washington. Eric and I and a lot of other supporters got a statement into the WSRP platform on behalf of the Convention of States project. The vote to get it on the WSRP platform was very close. Ultimately it was just over 400 delegates for adding the language and just under 400 for not adding the language. After a floor fight, the grassroots overcame the party stalwarts, and we got the language supporting COS on the 2016 WRSP platform. 
 
The Setback. Then, 2020 happened. I was again honored to be elected to go to the WSRP Convention, but now it was virtual. COVID-19 had dealt us a setback. I thought that the WSPR leadership had indicated the platform would remain the same, but in fact, the WSPR leadership did not include the language on the COS project. As it was a virtual conference, there was no real opportunity for the grassroots to put up an effective fight. I made my disapproval known, however. And afterwards, I came to believe that the WRSP leadership really was against the COS project. 

Surging! I first went to Olympia in January 2017, and I have gone there every year since. Eric had the idea of a “surge” in Olympia, as a way to reach out to the Senators and Representatives.  

KG: Can you explain what a surge is? I'm not familiar with the term. 

VK: A “surge” is when we try to get a lot of people (COS volunteers) to all visit the Capitol on one day. It’s an information and persuasion campaign. We’d give handouts to the representatives on both sides of the aisle, and to the public, not just to the Republicans. I'd be assigned four or five districts, and I'd go around and talk to everybody in their offices in Olympia. Usually we’d get 12-15 people on one day, but once we had about 75 people assembled to surge in Olympia! With that big group, we had a speaker, and the speaker made a presentation on the steps of the Capitol. We’ve still got a photograph that shows up on the national website. 

KG: That all sounds exciting! It sounds like something we need to do again. Tell me more about things you have done as District Captain for LD 5.   

VK: I've been down to see my reps; Senator Mark Mullet, Representative Lisa Callan and Representative Bill Ramos. I went twice in person to get a meeting with Senator Mark Mullet, a Democrat. I couldn’t get an appointment with him. I would ask for his legislative aide to call me with a time to come see the Senator, but he never called back. That doesn’t happen now. Now they know it. 

KG: Know what? 

VK: Well, I’ve gotten somewhat famous to my three elected officials. Here is the story: 

Postcards from a Honeymoon and a Deluge of Petitions: In 2019 I remarried (my first wife passed in late 2015). I started sending letters and postcards to my elected officials. I wrote my first postcard on our honeymoon from Alaska. I sent three postcards from Alaska to these three Democrats. Also that summer, I wrote 15 letters, each one handwritten. At that time, we had about 450 people in LD-5 who had signed the online petition. I enlisted Eric’s computer skills. He merged the database of those 450 names and addresses with the date they signed the petition and produced a PDF for each petition. At the end of that process I had 1,350 PDFs (1,350 total). 

Now, each time a person signs the online COS petition, a copy of their petition goes to their elected official. But I wanted these representatives to see the real thing. So I made color copies of the petitions and sent them with my handwritten letters to the three LD-5 elected officials. At that time, I could go over to the Public Library and print 30 color pages a week. (Can't do that anymore.) I started with the oldest petitions. Every week I would send three letters with 15 petitions.   

There was method to my madness. Two of these Representatives I was sending letters to were brand new. They were elected in 2018. They got re-elected in 2020. Because they were new, they didn’t know us. They had no knowledge of what had happened since 2014. Because of that, I followed a process. Each of these 15 handwritten letters would focus on educating with respect to a different stage in the COS process.   

KG: Not sure I follow you on that. Each a different stage, go ahead.  
 
The Vision of the Very Active Grassroots 

VK: Well, first, (1) the state’s grassroots rise up and demand the state legislature pass an application to Congress to call a limited Article V Convention of States. Fifteen states have gotten this far. Article V requires 34. The applications need to be identical. (2) Once we get that, Congress is obligated by Article V of the Constitution to call a Convention of States. The COS activists in all those 34 states must be vigilant in pressing Congress to comply with the Constitution without delay. (3) Each state will select its commissioner (and non-voting delegates to support the commissioner) and “commission” that person by a legislative bill. Again, the grassroots in each state must be active in getting the state to commission the voting person adequately for the exigencies of the COS. (4) When the COS meets and proposes Constitutional amendments, the grassroots activists must stay alert to what is happening. They must be diligent to ensure that their state commissioner is acting with fidelity to his trust and commissioning. 

KG: How can that be controlled? 

VK: Well, the House Joint Memorial and the Senate Joint Memorial in Olympia (links below) both contain authority for the legislature to recall its commissioner if that person ceases to follow the direction of the Washington legislature. 

There’s a lot more for the grassroots to do. For example, we must be aware of the proposed amendments that are being reported by the press. When each amendment is passed at the COS by a majority vote of the 50 states (majority of 26 votes in favor of sending the amendment for ratification), the grassroots army must voice their support in Olympia for the state legislature to approve or disapprove each amendment. Then, after each of the several amendments is approved and thus becomes part of the US Constitution, the grassroots must remain involved to be certain the Congress and the state legislature comply with those amendments. You know that our opponents will not cease their struggle to contravene the amendments and to stymie their implementation. We are getting this grassroots army together though, and it’s growing all the time. As you can see, the grassroots army is critical to the success of our COS project.   

And in case you even need the proof, in 2019, 450 LD 5 constituents had signed the national COS petition, and that number on 12 July 2021 is 859: 409 more in 2 years! That’s some serious growth in just my district. 

KG: Tell me a little more about your letter writing. How do you get started? What do you say? 

How to Write a Letter to a Representative: The Von Kays Method

VK:  Letter one, I thank them for taking the time to meet with me.  I mention they individually expressed interest in knowing about the COS project. I explain that I will be sending them a series of letters that will guide them “step by step” through the COS process. I explain that their constituents see a government that's not responsive. A government that is out of control. A government that is drunk on federal money, which is really the money of their constituents.  

Second letter, I start by thanking them for their willingness to take on public service. I refresh them on the history of support, I mention how many times the COS supporters have been to the legislature. How we got more and more co-sponsors, every year, on our House Joint Memorial or our Senate Joint Memorial.  

The rest of the letters I walked my three elected officials through the COS steps, which I already for you. And at the end, I always urge them to become co-sponsors of the Memorial in their chamber. And, if they wouldn’t become a co-sponsor, then to use their credibility to urge the committee chair to put the Memorial on the committee agenda.   

Staying the Constitutional Course 

KG: At a recent Q & A on Convention of States hosted by District Captain Laurie Hagedorn, someone asked whether we can use the initiative process to tell the legislature we want the Article V convention. We learned, no, you can’t do it that way. Apparently, there's even a Supreme Court case on the subject that says that. It has to be done by the legislature, yeah?  

VK: Well, Article V of the Constitution says that the legislature sends in the application. It doesn't say the people of the state send it in. It can be really challenging to get everyone in the grassroots army on the same page, but it is critical to do so. There have been over 400 calls for convention of states. Sometimes, it’s only two states sending the same thing in. Sometimes you can get 15 states to send in a call, but if all 15 of them have different wording about the “scope” of the amendments they can’t be aggregated to make up the required 34 states. The point of Article V is, after all, that it is constitutional. So you have to follow the process set up by the signers of the Constitution to amend the Constitution.  

I have my doubts that such an initiative would pass in in Washington, anyway. There are so many Republicans who are fearful of the Article V process, because of lies, distortions, and damnable lies about the process the opponents bombard the airwaves with.  

KG: How convinced are you of that? That an initiative (even if we could use it) would fail? 

VK: Oh, I absolutely, don’t think that it would ever pass in Washington by initiative. Remember my story about the WSRP killing the 2016 COS support language which should have been in the 2020 Platform vote? There are many Republicans who are progressives “in the dark.” The only statewide elected person who’s a Republican is Kim Wyman, the Washington Secretary of State. No other.  

KG:  Do you think that who’s elected is really an accurate representation of what the people want? Or do you think it's possible that the money and special interests have corrupted- No, you're shaking your head. You don't think that's–

VK: I think it’s that our constitutional literacy has just disappeared. I was listening just now to the Markley, Van Camp and Robbins show on KVI from 9 to 12. They were playing clips from an interview out on the street, asking young people, ‘What do you think about Flag Day? A lot of people think that it's wrong. What do you think?’  

And these young voices said, ‘I think it's terrible. I don't really love this place; I don't think that our country is so great.’ Those kinds of vapid opinions are what I'm getting at. It’s about a rejection of constitutional historical literacy, a hatred of the history and Constitution that allows them the freedom to make such statements. Now, we’ve got kids coming out of school that have no sense of where, what, why we were formed. They have no sense of our history. No sense of how America has defended countries around the world from communism and slavery. No grasp of the facts of what communism and socialism have done to people over the past 100 years. The young people are being indoctrinated- using our personal taxes, by the way- to hate their parents and hate their county. These people reject history.   

Know Your Battle, Speak Your Heart  

KG: Do you think we (conservatives) can ever win in the state of Washington, then?  

VK: Well, I don't know whether we will, or we won’t. You know, that's not my own sense of what the battle is. My objective is to raise an army. The army that I want to raise doesn't care who's sitting in the governor seat, or who's sitting in the three seats in LD-5, or who is sitting in the White House. In fact, if we can raise an army that's engaged, they will go out and transform the situation in Washington state. The politics of Washington state aren’t where the change begins. Instead, it begins with the citizens of Washington understanding the meaning and purpose of America. 

As Benjamin Franklin reputedly replied, when asked, after he signed the US Constitution, “What have you given us, sir? A democracy or a republic?” “A republic, Madam, if you can keep it.” The COS project thinks we can keep it, and beyond that the COS project believes it is necessary to keep it, for the sake of America and to foster freedom around the world.  

KG: If you could speak your heart about why you do this work, why you spend all this time writing letters, why you pour your time and treasure into engaging with and educating your representatives on Convention of States- what would it say? 

VK: My heart would say that I want to leave to my grandchildren and great-grandchildren an America that is at least as free as the one handed to me by the “greatest generation.” If we will “humble ourselves and pray and seek God’s face, and turn from our wicked ways, then God will hear from heaven and will forgive our sin and heal our land” (2 Chronicles 7:14).  

This really is a battle we are going through. And it’s a spiritual battle. The grassroots army fights for true freedom, which is to say a disciplined freedom, an ordered liberty. One that continues to say America is ‘under God.’ That makes it God’s grassroots army. My place in this battle is on the front lines of God’s grassroots army.    

Click here for House Joint Memorial 2019 https://app.leg.wa.gov/billsummary?BillNumber=4002&Year=2019

Click here for Senate Joint Memorial 2019
https://app.leg.wa.gov/billsummary?BillNumber=8007&Year=2019

You can contact Von at von.kays@cosaction.com.