WARREN — The Trumbull County Republican Party will meet today to elect a new chair with Marleah Campbell, its secretary, the heavy favorite to capture the position.

Campbell is the only candidate to step forward in declaring her interest in the position.

“I want to build the party,” Campbell said. “We had great success in the last election, but there’s always room for improvement.”

Campbell said she was heavily involved in the recent election that saw historic gains for the party — winning every contested race on the ballot — by raising funds, recruiting candidates and volunteers.

In a letter to Republican precinct committee members, Campbell wrote: “Under my direction and guidance, this past election was successful in large part due to the slate card campaign that I initiated and raised funds to pay for. The party has heard from many voters who appreciated that effort and want it to continue.”

When the party meets at 6 p.m. today it will be electing its third chair since June 2022 and the person selected would serve the rest of that four-year term set to expire in June 2026.

Kenneth Kline was elected to the term June 10, 2022, and resigned six weeks later. Mike Bollas was elected Aug. 4, 2022, to finish Kline’s term and resigned this past Nov. 8, citing the need to take care of his elderly stepfather and help his wife prepare for hip surgery.

With two interim chairs, including Jim Dunlap, the first vice chairman and current interim chair, the party will have had five leaders in the past 30 months.

While there should be 158 committee members — one for each precinct in the county — the party has 86 members. Only 28 members are needed to make up a quorum.

Campbell said the party has struggled to find members for open seats in the cities of Warren, Girard and Niles, but was at 71 members just a few months ago.

“It’s been hard to tackle,” she said of the lack of members. “It’s never been a priority, but it’s a priority for me. I have a team that will work to fill the other seats.”

The party’s executive committee has the authority to fill vacancies.

Campbell said she is meeting with candidates to run for municipal elections next year and those running countywide in 2026.

Campbell has endorsement letters from three Republicans candidates who were elected to countywide office in last month’s election: a joint letter from Tony Bernard, commissioner-elect, and Mike Wilson, sheriff-elect, and a separate one from Dawn Zinni, recorder-elect.

“For years, Marleah has been an active member of the party and has provided her help and support wherever it was needed, both to our candidates and the party itself,” the letter signed by Bernard and Wilson reads. “During the past 16 months she worked to help many Republican candidates succeed in the Nov. 5 general election. We are just two of those candidates.”

The letter also addressed the divide in the party between those in control of the party and a splinter group that is led by and working with some of the candidates who won in 2022 and last month.

“While Marleah has for several years worked tirelessly for our local party and our candidates, she has also been consistently attacked by some RINOs (Republican in Name Only) who are jealous of her competence and effectiveness,” the letter reads. “These RINOs resent Marleah because she has been able to block them from taking over our party, which they hope to convert to establishing their own personal ‘dynasty.'”

Zinni’s letter to precinct committee members states, “I am aware that there is a dissident faction of RINOs in our party who vehemently oppose Marleah, and I sincerely hope you will ignore them.”

In her letter, Zinni wrote that among the many people who contributed to the success of the party, Campbell stands out.

Zinni’s letter reads: “In the absence of others taking charge and making things happen, Marleah set a vision for fundraising; outreach to disaffected voters; recruiting volunteers; establishing, staffing and operating a nearly full-time party headquarters; and much more. She worked very hard for the party and our candidates.”

County Commissioner Denny Malloy, a critic of the party establishment, said “a bunch of central committee members have lost interest. They don’t believe in the process and the leadership with all the infighting.”

Malloy said potential chair candidates won’t challenge Campbell because if they win, they’d still have to work with her since she’d be party secretary.

“The party would be so much better if she’d walk,” Malloy said. “The party would be so much better without all this drama.”

Malloy said the party officers did nothing to help a number of Republican candidates win elections last month.

There are a number of former Democrats who joined the Republican Party in the past few years, but that is because they believe in the GOP’s national message and in President-elect Donald Trump, said Malloy, who joined the party in 2022, the year he was elected commissioner.

Malloy added: “The party may be fractured beyond repair until we can replace central committee seats in 2026.”

For the first time in about 90 years, Trumbull is a strong Republican county. Starting next year, nine of the 11 executive branch positions will be held by Republicans.

But the divide has plagued the party for the past three years.

That included the refusal in February of the central committee to support a series of major changes to the bylaws backed by party officers.

That included endorsing candidates during the primary, suspending the voting rights of central committee members if they didn’t pay $25 annual dues, the ability to vote on denouncing Republican candidates and punishment up to expulsion from the party for backing non-Republicans in partisan elections.

Campbell said she supports the establishment of alternate central committee members in precincts that have more than one person interested in the position. If an elected committee member is absent, the alternate could take that person’s place, she said. That would require a change to the party’s bylaws.