| Solomon Yue | |
| Birth Date: | 8 May 1959 |
| Birth Place: | Shanghai, China |
| Citizenship: | American |
| Education: | MBA, Alaska Pacific University |
| Party: | Republican |
| Father: | Solomon Yue, Sr. |
Solomon Yue Jr. (born May 8, 1959) is an American Republican Party activist and businessperson.[1] He is the founder and vice chairman and CEO of Republicans Overseas[2] and a Republican national committeeman from Oregon Republican Party.[3]
Yue was born in China and immigrated from China to the United States in 1980.[4] He is a medical equipment wholesaler,[4] based in Salem, Oregon.[5] [6]
Since 2000,[7] Yue has been a Republican National Committee member from Oregon.[5] [7] As a Republican committeeman, Yue is part of the party's right wing, closely allied with the archconservative Jim Bopp, an Indiana RNC committeeman.[5] [8] In 2009, Yue and Bopp co-founded an RNC "conservative steering committee" and co-drafted a resolution that accused Republican President George W. Bush of supporting "socialism" by endorsing the federal rescue of the financial industry and auto industry, and criticized then President-elect Barack Obama for his economic stimulus plan.[5] Yue also criticized Bush for his support of the Medicare Part D prescription-drug benefit.[5] Yue later supported an RNC resolution that would require Republicans candidates to meet a purity test before obtaining party support,[6] and another resolution in 2009 that claimed that the Democratic Party was "dedicated to restructuring American society along socialist ideals"[8] and sought to require Republicans to label the Democratic Party as a "socialist" party.[6] Yue clashed with RNC chairman Michael Steele and Oregon Republican Party chairman Bob Tiernan, who opposed many of his proposals.[8] [6] Yue and Bopp spearheaded an internal party fight to oust Steele from the national chairmanship.[9] In 2010, Tiernan accused Yue of stirring up discord within the RNC and Oregon Republican Party; Yue, in turn, accused Tiernan of requiring "absolute loyalty."[6]
Yue was a delegate to the 2008 Republican National Convention, where he praised the party's ticket of John McCain and Sarah Palin.[10] In the 2012 Republican presidential primaries, he endorsed Mitt Romney, and was a superdelegate to the 2012 Republican National Convention.[11]
In April 2016, as a member of the Republican National Committee's rules committee, Yue proposed a change to the party's procedural rules that would make it more difficult for Republican leaders to place in nomination, at the 2016 Republican National Convention, the name of a candidate not already in the race. The debate over the proposal occurred as Donald Trump and Ted Cruz battled for the presidential nomination, raising the prospect of a contested convention.[7] [12] Yue wrote a 1,300-word email accusing RNC Chairman Reince Priebus and other party leaders of "institutional tyranny" over their opposition to his proposal.[7] The rules committee rejected Yue's proposal to change the rules.[12] After Trump became the presumptive nominee of the Republican Party, Yue maneuvered to ensure Trump's nomination at the convention over the last-ditch objection of anti-Trump Republican holdouts.[13] [14]
After a pro-Trump mob attacked the U.S. Capitol in January 2021 in a failed insurrection, Yue and most other Republican Party figures remained loyal to Trump, and sponsored a state Republican party resolution condemning the ten House Republicans who voted in favor of Trump's impeachment.[15] [16] Yue played a key role in getting the Oregon Republican Party to adopt a resolution claiming that the storming of the Capitol was a "false flag" intended "to discredit President Trump, his supporters, and all conservative Republicans."[17] In March 2021, Yue also appeared on a YouTube show hosted by Greyson Arnold, who has praised Nazi Germany and espoused racism and anti-Semitism; on the show, Yue said that far-right and white nationalist activist Nick Fuentes should have a role in picking Republican candidates.[16] After his appearance attracted scrutiny, Yue said that he was unaware of the views of Arnold and Fuentes at the time of his appearance on the show.[16]