Bay County GOP Rejects Article V Convention, Urges Repeal of Florida’s Constitutional Convention Act To Protect Freedoms

BAY COUNTY, FL – On August 4th, 2025, the Bay County Republican Executive Committee passed this resolution opposing calling for an Article V Convention and urging our state legislators to repeal Florida Statute 11.93, Sections 11.93 – 11.9352, which may be cited as the “Article V Constitutional Convention Act” and to rescind Florida’s Constitutional Convention application.  

“WHEREAS, the Florida State Legislature has repeatedly supported a resolution calling for an Article V Constitutional Convention; and, 

WHEREAS, for an Article V Constitutional Convention, there are no Constitutional rules for choosing delegates, procedural outline, or what can or cannot be safe-guarded, so there are no guardrails; and, 

WHEREAS, the last Constitutional Convention was called in 1787 for the purpose of fixing the Articles of Confederation, which was instead discarded in favor of our inspired Constitution. We must then recognize that this precedent could be repeated with the opposite effect on our freedoms; and, 

WHEREAS, today's politicians - especially in Democrat majority states - lack the same wisdom and moral guidance of our Founding Fathers, so trusting them to open up the constitution without guardrails risks the further erosion of our natural rights and expansion of federal power; and 

WHEREAS, a 2016 Convention of States (COS) controlled simulation did not prevent a “runaway convention”; and, 

WHEREAS, since the federal government continues to grow far beyond the limitations set for it in the U.S. Constitution, the most efficient remedy would be to enforce our Constitution, especially Article VI and the 10th Amendment, rather than requesting Congress to call for a convention to amend, abolish, or replace it; and, 

WHEREAS, references to a “Convention of States” is misleading since Article V does not give state legislatures the power to call a convention. It says, “The Congress … shall call a convention for proposing amendments” subsequent to “the application of the legislatures of two thirds of the several states.” State legislatures apply for a convention, but Congress calls a convention. That means that Congress – a branch of the same federal government the advocates of a convention claim the convention would rein in – has the power (according to Article I, Section 8) to “make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution” the convention. Therefore Congress, not the state legislatures, gets to make the rules for how delegates are chosen and to decide the apportionment of votes. Congress will have much more power over the convention than will the states; and, 

BE IT RESOLVED that the members of the Bay County Republican Executive Committee oppose calling for an Article V Convention and urge our state legislators to repeal Florida Statute 11.93, Sections 11.93- 11.9352, which may be cited as the “Article V Constitutional Convention Act and rescind Florida’s Constitutional Convention application.”