Who We Are
About the Polk GOP
The Polk GOP, also known as the Polk County Republican Executive Committee (PCREC), is a volunteer organization comprised of registered Republicans elected to represent, recruit, and organize Republicans throughout Polk County's precincts.
Next Meeting
Monday, September 21 · 6:30 PM
Every 3rd Monday — social 6:00 PM, business 6:30 PM
Cleveland Heights Golf Club
Our Mission
To lead all GOP activities in the recruitment and election of well-qualified, constitutional conservatives through education, communication, outreach, and motivation of the electorate.
What we do
A county party is a working body, not a mailing list.
Florida law sets out what a county executive committee is for. In practice it comes down to four things, and they run year-round rather than in the six weeks before an election.
- 01
Elect Republicans
We conduct campaigns for the party's nominees and get out the vote — door to door, phone by phone, precinct by precinct.
- 02
Grow the rolls
Voter registration at community events, fairs, gun shows and church gatherings, and making sure Republicans who have moved or lapsed are back on the rolls before the book closes.
- 03
Recruit candidates
Finding people worth voting for and getting them on the ballot — school board, city commission, county commission. Most of these races are decided by a few hundred votes.
How the committee is put together
The Executive Committee is made up of precinct committeemen and committeewomen — two per precinct at minimum, more in larger precincts — who are elected by their neighbors at the primary in presidential election years. Between those elections, open seats are filled by a vote of the committee.
Officers are elected from among the membership to two-year terms, so the leadership and the membership turn over on different clocks. Everything the committee does formally — adopting its constitution and bylaws, making nominations where the law requires one, conducting campaigns for party nominees, and raising and spending party funds — is a power given to it by statute, s. 103.121, Florida Statutes.
What we do not do
We do not run elections. Registering to vote, requesting a ballot, finding your polling place and checking your registration are all handled by the Polk County Supervisor of Elections, which is a nonpartisan office and not part of this committee.
We also do not endorse in every race. A county committee may only endorse in contests contained entirely within Polk County, so we take no position in races for Congress, the Legislature, or statewide office — those are the state party's to make. Where more than one Republican is running for the same local seat, we do reserve the right to endorse: Rule 8 allows it on a supermajority vote of the committee at a duly called meeting, and that bar is deliberately high. Until such a vote is taken, every Republican in the race is listed on our candidates page on equal terms.
Leadership
Party Officers
Officers are elected from the committee's own membership to two-year terms. Contact details are below — they are the people to call.
Sam Romain
Chairman
Sam Romain serves as Chairman of the Polk County Republican Executive Committee, becoming the youngest chairman in Polk County's history. He leads all party operations, strategy, and grassroots growth, presiding over REC and Executive Board meetings and ensuring full compliance with state law and RPOF rules and procedures.
With more than twelve years of experience in mass media, marketing, and political strategy, Sam has worked on dozens of campaigns from school board to president and has served inside multiple PACs. His expertise in communications and voter engagement strengthens the REC's efforts in voter registration, precinct organization, and countywide GOTV operations.
Sam has been featured on major media outlets including FOX News, BBC, Real America's Voice, The Daily Caller, and numerous regional and national platforms. In addition to chairing the REC, he serves as Executive Director of the Polk County Young Republicans and represents Polk County on the Republican Party of Florida State Executive Committee.
A husband and father of three boys, Sam brings a strong commitment to family, faith, and community as he works to strengthen Republican victories and build the next generation of conservative leadership in Polk County.
Stephen Labate
Vice Chair
Stephen Labate brings over three decades of distinguished leadership experience across both the military and private sectors. Commissioned as a Reserve Officer in 1989, his military career spanned more than thirty years and included a combat tour in Iraq, along with multiple post-9/11 active-duty deployments. His Army Reserve career advanced to the most senior levels of leadership, where he was appointed as a Military Assistant to the Assistant Secretary of the Army at the Pentagon — a position he held until his retirement in June 2021 as a full Colonel.
In the civilian sector, Stephen has served in the financial services industry since 1994, focusing on strategic oversight, regulatory compliance, and ethical leadership.
Stephen was the Republican and Conservative Party nominee for U.S. Congress in New York's 3rd District, earning endorsements from national leaders including Rudy Giuliani, George Pataki, Steve Forbes, and Senator Lindsey Graham, along with Citizens United PAC and Combat Veterans for Congress PAC.
Dena DeCamp
Secretary
Jill Sessions
Treasurer
What we believe
We believe in individual liberty, personal responsibility, limited government, constitutional authority, strong borders, fiscal responsibility, and equal opportunity for all. As Republicans, we believe:
- Individual rights come from a higher authority — not government.
- Individual freedom comes with personal responsibility.
- Limited government: the proper function of government is to do for the people only those things that must be done, but cannot be done efficiently by individuals or private institutions.
- The closer to the people government is, the more effective it is.
- Powers not designated to the federal government are reserved by the states, as outlined in the US Constitution.
- Strong national borders are necessary for national sovereignty.
- A balanced budget provides for the best national economy.
- Excessive taxation and regulation deter our nation's growth.
- All human life has dignity and worth and should be protected.
- Equal rights, justice and opportunity is for all, regardless of race, age, gender, sexual identity or religion.
- Equality of opportunity — not equality of outcomes.
Visit a Meeting
Every 3rd Monday at 6:30 PM. Social starts at 6:00 PM. We meet at Cleveland Heights Golf Club, 2900 Buckingham Ave, Lakeland, FL 33803. Everyone is welcome — you do not need to be a member to attend.
Share these principles?
Join the Polk County Republican Executive Committee and help elect leaders who will defend them.