A controversial voting guide has made recommendations in Coronado’s upcoming elections, but the candidates listed in the guide aren’t too happy about the endorsements. The RMNNT, a San Diego-based organization designed to “raise up a bold and passionate army to effectively influence politics,” has recommended John Duncan for mayor, Mark Fleming and Mark Warner for Coronado City Council, and Fitz Lee for Coronado School Board.
All four of the men say they neither sought nor approved the endorsement.
The RMNNT, which is associated with the Awaken Church and claims to support conservative values, features a dystopian video on its homepage, complete with a leather-clad man and woman, climbing through brush and foliage with a range of weapons, including a crossbow, a knife and a semi-automatic rifle. The video quotes Samuel Adams, saying, “It does not take a majority to prevail…but rather an irate, tireless minority, keen on setting brushfires of freedom in the minds of men.”
The RMNNT says it selects candidates for its voter guide based on several criteria.
“The RMNNT team evaluates each candidate based on a number of factors including endorsements, fundraising, campaign team, voting record, etc,” reads the website. “We pick the candidate most aligned with our values that has a viable chance to win.”
Mark Warner, candidate for Coronado City Council and part of a third-generation military family, says he requested that his name be removed from the voter guide and demanded an apology. He says he understands RNMNT’s mission to mean that the organization wants to supplant a democratically-elected government with their ideology.
“I believe this to be a grassroots anarchism,” said Warner. “I do not believe or support their goals. I believe in the Constitution and the Bill of Rights.”
Fitz Lee, who is running for Coronado School Board, said he did not seek the RMNNT endorsement and says he had never heard of the organization until someone sent him a screenshot of the voter guide.
“Upon reviewing [the RMNNT] materials, I am particularly disturbed by their promotional video, which irresponsibly distorts scripture to seemingly justify preparing for armed resistance against those who disagree with their worldview,” said Lee. “I unequivocally reject both their endorsement and their organization, and I find their messaging abhorrent, reckless and dangerous.”
Like the others, Mark Fleming, who is a candidate for Coronado City Council, said he didn’t know much about the RMNNT or Awaken, other than it is quite controversial with local residents.
“I neither solicited them for an endorsement, nor did they contact me for an endorsement,” said Fleming. “It’s a shame that some of our citizens are constantly looking for something that they can weaponize against candidates that they are opposed to.”
It’s the second time John Duncan, a mayoral candidate in this year’s election, has been listed in the RMNNT guide. He said he had asked the RMNNT to remove his name from the 2022 voter guide, when he was running for city council, and again this year. Despite his request, they did not comply.
“So unfortunate I have to go through this utter nonsense again,” he said in a social media post. “As was true back then, I never had any communication with them in any form ever (email, phone, mailer, literally zero) other than my notice to them not to include me.”
Voter guides, like the one designed by RMNNT, are often published by organizations, unions, political parties, and 32 state governments. In Coronado specifically, voters are exposed to a range of guides, including those created by the Republican and Democratic parties, political groups like Reform California, and guides published to social media from local groups like Coronado First. Even newspapers and police associations weigh in on Coronado elections.
Lobbying is not illegal. But while research shows that guides can empower citizens about ballot choices and inform with political knowledge about candidates, their effects are limited.
Carl Luna, a Coronado local and professor of political science for 25 years, says that voter guides like RMNNT’s usually don’t pack a big punch during an election year when there is a big voter turnout.
“If there’s a large voter turnout and you’ve got candidates that are fairly well-established in the community, it’s not really going to move the needle too much,” said Luna. “And I think the majority of Coronado locals don’t like outside forces coming in and trying to shape our elections.”
According to Mike Yeager, a pastor of Awaken Church who lives in Coronado, the RMNNT is not officially associated with Awaken, but is rather a partner organization. According to the Awaken Church website, Awaken is a 501c3 nonprofit, which means any church earnings are tax-exempt. As such, the law prohibits any political campaign activity on behalf of the church.
But Awaken does not fund the RMNNT, or have any financial ties to the RMNNT, according to Yeager.
“RMNNT is an external organization run by a member of Awaken Church, and is not officially associated with our church in any way,” said Yeager. “They are a partner organization that we refer to for election information and activation.”
Awaken currently features seven locations in the San Diego area, and churches in Salt Lake City, Boise, and Seattle. This includes a “coming soon” campus in Coronado, according to the church’s website.
While the relationship between RMNNT and Awaken might not be official, it appears to be significant. The RMNNT’s founder, Alana Sorenson, is a member of Awaken and has been attending the Awaken Church Balboa campus for many years, according to Yeager. In addition, Awaken pastors have spoken at, attended and promoted various RMNNT events, most of which are held on Awaken Church campuses. This includes head pastor Jurgen Matthesius, who spoke at a 2020 event, according to the RMNNT’s website. Awaken pastors are also active in disseminating RMNNT voter guides on social media.
Yeager says that Awaken allows its members and partners to apply to rent Awaken Church facilities as venues. And, the RMNT’s volunteer application includes a question about whether a prospective volunteer attends Awaken.
“RMNNT uses our church buildings for their candidate trainings in a venue hire capacity,” said Yeager. “They are not hosted by the church.”
Yeager says he understands RMNNT’s purpose to be that a “relatively small group of people, or a remnant, can affect positive change in the world if they stand for what is good and true.” When asked if the weapon-laden video on the RMNNT home page reflected Awaken’s values, he referred to his earlier statement: that RMNNT is an external organization run by a member of Awaken Church, and is not officially associated with Awaken in any way.
According the organization’s website, the RMNNT is focused on political activation. It refers to group members as “warriors for liberty,” and teaches citizens how to be “watchmen over their city,” educating them on how to track upcoming city council and school board agendas, testify before a committee to support or kill a bill or policy, and to rally friends and neighbors to join in at public meetings.
The RMNNT website also celebrates its successes, including a rally to protest a “sex curriculum” with San Diego Unified School Board, protests to stop COVID lockdowns, registering thousands of people to vote, passing out conservative voter guides, and successfully stopping a “Muslim curriculum” in San Diego public schools.
The RMNNT also helps train conservative candidates to run for office.
Coronado Mayor Richard Bailey was advertised as participating in several of these candidate trainings in November of 2021, March of 2022 and again in May of 2022. RMNNT founder Sorenson herself ran for, and won, a seat on the 75th District of the Central Committee of the Republican Party of San Diego County in 2022.
This year, she successfully re-ran for her seat, where she serves as caucus chair with Mayor Bailey (caucus chair of 78thdistrict). In a RMNNT Instagram post dated Jan 4, 2024, she thanked her “Awaken Church family” for helping her get all the signatures she needed so she could qualify to get on the ballot. Sorenson did not return requests for interviews.
Mayor Bailey declined to comment about his engagement with the RMNNT, instead referring to social media posts, but said in October 2022 that he participated in a 30-minute overview on the process for becoming a candidate and how to open a committee.
“This training was open to the public and members of various political parties attended. It was the same talk I’ve given a dozen times to other groups and individuals, including candidates of both parties running for school board,” Bailey said.
Duncan said he will not participate in appearances at Awaken or RMNNT-sponsored events. He also takes a firm stand against hateful speech, as exhibited in social media posts from Awaken church leaders.
“I have consistently stated publicly, including in writing, that I do not approve of the hateful posts calling people demons, and I reiterated at the last mayor’s forum that I do not approve of any hateful speech and certainly not based on someone’s sexual orientations or preferences,” said Duncan.
In practice, the success of RMNNT’s voter guide and candidate trainings seem to have mixed results. According to the RMNNT website, it has trained six people to run for office with “one winning and two serving as alternates for committees.” While it counts this as a success, Luna says that voter guides like the RMNNT’s can be much more effective on “off” years when there is no national election.
“It can help mobilize their base, especially when things are so divided,” said Luna. They can be successful on the margins.”
In 2022, the RMNNT endorsed dozens of candidates in its voter guide, and gave special attention to ten of them: These were the candidates listed as attendees of Awaken Church who are also RMNNT-trained. This included Lisa Meglioli who ran for Coronado school board. She was only 32 votes shy of winning a seat.
In this busy election year, Luna says he thinks being listed in the RMNNT Voter Guide will probably work against the candidates, not for them. But it could help RMNNT continue to make a name for itself.
“I think the RMNNT is trying to gain political relevance to make some sort of a splash,” said Luna.
