Pierce County Republican Party urges judge: Stop the ‘Pierce County Republican Party’
The name “Pierce County Republican Party” was recently registered as a nonprofit corporation with the Washington Secretary of State’s Office, but not by the local GOP.
Eric Crowl, an elected Republican precinct committee officer who’s been entrenched in a bitter fight with the party, registered the available name on March 4 through a political action committee he controls called Washington47 PAC, state business records show.
Now, the Pierce County Republican Party is suing the Pierce County Republican Party — sort of. The official party has taken to court its nonprofit namesake, Crowl and his PAC.
In a lawsuit filed March 23 in U.S. District Court, Western District of Washington, the Pierce County Republican Party alleges that Crowl has proclaimed to be the party’s new chair and used its name on social media, including during live audio rooms on X advertised as “Pierce County Republican Party — Press Availability.”
The federal suit, which asks a judge to stop Crowl from using the party’s name, accuses Crowl of intentionally seeking to trade on the party’s reputation, confuse or deceive voters and interfere with the party’s political relationships while violating federal trademark law.
“From our perspective, it seems that he is trying to steal the brand and trying to claim that he owns the party,” Pierce County Republican Party attorney Conner Edwards told The News Tribune.
An unincorporated organization, such as the county Republican Party, may still litigate to enforce its trademark, according to Edwards. Asked whether the party should have registered its name to prevent someone else from doing so, Edwards noted that most county parties don’t file for incorporation.
“It’s not an oversight,” he said.
In an interview with The News Tribune, Crowl called the suit’s allegations contrived and driven by personal animus toward him.
“At no point have I attempted to conduct business as the Pierce County Republican Party,” he said.
The lawsuit was preceded by a conflict that arose in November when the party’s Executive Board unanimously voted to deny Crowl entry into the party’s biennial reorganization meeting held the following month in Puyallup. Crowl was excluded from the meeting despite winning election for precinct committee officer (PCO) in August in a race that Edwards said was uncontested.
During the reorganization meeting, PCOs are sworn in and Central Committee officers are elected, according to the party’s current bylaws. PCOs are members of the Central Committee, which is the party’s governing body. PCOs represent the party, participate in related activities and may elect State Central Committee members and nominate persons to fill political office vacancies.
It’s a role with a two-year term that began for Crowl on Dec. 1.
Crowl was informed in November that the county Republican Party didn’t recognize him as a member in good standing, however, citing several years of alleged repeat behavior “damaging to the mission and goals of the party,” according to a letter Crowl received from Edwards, which Crowl posted to his X account last fall.
In an interview Tuesday, Crowl said that the party never clarified what purported damaging behaviors he had demonstrated. Asked about those behaviors, Edwards referred The News Tribune to party Chairman Dave McMullan, who didn’t immediately return a message.
Nearly a decade ago, Crowl pleaded no contest to one count of unlawful possession of a firearm and was sentenced to three years of probation in a case stemming from Oregon, according to news outlet KOIN 6 in Portland. He appeared to be monitoring and filming a Portland police precinct in 2016 when his vehicle was discovered to have multiple guns and hundreds of rounds of ammunition inside, the outlet reported.
Crowl, who was purportedly observing police as a citizen journalist and had done so previously that year, failed to empty his car from a recent family camping trip and inadvertently stored one of his lawfully purchased, unloaded firearms in violation of the state’s concealed-carry law, according to Crowl’s attorney at the time, KOIN 6 reported.
“The hysteria surrounding the case was pretty wild,” Crowl told The News Tribune.
Crowl, who frequently posts on X, has defended himself online when others occasionally bring up the case. He also has documented his criticisms about the county GOP, including in one post referring to his exclusion from its reorganization meeting as an apparent “unlawful criminal conspiracy to obstruct me from performing my official duties” as PCO.
Crowl told The News Tribune that he had been shut out from attending due to “political differences” and because he intended to run against McMullan.
“I think Dave McMullan was very aware that he was going to lose the election for chairman to me,” Crowl said. “I had widespread support to replace him.”
Crowl, who described himself as a supporter of President Donald Trump, said he believed that the county Republican Party is not aligned with Trump’s agenda. He also claimed to have been at odds with the party for backing controversial gubernatorial candidate Semi Bird last year.
He declined to specify his reasons for registering the party’s name, citing the pending litigation.
Edwards said there’s legal precedent that allowed the party to exclude Crowl from its meeting and that the Executive Board was “confident” it had made the right decision to do so.
The lawsuit claims that Crowl had been threatening to sue the party over his exclusion when he discovered that the party wasn’t incorporated with the Secretary of State’s Office.
“Following this, Defendant Crowl rushed to social media, announced the organization’s registration, created a Facebook page with the name ‘Pierce County Republican Party’, and proclaimed himself the new party chair,” the suit said.
The Facebook page was no longer up at the time the lawsuit was filed.
“You cannot steal an organization’s brand,” Edwards said. “He cannot do what he has done.”
The lawsuit is also seeking unspecified damages related to the alleged trademark infringement and legal fees.
This story was originally published April 2, 2025 at 10:52 AM.
