By DIRK VANDERHART/Oregon Pulic Broadcasting

The newly minted chair of the Oregon Republican Party stepped down Wednesday, amid revelations of ongoing personal financial woes and troubling allegations from a 16-year-old divorce.

Jerry Cummings, a pastor from Columbia County, said in a letter to party members Wednesday that the negative publicity from those matters would undercut his ability to help his party win back ground in the state.

“My position as chairman is not more important than my position as a dad,” Cummings wrote. “Given the choice between resuming a heated battle of mudslinging with the mother of my children in order to ‘hold on to the gavel’ or stepping down from party leadership to protect my children: that’s not even a hard call.”

The quick fall from party influence comes less than two months into Cummings’s tenure atop the Oregon GOP. It follows a story from the Oregon Journalism Project on Tuesday that detailed a litany of court proceedings that cast him in a negative light.

One of those is a 2009 divorce case that contains allegations Cummings’ ex-wife used to obtain a restraining order against him. They include claims of sexual violence, among other things.

Cummings has denied the allegations and wrote Wednesday that he has been “on record defending against these things for a decade and a half.” Court records show he was never charged with a crime based on his ex-wife’s account.

More recent legal troubles involve two 2024 civil filings that call Cummings’ fiscal responsibility into question. One case suggests he deposited invalid checks at OnPoint Community Credit Union, then withdrew more than $17,000 that didn’t actually exist. The other accuses Cummings of taking out $93,000 in business loans that he failed to make payments on.

With his departure, Oregon GOP Vice Chair Connie Whelchel has been elevated to the role of chair. In a statement, Whelchel called the new information about Cummings “deeply troubling.”

“These revelations were not known to the Executive Committee or Party leadership prior to their publication, and they are in no way reflective of the values or standards we hold,” said Whelchel, who lives in Deschutes County. “While these developments are deeply unfortunate, they will not derail our mission.”

The state GOP has churned through party leaders in the last five years, and Cummings’ resignation comes with a familiar twist: He blames his demise on fellow party members.

“I can’t honestly say that stepping down as chairman will be what is best for the party as it may embolden enemies from within and without to keep doing this to us,” Cummings wrote. “It was a Republican who called [reporter Nigel] Jaquiss with the story.”

Whelchel is now the sixth person to helm the Oregon GOP since 2021. That year, then-state Sen. Dallas Heard won election to the role, toppling long-time chair Bill Currier.

But Heard’s time as chair was short-lived. A year into his term, he stepped down, complaining of “communist psychological warfare tactics” within the party.

In Heard’s place, party vice-chair Herman Baertschiger assumed the leadership role, but he stepped away after roughly three months. That elevated Justin Hwang, who was the GOP’s vice-chair under Baertschiger.

Hwang became the party’s first-ever Korean American leader, and offered a measure of stability. He decided against running for re-election at the last minute this year, following an election where Republicans gave up supermajorities in the Oregon House and Senate and lost a congressional seat in the state.

Cummings won election to the chair role in February, in a competitive race that also featured current party secretary, Jo Rae Perkins; Gabriel Buehler, chair of the Washington County GOP; Angelita Sanchez, a city councilor in Sweet Home; and Ben Edtl, a recent state House candidate.