Steve Foley, a member of the RedState.com community for six years and later founder of The Minority Report, has formed an Exploratory Committee to consider a challenge of Loretta Sanchez in California District 47.

Loretta Sanchez is an unabashed racist who originally won her seat from Bob Dornan through electoral fraud that the House of Representatives swept under the rug, and used every racist plea she could come up with to find a way to beat Van Tran in 2010. But on the plus side, she’s one of the Democrats whose campaign funds were stolen by embezzling treasurer to California Democrats Kinde Durkee.

Update: Even better news is that the new 47 is an open seat.

So if Steve Foley can, he’ll run against her, and I hope he gets far. Win or lose, this is a new way forward for conservative activists to gain further influence in the Republican party, and through the party, to change the country.

Some say the only way for activists to make a difference is to become precinct committeemen. This is false, at least in California and states with similar rules. According to Section 2.01.01 of the CRP standing rules and bylaws, the state central committee will include as delegates “current Republican Party nominees for each of the following partisan elective offices: Member of the State Senate; Member of the State Assembly; Member of the United States House of Representatives.” A similar provision can exist at the county level, for example in Article IV, Section B of the Orange County GOP Bylaws. Therefore, running for these offices, especially where the Democrat might otherwise run unopposed, is a great way for an activist to gain influence in the party.

And of course, consider that it’s possible for some of our activist candidates to win, getting to the state legislature or the Congress, and becoming a voice, a vote, and a force for our views for a term of office.

Conservatives must not neglect any of the tools in the box. Becoming precinct committeemen is only one option we have. Running for office is another. Even beyond the opportunity to get someone like Steve Foley on the ballot, someone I’ve worked with and for in the past, and who in all my dealings has been unfailingly kind, humble, and honest, running for office is a great way to shape the party as well.

Let’s do this more often. We can’t start getting our people nominated and on the committees until we start getting our people to run in the first place.