Cease & Desist letter sent to Lebanon County Republican Committee chairman

A member of the Lebanon County Republican Committee’s executive committee had a Cease and Desist letter sent to the organization’s chairman in early February over alleged actions to remove her from her elected positions with the committee. 

An attorney representing Rachel Moyer, a member of the LCRC’s executive committee and former LCRC part-time employee, sent a letter dated Feb. 2 to LCRC chairman Bill Bova demanding he cease and desist from removing her from her elected positions with the committee. The letter was sent by Harrisburg attorney Matthew Krupp.

The letter states that Bova should “immediately cease and desist all efforts to remove Ms. Moyer from her elected committee seat and leadership positions and immediately halt the actions proposed at the January 8, 2026, LCRC Executive Committee meeting.”

Bova told LebTown that he can’t discuss the letter’s contents but noted that it speaks to an action of the organization’s executive committee and that the organization’s bylaws and Robert’s Rules of Order were followed at that early January meeting.

“I just can’t talk about what’s going on within the executive committee,” said Bova.

Bova reiterated that the actions at that meeting were appropriate.

“I’m going to make sure I’m on the right side of both our bylaws and Robert’s Rules,” said Bova.

The executive committee defers to Robert’s Rules of Order if something’s not specific in the bylaws, Bova said, adding that the executive committee exists to discuss issues of a sensitive nature. 

Moyer told LebTown she disagrees with Bova’s assessment that the bylaws were followed, saying the purpose of sending the letter to LCRC chairman Bova was to make that point.

“What I had said in my Facebook post and what the Cease and Desist letter is about is, because when it comes to pertaining to what they’ve done in the recent executive committee meetings, they have not followed the bylaws at all,” Moyer said. 

In her role as a District 5 leader, Moyer is one of 40 members who serve on LCRC’s Executive Committee. Each of the eight designated Republican districts has two leaders who are elected to represent them on the party’s executive committee, Moyer said.

The balance of the executive committee consists of various elected officials, including the county’s state representatives and one county commissioner, among many others. 

Moyer explained in a Feb. 4 Facebook post that “during the LCRC Executive Committee meeting on January 8, 2026, Chairman Bova, in conjunction with Russ Diamond’s motion for a hearing, took actions that contravened the Committee’s bylaws.” 

The requested action at the January meeting, Moyer said, was in reference to her removal as LCRC office manager in late August 2025 after serving in that capacity as a part-time employee beginning in the summer of 2024. She said she was first notified that she might have been removed from that position on Sept. 2, 2025. 

Bova confirmed that Moyer’s position was terminated on Sept. 2, 2025. Bova said that Moyer was never a full-time employee and worked minimal hours. 

“September 2nd of 2025 is when Chairman Bova told me at the YR (Young Republicans) event, I have a Facebook post about that too, that he guesses I need to be let go then,” Moyer said. “So I had no idea if I was or wasn’t at that point, but, and it was all because of my advocacy, my speaking out against Senator Gebhard’s Bill SB 756 about the high tax (on skill games).”

Moyer said the comment came despite a previous positive public statement by Bova about her work. 

Bova said initially that the LCRC office is staffed by volunteers and that the LCRC does not have a full-time office manager. In a follow-up call after the Moyer interview, he clarified that Moyer was an employee but not on a full-time basis. Bova declined to comment on whether he praised Moyer publicly about her work as a LCRC employee. 

The LCRC’s Campaign Finance Report, immediately below, for the period June 10 through Sept. 9, 2025, shows that Moyer was on the county Republican committee’s payroll.

“So even at the executive committee meeting on, it was two days after that (Sept. 2 date), I believe that (meeting) was September 5th, I’d have to look back at the calendar, but he stated in that meeting that I excelled at the work, but it was because of my advocacy and that I align with Citizens Alliance of Pennsylvania (as) the reason why I was let go,” Moyer said.

Moyer questions why further action is being taken by the executive committee four months after she was removed as LCRC’s office manager. 

“That’s why we did the letter because nothing had been said until four months later. If something was really wrong, shouldn’t that have been said back in September when I was let go?,” Moyer said.

Her attorney’s letter also cites “public accusations during the January 8, 2026 meeting, alleging that my client committed quote ‘unauthorized’ entry and digital sabotage, constitute defamation under Pennsylvania law.”

Bova declined to say if city police had been contacted to investigate any potential illegal conduct within the LCRC’s offices, which are located at the Lincoln Republican Club building (21 S. 9th St., Lebanon). Moyer told LebTown she has not been interviewed by police about the allegations that she said were stated at the Jan. 8 executive committee meeting. 

She said she was surprised by a move to remove her as an executive committee member.

“Well, it is a little bit surprising. I mean, I was the office manager, but I’m also a committee member, and I have my own conservative grassroots organization. And as a citizen, I should be able to advocate and speak up when I see that something is wrong, especially as a Republican,” Moyer said. “Because as a Republican, we are supposed to be for less government, not expanding government, not for high taxes. And unfortunately, that bill (SB 756) does that. I mean, it gets a high tax on small businesses and nonprofits.” 

Moyer said that in addition to her opposition to the senate bill regarding skill games, she told state Sen. Chris Gebhard that she opposes his support for an app that was tested in Pennsylvania public schools in 2022. 

Her Feb. 4 Facebook post states, “Furthermore, I had previously informed Senator Gebhard in December 2025 that I could not support his re-election bid due to his advocacy for Kooth. As a parent and school board director, I strongly object to supporting someone who publicly advocated on a panel in Arizona for Kooth, a mental health social media app that was introduced in public schools across the Commonwealth in 2022, exposing students as young as 11 years old to LGBTQ ideologies without parental consent.”

Kooth’s website says it is a “judgment-free forum to get advice, help others and share your story” and is a place for people to receive “free, safe and anonymous support.”

Moyer told LebTown that while she has been outspoken about both the bill and the app, she believes the action at the January LCRC executive committee meeting is in response to her opposition to the proposed gaming legislation.

“I believe it’s mostly because of Senate Bill 756. That’s mostly what they brought up. That’s mostly what Senator Gebhard has brought up to me. Even when we talked last December, the last time that we met and talked, I kept trying to ask him about why he advocated for Kooth,” Moyer said. “He kept coming back to skill games. I’m like, I’m not talking about skill games now. I wanna talk about why you did Kooth. I think it’s mostly about the skill games legislation, unfortunately.”

Gebhard said he’s never supported the Kooth app and was asked to speak at a conference in Arizona that was about mental health and young people. He told LebTown that he has specifically told Moyer that he doesn’t support Kooth, and also signed onto the Save Women’s Sports Act that preserves scholastic sports for biological females only.

“Regarding the Kooth app, I’ve never supported it. I’ve never publicly supported it. I’ve never privately supported it. I do know that the state of Pennsylvania did do a pilot program for it. I was never asked for my opinion on that. I was never asked if I thought that was a good idea or not,” Gebhard said, adding he doesn’t believe the app is used in any districts in his legislative district. “The only connection I ever had to Kooth was when I was asked to go speak at a round table, which was addressing the mental health crisis of our school children.”

He said there was a reason for his participation at that conference.

“In particular, the reason I was asked to go is because my wife is a high school guidance counselor and my wife has talked to me a tremendous amount about how this is becoming just a major crisis,” Gebhard added.

Another disagreement Moyer said that exists between her and Bova is what she says is the committee endorsement’s for Gebhard as the incumbent candidate for the upcoming election. Gebhard announced his reelection bid in December.

However, Bova challenges that characterization, and said that the committee will be holding an endorsement process as part of this election cycle, as it does with every other.

On Monday, Clovis Crane of Bethel Township issued a press release announcing his run for Gebhard’s Senate seat. No candidates have yet announced for the Democratic ticket.

The petition process opened for this year’s election cycle on Tuesday, Feb. 17 and the LCRC will consider endorsements in March after the districts have met and voted on candidates they have endorsed.

Moyer said she believes it is wrong for a party to give an endorsement to any incumbent candidate prior to a formal vote. 

“We are a constitutional republic with democratic processes and, in my opinion, that pollutes the democratic process. It squelches other peoples, well, especially a committee member, who is elected by the people in their precinct to be their voice, it squelches that voice and it does not allow for anyone else to even be considered as a candidate for endorsement,” Moyer said. “I don’t believe as an incumbent that you should get a free pass, no matter who that incumbent is.”

Bova told LebTown in a follow-up telephone interview that Republican incumbents are by default the LCRC’s endorsed candidates until the next endorsement process begins. 

“All of our elected officials are essentially our candidates from the previous election until we start the next endorsement process. So we’ll start that endorsement process, run through it, and then vote on it, and assuming that people are asking for the endorsement, you know, that we go through if they’re contested,” Bova said. “We have the votes at the district level and then at the committee level.”

Bova said that members of the committee who disagree are free to make a motion.

“If you don’t agree, the mechanism is to make a motion and that motion could be various things,” said Bova.

Bova declined to say if he had a conversation directly with Moyer about this cycle’s endorsement process when asked by LebTown, adding that he wanted to “make it clear that, in general, that the conversation about the party’s endorsed candidates is conducted with everyone who runs for an elected office.”

Moyer disagreed with Bova’s comment, saying he told her that “since he’s (Gebhard) the incumbent, he’s our (the committee’s) candidate.”

The letter sent to Bova ends by calling for the chairman to take several actions. Those include requests to: “immediately cease all retaliatory actions and desist your efforts to remove Ms. Moyer based on a protected speech or political alignments; issue a formal written retraction to the executive committee regarding the false claims that Ms. Moyer sabotaged LCRC property and accessed the office without authorization; and reinstate Ms. Moyer into the office manager position and recognize her full rights and privileges as an elected committee member.”

Bova declined to comment on whether he’s taken any actions requested by Moyer’s attorney.

Editor’s note: This article was updated after publication to correct a typo in a quotation of the letter sent by Rachel Moyer’s attorney. The typo was our own and we sincerely apologize for the error.