NCGOP Chairman Whatley Stops Over in Person
On May 8th, NCGOP Chairman, Michael Whatley, made a stop in Person Co. on his quest to stay connected with all North Carolina conservatives by cycling through all 100 counties. Person Co. GOP Vice Chair, John Seepe, hosted a potluck dinner and private visit from the Chairman. The dinner, held at the Seepe’s Hyco Lake home was attended by most all of the PCGOP Executive Board as well as a small group of other local Republicans.
Chairman Whatley spoke with the group and shared some positive updates from the state-level perspective. He said there was a lot to be happy with and spoke about the top-of-the-ticket successes of the 2020 election including the state’s win for Trump and 15 (out of 19) congressional seat wins. Of course, the GOP gained a win with Lt. Gov, Mark Robinson coming in, representing the highest-ranking black official in the state of North Carolina. Wins continued in the state court of appeals with 8 for 8 race wins and including the addition of Paul Newby to the NC Supreme Court. Other success was in the council of state where 6 out of 10 seats were picked up, the most ever for Republicans. Challenges resulting from 2019 court-ordered redistricting led to the loss of two seats and the elimination of two districts both the 2nd and 6th in NC, but there is hope in the redistricting which will be occurring before the next election cycle.
Chairman Whatley took time to congratulate local efforts as being responsible for the success in bringing the GOP’s success. He articulated this sentiment in a heart-felt statement, “The grass roots is absolutely what got us over-the-line. So, those of you that knocked on doors and made phone calls, or worked at the polls, thank you. We absolutely would not been able to do any of that without you.” NC GOP efforts were praised for being number one on digital outreach among the state parties and on state fundraising using the Winred platform.
Ballot protection was other major thing the NCGOP got right last year was setting up an Election Day Operation Team. This effort resulted in having both Republican attorneys and observers present in the room where counting occurred. This effort makes all the difference in the world. Had all the ‘swing’ states of AZ, MI, WI, GA, PA would have done what NC had, the outcome would be having an entirely different discussion about Washington D.C. He was pleased to learn that the RNC has created an Election Integrity Committee where Florida, Ohio, along with North Carolina as templates for success moving forward. This led to his invitation (as the only state-party chair) to speak at CPAC and a similar committee is being established in NC (Look for more information to come on the committee).
The Chairman’s remarks then moved to the future and ensuring success in the next election cycle with the idea of making huge in-roads in 2022. Conservatives have a real chance to make gains in the state and national elections. Also, with North Carolina picking up a 14th seat resulting from the 2020 census provides opportunity as well. He also shared that 5 candidates are already in the race for Burr’s Senate seat and will be running on an ‘America First’ agenda. He remarked “That’s a great line-up for North Carolina. I’m feeling good and optimistic about where we are going.” However, the Chairman emphasized the importance of keeping everyone together in the party and how there is little margin for error moving forward.
He also spoke about President Trump’s CPAC presentation and his subsequent interactions with him. Clearly Trump is “proud to be a Republican” and he does not support the emergence of a third party and brings an enormous level of enthusiasm and excitement to the Republican party. Trump promised to support the NCGOP going forward. In fact, Trump has just announced that he will attend and speak during the upcoming NCGOP convention in June and help promote good candidates in the fight going forward. “This really resonates with what we need. As an overall state of the party, I think we are in great shape”, the Chairman Whatley continued. He concluded by saying how unified the party is in NC and how positive this is. “You show me a Republican leader that is not on the ‘America First’ team and that is not a Republican leader. The base is as unified on the NCGOP agenda as I have ever seen it.”