Brooke McGowan eyes top NCGOP prize
The state Republican convention is just weeks away. The bloody battle between MAGA forces and the establishment is once again heating up. The fight usually plays out in resolution debates and the elections for state party offices. This year – like several of the most recent past conventions — the fight will play out primarily in the election for chairman of the state party.
The incumbent chairman Jason Simmons — appointed to fill the unexpired term of RNC chairman Michael Whatley — will face off with MAGA activist Brooke McGowan of Iredell County. (She ran in the 2024 10th congressional district primary eventually won by Pat Harrigan. )
McGowan, a native of Oklahoma, has lived in North Carolina since 2005 — primarily in Cabarrus and Iredell counties. She says her county-level party offices have included: outreach chairman, program chairman, Reagan Day Committee member, and head of the Iredell Republican Women club.
Critics see the state party under leaders like Mike Whatley and Jason Simmons as having been reduced to little more than a pass-through entity and / or money-washing organ for legislative leaders and the Republican National Committee. The state party — lately — has been seen as more likely to be aggressive toward MAGA conservatives than toward leftists and other actual enemies of the party.
MAGA activists – including McGowan — want the party to be more transparent in its dealings with activists and county organizations. They’d like to see less of the current top-down authoritarianism and more cooperative, team efforts in dealings between the state party and local party groups.
We recently spoke with McGowan and she told us she’d like to see the state party be more active in its communications:
- more transparency on party finances,
- more programming and efforts to keep the grassroots informed on legislative issues,
- who key players from the state in Congress and the General Assembly are (and what they are up to),
- and stronger efforts to promote and defend the party’s platform, agenda and message via traditional and new media.
The state GOP convention will be held from June 5 through June 8th in Greensboro. (Party elections will likely be held on the 7th.) Anyone interested in attending as a voting delegate needs to coordinate with their county party and sign up online before June 2.
Anyone interested in meeting McGowan prior to the state convention can do so on May 22 at McDowell County’s GOP HQ or on the 23rd at Lee County’s GOP HQ.
After so many state convention disasters in a row this may be our last chance to move toward credibility.
Jason Simmons failure to engage on our statewide races in NC in 2024 cost us dearly. We lost control of the Council of State when we should not have and we lost a seat on the Supreme Court that we should not have. We need new leadership which can get our party back on track.
I got my “Trump endorses Simmons” text this morning. Haven’t attended the state convention in years. I might go this time just to vote my contempt for Simmons, and by extension Trump, if he’s too dumb to understand what he’s endorsing. Though with the usual rigged electronic voting, it’s just theater.
Trump endorsed Tillis in 2020 when a major conservative challenge in the primary was brewing. I like most of what Trump does in DC, but after that terrible misfire, anyone who follows Trump’s endorsements is just nuts. Trump does not have the time to look into all the details of these races, and obviously relies on some around him who do not serve him well at all.
What are the requirements for attending state?
Folks need to be informed who can attend and the requirements to attend and vote.
If you want to attend the State Convention as a voting delegate, first of all you need to be a registered Republican. Then you need to attend your Republican county convention (which typically takes place in March) & be elected as a delegate to the district & state convention. Then you need to register to attend.
Thanks for the article, Brant.
The NCGOP is again at a crossroads, and how the delegates vote on June 7th will determine which path the party will take for the next two years.
Insofar as high-level endorsements go, I urge my fellow conservatives to consider whether the person who put Omarosa in the West Wing truly takes the time to do the necessary homework on endorsements. Most of us are closely aligned with our President on policy matters and in engaging DOGE to attack the deep state. His field of view extends to the business world, negotiating deals on behalf of the USA, and politics inside the beltway. Beyond that, he is merely “autopenning” what Whatley and LaCivita are recommending for RNC endorsements. Our President doesn’t follow the numbers in NC beyond knowing he carried our state all three times he ran (though never by 4% or more as he did in most conservative-leaning states). He knows little to nothing about Simmons so the endorsement is just a “favor” for a loyalist. Trump is completely unaware of just how hard Brooke McGowan worked for him starting in 2016. She is far more accomplished and supportive of Trump than the incumbent Simmons.
The NCGOP has the opportunity to elect an accomplished MAGA conservative activist (McGowan) or a Mitt Romney accolyte (Simmons) who has only a record of working for pay, and who has no record of activism for conservative causes.
The party has the opportunity to elect a person committed to transparency and political accountability (McGowan) or a person who secretly took an unauthorized salary from the party without proper approval and who runs away from his lamentable record of losing the legislative super majority, a vitally important Supreme Court seat, a very winnable Congressional race (NC-01), and control of the Council of State (Simmons) in the same year Trump was on the ballot to positively impact down-ballot races.
The party can “build on” its losing record in state races of late as suggested in Simmons’ campaign ads, or it can build on its many local successes electing Republicans, attributable to activists and local leaders like McGowan.
The party can once again raise vitally important funds for its internal operations by showing prospective donors the value in its message and candidates (as McGowan advocates), or it can continue languishing in raising money and stay largely dependent on hand-outs from the RNC to keep the doors open on Hillsborough Street in Raleigh (which is Simmons is relying on).
We can be the same top-down autocratic machine with a two-tiered system of justice and accountability (as evidenced by the Whatley-Simmons leadership example the past few years), or we can be a bottom-up political machine, run like a business with full tranparency and accountability to “We the People” (as is the game plan for Brooke McGowan).
On June 7th, 1500 or so GOP delegates will cast their votes to pursue one path or the other. Let us pray they choose wisely!
The reason North Carolina Republicans need someone like Brooke was on full display in Ohio a week and a half ago. Our State party steamrolled the Republican voters in the same authoritarian RINO way the Democratic Party steamrolled Democrat voters by appointing Kamala Harris as their candidate. I’ve known Brooke McGowan for a long time. She is the real deal when it comes to principles. She will bring fairness to the North Carolina GOP.