Think local.
Are you as disgusted with DC and Raleigh as we are? The best response to all that nonsense is hard work at the local level. Start identifying and cultivating good conservative leaders at the local level. (The late great conservative giant Jesse Helms got his political start on the Raleigh City Council.)
Do not overlook opportunities on school boards, city councils, and county boards. THAT is where most of the policies that most directly affect you and your family are born (or get their steam from).
We’ve taken this idea to heart in Moore County. We’re a yellow-dog Republican locale. The real fight here is RINOs v. conservatives. Thanks to Tuesday, we will now have a 6-1 conservative majority on the county board of education and a 4-1 conservative advantage on the county board of commissioners.
Out-of-control spending, political correctness, sexualization of children, and CRT will finally get seriously addressed in the public schools. Big spending and bigger government will get a thorough once- and twice-over by the new county board. I believe we’ll see conservative ideas once only talked about actually get enacted here.
Raleigh and DC have to be dealt with. But first, we have to put together a winning team with a record of winning results that can give the big government hordes in power there all they can handle.
I hope Hensley will run and defeat Ben Moss in 2024. We need local representation in Raleigh and not someone from a neighboring county.
Conservatives do need to get out and work at the local level, not just for public office, but for party office as well. And I concur about the importance of school boards. Conservatives need to organize, recruit school board candidates, and back them in their campaigns.
Two adjoining counties tell the tale. Pitt County has already received mention on this site for one of its horrible left wing candidates, but they actually had TWO ultra-woke radicals get elected to their school board this year. Conservatives were not properly organized to fight. However in neighboring Beaufort County, conservatives won three of the four seats up this year, defeating two RINO incumbents in the primary and then a long time liberal Democrat incumbent in the general election. The fourth seat up was the most conservative member of the current board, and the decision was not to challenge him, hoping he will rally more to the cause once he got some reinforcements. One board swung much farther left and the other swung decisively to the right. The big difference in these outcomes was that in one county, there was little in the way of candidate recruitment or candidate assistance from conservative activists or the party, while in the other, there was active candidate recruitment and good campaign assistance. Conservatives need to engage in these races, and they are easier to elect the good guys now that most of them are partisan.
Congratulations to all Moore County Conservatives. You’re setting a good example for all of NC!
The school board wins are a waste of energy. The administration and faculty are deeply entrenched and not about to change. Energy should be focused instead on expanding home schools and affordable private schools. Even charter child are now vulnerable to government meddling. Education freedom should be the new mantra for conservatives, 100% immune from government meddling. Apprenticeships can replace nearly all college study, where young adults get paid to learn useful skills. The big winners in the future are home school kids who apprentice to enter careers.
A conservative majority in the Moore County Commission? Really? I’d trust only Nick Picerno and Jim Von Cannon. The rest of them have been little more than a rubber stamp for Grimesey of MCS and Dempsey at SCC. Both of them pushed schools and SCC towards the barking-mad far left of education mediocrity. No pushback from the Commissioners that I can recall. They strongly supported the $100m bond that got us gold-plated, F-rated government schools.
In what way have the other two new CC, Kurt Cook and John Ritter been rubber stamps for the swamp?
They are both incoming and had no association with the school bond and overpriced schools.
To my knowledge, we have a 4-1 conservative majority
We need to quit using the words Conservative and Republican as if they are the same thing. Republican leadership needs to be Conservative, it the country club elites would fight tooth and nail to keep real conservatives out of the Speaker’s seat and the President Pro-Tem seat. Our own Party is at war with us!
Mike, many conservatives would love to see you back in the battle in Raleigh. Your successor in your House seat leaves a lot to be desired, and you live in a Senate seat that badly needs a conservative challenger to RINO Jim Perry.
You are right that we need to put conservatives in key positions, and that is true of both elected office and party office.
I agree with Reaganite….Jim Perry is the worst of the worst. He is no conservative at all. For the GOP to have a spineless RINO like him representing a safe district is a disgrace.