Transcript:  Season 2 Episode 8

Bob Lewis - Candidate for NHC GOP Chair

Reuel Sample: Welcome to the Nikki and Reuel Podcast experience. I'm Reuel Sample joined by Nikki Bascom. Hi, Nikki, how are you today?

Nikki Bascome: Hi, Reuel. I'm well, how are you?

Reuel Sample: I am doing just just great. This is a very, very special podcast that we've got going on. But before we get into this, I want to remind folks that the Wilmington Conservative is completely funded by folks like you. We need your help to keep the Wilmington Conservative literally on the air and on the airwaves and on the net. We have started a Patreon account, and we'll make sure that we have a link to our Patreon account. We have different levels of subscription plans from a very basic, uh, all the way up to a position on the editorial board where you can give us input and direction of the Wilmington Conservative. We have merch that you can get along the way, and all levels actually get access to the live podcast feed every week so you can listen to the live podcast, give us questions while we're doing it at very minimal cost. But everything that you that you subscribe to helps us keep the Wilmington Conservative on the air. So make sure that you check out that link in the in the show notes. And we really, really do appreciate your support.

Reuel Sample: Nikki, we've got a GOP convention coming up. It's March 3rd. Registration is already live on the NHC GOP website. You have to be at Northside Baptist Church by 630, but you also have to pre. Well, you really should pre-register because it'll save you a ton of bucks. Uh, but that is and this year we are electing officers to lead the New Hanover County GOP for the next two years. And for this very special podcast, we've got the chair of both slates who are who will be running for office. Nikki. Go ahead and introduce our first first contestant for tonight.

Nikki Bascome: Our first. Our first victim of. I am so happy to introduce Mr. Bob Lewis. Thank you for joining us. Bob. It's great to have you.

Bob Lewis: Hey, thank you both. Thank you for inviting me.

Reuel Sample: It's great to have you here, Bob. I want to tell folks about the the setup that we're going to be having is that we've got, uh, five real big questions for each candidate, and then a sixth where you're going to tell us about how to get in touch with your with your slate and more information. We have not shared these questions with either candidate, uh, and with either slate. And neither will we release this recording until the other slate is done. We also have 30 minutes, uh, 30 minutes on the clock right here. I'm actually going to bring it up. Um, so it's 30 minutes right there. Oops. Right there on the clock. That's my that's my that's my alarm clock. 30 minutes. And that will start after Nikki asks the first question. Uh, we're going to, uh, save any follow up questions until the end. So if, uh, if Bob takes the whole 30 minutes to get through the questions, then there's no follow ups. So, uh, but, uh, we try to keep it as, as fair to both parties. And so even though Bob is going first, he really isn't, because neither party, neither party knows what's going on. So with that being said, uh, Nikki, go ahead. I'm going to bring the questions up on the, uh, here's the first question for Bob.

Nikki Bascome: Which is why I'm wearing my glasses so I can see are. And please forgive me for my dog barking. Okay, Mr. Lewis or Bob, would you like Mr. Lewis or just plain old Bob?

Bob Lewis: I'm good, I'm great.

Nikki Bascome: So how did you decide to run for the chairman of the New Hanover County GOP?

Bob Lewis: Well, I think that's a great question. Uh, you know, over the years, I've. I've been a very strong, passionate, conservative Republican. You know, even when I was in office in Carolina Beach as the mayor and the council, as I ran for election, I was probably one of the only people that really ran as a Republican. Everybody, everybody else in the beach towns want to run as an unaffiliated person. So basically, I've always had this passion to promote the Republican Party, our conservative values and our Christian values to the whole community. So in doing so, uh, over the years, I've been a big supporter also of the Trump campaign, you know, so I've been a big Trump Trump supporter. I've donated We've donated. My wife and I have donated money to the Republican Party over the years, mostly to promote Trump and his his whole approach to what we need to really do to make this country great again and great and great at one time, basically just to be great again. Uh, so those are kind of two things there. And then as I got involved, most of the time I've been involved in the election process or with the GOP has been just as an election year. You know, first it was I'm a I'm a I live in the f what's the FP oh seven. So first I did some volunteering for at the early voting and the polls for that particular precinct in years past, probably 216 to 220.

Bob Lewis: Uh, and then came back again and 224. Uh, and basically, there really were I was really doing a lot of excellent electioneering down in Carolina Beach, because I know a lot of people at the beach. Um, and then on top of that, you know, I've done some other things. So I signed up. My wife and I signed up for the Trump Force 47. Took the training, went out and got our tent. Great friends who said they're going to go out and vote. And from there, we then started doing other things by helping go into the office there at the GOP center or whatever you want to call it, and then putting putting signs together, taking the signs out and putting the signs up in my neighborhood and basically then going door knocking and coming and doing, you know, the phone bank basically to try and get people out to vote. When we had the, you know, the call to go out to vote in that whole process, people kept saying, Bob, why don't you become part of the the GOP, get more involved in the GOP? You know, I'm going to be totally honest with everybody. I'm totally transparent. So I had never been to the GOP office or whatever you call it, the in here in New Hanover County till probably, maybe, probably in August.

Bob Lewis: In August we then went in and my wife went in and we and we signed up basically to volunteer for Trump, of course, the Trump Force 47 because Hamilton was the only person in the building at the time. And then every, every time we did visit the building. Hamilton, who was running the Trump campaign, was the only person there, but we'd also signed up to be part of the GOP to promote people like Nikki and people other really conservative valued people who are really should be in office driving this thing, especially as as it relates to our school district. You know, I think there's been problems in our school district for years, and it's always I've always felt bad because I run a nonprofit in the lower part of of New Hanover County, and we contribute tons of money and tons of technology to children's programs, including the school. And when I see what goes on there and what's gone on over the years, it's been heartbreaking. You know, so I'm really excited about the people that we have now. We have five great Republicans on there and I'm hoping they all vote together. They all stay together as a team and go forward. But, uh, was it the precinct chair down in the In the area. Down in Carolina Beach. Currie beach area basically asked me if I would be part of her slate.

Bob Lewis: So I said okay, I'll consider being part of her slate. And she actually initially wanted to be to be part of the slate as the treasurer. And my background is in really sales and marketing. But there's been a division vice president, group, group director of various companies in the technology industry. But I'm also very I'm also very adept at reporting. So if you want to know about software, I'm in and out of that software business. So basically I'm a like a certified QuickBooks person. So I've helped a lot of small businesses from the financial side just to get them get their books corrected. So in that process I said I can do this. I've actually run for office, used the same same software years ago, in 2009 when I ran for town council in Carolina Beach and won. So I know what the system is, how it works. Unfortunately, it's a manual system. We're way behind the, you know, we're way behind in years with what's going on in our election. North New Hanover County Elections Board up there, but in a sense it still works. It's just a lot of manual efforts. So I can do that for you and I'll get your reports. That was initially and then they were looking to work with somebody. Actually, they're looking at talking about John.

Bob Lewis: John was considering being the being the chair of a slate. And at the time he was he was looking he was really kind of looking around, who does he want to work with? And decided he was in the middle. And at that time we all decided, well, if you're in the middle, I think you should just move on and do whatever you want to do. And he did, and I and I'm glad he did. I see he actually formed himself another slate, which is great. So at that time, all everybody in that, uh, our group, we had been meeting for a couple of months, everybody in the group had been meeting for months. They said, Bob, would you take over and be the chair? You know, you're retired, got a lot of experience. You got a lot of business experience. You're probably the only person in the area that's actually been elected, that's running for an office. Uh, I think that would be smart. And, you know, I told him, well, I would be interested. I said, but I don't know a lot about it, but what I did is I was studying and came back and said, okay, I'll be the chair. And from that point on, we just started building this slate, which I think is very powerful, and it'll be very successful for the GOP.

Reuel Sample: Okay. Nikki's got the next the next question for you. Hang on just a second. Let me pull that on up for you.

Nikki Bascome: Okay, Bob, what relationships do you have with district seven and our state leaders? And how will that how will you use those to benefit New Hanover County.

Bob Lewis: From the district seven side? Basically, I know Mike Lee, basically. Basically, I'm introduced to Mike Lee. I've known him probably for a period of time since he's been running for election. Our relationship is as as you know, he I think he's seen me numerous times out on early voting at the polls. Basically, that's where I've really seen Mike. I don't have a personal relationship with them. But, you know, over the years I've also have, uh, you know, really good relationship with Charlie Miller. I've known Charlie for a long time. Ted Davis, I knew Ted Davis and Bill Rayburn. They're not in our district, but basically those people. Bill was the senator here at the state. And Ted is is is on the legislature. He's a legislator in the state. Um, I knew Bill probably back when I was in office as mayor. Him and Ted helped us along with Carolyn Davis and Carolyn Justice. I'm sorry. Carolyn Justice and Tom Goolsby helped us secure $1.2 million in grant money to redo and rebuild and redesign the Carolina Beach Boardwalk. At the time, we were looking to kind of replace it. It was in distress. We looked at how can we how can we take a look at this thing and make it better? We designed we designed a new boardwalk with seven wheelchair accesses. And so the $1.2 million was strictly for the seven wheelchair access, as it wasn't for putting up a new boardwalk. What a great thing to do. At the same time, we needed we needed another 500 $500,000 to complete the infrastructure for the project. I went to the county.

Bob Lewis: At the time we had fortunate for me. We had great Republicans there. We had Beth Dawson, and we had Woody White, who took up basically the charge and basically pushed half $1 million grant back over to us as well. And we had they had never done that at the beach in all the years. We've never seen that kind of money come to the beach. But there's a real there's a real value in the beaches and there's a real value within. Wilmington is in the tourism. Right now we're getting what, $27 million comes involved, comes back to the New Hanover County in various ways for the room tax. And if you take a look at the room occupancy tax, it generates that tourism generates about $1.5 billion worth of tourism for businesses and everybody in our community. That's the lifeblood. Unfortunately, right now, the Corps of Engineers have decided they're not going to put sand on the beach, you know. They're not putting sand on the beach when they're supposed to have it this year. And based upon the cost, the cost used to be when I was in office, and that was about ten years ago. So it was about 10 to $11 million to Renourish Carolina Beach and Curry Beach, and another $4 million that would do Wrightsville Beach. Well, that money all of a sudden is tripled. So just to do Carolina Beach and Curry Beach is now $31 million and basically that those dollars aren't there. And so the court decided, well, we're not going to do the project. So they had they had allocated about 15 or 16 million and it was double that cost.

Bob Lewis: So they just run away. This is going to greatly impact tourism if we don't get sand on the beach, one of these big storms come through. They're going to suck out that sand. There isn't going to be much left for us during the summer. So everybody's concerned. Uh, and the fortunate thing is, I know people at the feds that are still at the feds and I and I know, I know our state state support. So if you take a look at how those dollars work, work for us that the feds are supposed to be doing, don't. Basically, it's supposed to be providing about 70% of the dollars to make that happen. The state is supposed to provide 17.5%, and the community provides 12.5%. At the end of the day, those numbers are huge now because of the size of that project. So those are the people that I know. Those are people I've worked with over the years. Have I worked with anybody else? Well, I work with the county commissioners. Leann Pierce, I know her very well. She's a friend of mine. Um, over the years, I've known Bill Raven, Raven bark. But I really don't know him that well. I've got to meet Dane. Basically, in the election process. He came numerous times to Carolina Beach to help really drive drive his own success. So that was great. I think I saw Nicki, I saw you down there a couple of times when I was down there at campaigning as well. But that's that's kind of about it.

Reuel Sample: Okay. Next question is from me, actually let me bring that up.

Nikki Bascome: Take these off now.

Reuel Sample: Uh, Bob, according to the latest numbers from the Board of Elections. New Hanover is fairly split between Republicans and Democrats, but we have a large independent bloc that votes Democrat. How will you keep Republicans competitive at the polls?

Bob Lewis: Well, that's kind of a I look at it as a two part question, really. Uh, right now, uh, and I'm using this from numbers that have been put out. So I don't know if this is true or not, because there's questions by the audience at the last town hall meeting, do we have 1200 volunteers? Do we have a list of 1200 volunteers that are actually going out and doing something at the polls? And if we had 1200, my opinion is we need a we need to reach out and we need to make that 2500. We need to double those numbers. If I look at if I and then we, we also gotta be really brave and go down to the inner city. We gotta get down to the city of Wilmington and start putting people down there and people down there at campaigning during the early voting as well as during election day. I know I was doing early voting and everybody kept coming back, whereas nobody downtown, there was nobody downtown. It happened 3 or 4 times. I probably was in Carolina Beach campaigning as electioneer, uh, about almost every day in the early voting. 2 or 3 hours here, four hours here. It was morning, noon and night type thing. And the reason I did it is because I run a large nonprofit down in at the beach area. Well, actually it's in from Monkey Junction South and we have 250 men members.

Bob Lewis: And I would say the 250, there's probably a good 60 or 70% are Republicans. And then there's a real big area of unaffiliated. And then there's a small group of Democrats. In my opinion, that's just the way I see it rolling out. Uh, but I was able then to call people basically, or text people and say, hey, the line is slow, the line is short, come on up. And so I could get people, friends of mine in the community to come up and vote. Uh, I think right now, if you take a look at that, really take a look at what's going on. We need to get more volunteers. We need to make sure every single one of our precincts has a leadership team in place. I don't have the numbers because I'm only listening to what Nevin said and other people in the in the executive board that's there today. But they said we didn't have all of the precincts, did not have a leadership team, or if they had a leadership team, some of them quit. So you had really an example you probably had. They said there was 10 or 11 precincts that had no leadership there driving them. I don't know if that's true or not, but that was what they admitted to. There was like 10 or 11 of those.

Bob Lewis: We need to fill those before you do anything. We need to fill those to get out there. Um, the last thing I'll say is that that I was really I one thing I saw when I was in early voting is that, unfortunately, I could tell the people who were voting for Democrats and people were voting for Republicans because you have a red and blue tent. There were a lot of people that really weren't voting for our for basically down ticket, but they were voting for Trump, and they would come over and take a picture with the Trump placard. At the end of the day, when I take a look at that, it would have been great for us to capture those people with their phone number and name said, we'd like to really invite you in to the Republican Party, learn a little bit more about what we do and what our mission is, because it's falling along with what? Trump, Vance. We're trying to support them 100%. The things that we're doing. We're conservative and we're basically what we're doing. We're doing, we're following what they're doing. I think we would have been able to find we might have picked up, I don't know, maybe a couple, 500 people that we'd be able to identify now and get out to and communicate with. That was my opinion.

Reuel Sample: Okay. Our next question again. I'll give Nikki a break here. Uh, so, uh, evaluate what the county leadership has done right. And I'm talking about the the county Republican leadership, the NHC GOP leadership has done right, and where they could have improved over the last couple of years.

Bob Lewis: Well, having having run a large nonprofit, we started out with a dozen members and now we have 250 members. We raise almost $200,000 a year and give it back to the community. Give it back to children's programs, but give back to the community. I can tell you right now, I really appreciate the efforts that Rick did. You know, if I look at Rick Wilkins being able to really be able to raise $300,000 in what he said 16 or 17 months, 16 months, that's that's an impressive get. Because actually, if I take a look at it, there's two different things when you're fundraising. So when I'm fundraising for children, fundraising for people who are disabled, fundraising for people who are families that need food or need, you know, need assistance, it's a little easier to get than going out and say, I want, can you help us fund the Republican Party? Can you help us fund the GOP here? So I really give him a lot of credit. I think he did a marvelous job. I mean, I don't know if anybody else could have done a better job than that. And I keep hearing this number. Well, we're going to raise 400,000. We're going to raise this. I, I'm going to tell you right now, if anybody duplicates that, I think you get I think you could duplicate that number. I think you had to have a couple more events than just the gala to make that thing work. But I run a lot of events. We probably run five core events in our nonprofit.

Bob Lewis: Each one delivers 25 to $35,000 net. In that process, you need to figure out can those types of events fit within the GOP? Would it fit within the restrictions you have basically for collecting money? I'm not sure. I think it would. I think those were. That was really good. I think unfortunately, you had people who were elected, didn't finish their term, their two year term. So you had other people were appointed. So I can't tell who was appointed. I do know who was appointed, but basically I can't tell what their what they what they did and what they didn't do. I think they did a good job of getting out the vote for the people that they had in the field. I thought getting out the vote seemed to do very well. I in my opinion, I think we can do better, but I think they did a very good job of getting out the vote. I think they were they were organized. I think the tools, when I saw the tools that, uh, Bert and his team put together, I thought they were pretty impressive. I think he's done a great job of integrating and pulling the data. Because I'm a data guy pulling that data together, I think there's maybe there's some improvements now with AI and there's some other things we could do, probably to get information to people in real time versus waiting overnight. But I'm not sure the county will be able to process the information fast enough.

Bob Lewis: You know, for us to really leverage that. Uh, I need to take a look at that. But I think that's something those guys, I thought did a marvelous job when I was listening to him, what they were doing, how they did it. Being able to look, look up on your phone and basically sit there and look up and be able to figure out, hey, I got a knock on that guy's door. We've already had somebody knock on that person's door. He's already or that person's already voted. Go to the next door. Really significant value. I think Bert and his team did a great job. Uh, I think the improvements are I was disappointed in the fact that you have out there in the Republican Party itself. So, you know, if I go down the list of like the you have the Lower Cape Fear, uh, Women's Club, great people, Republicans, women's club, great people down there we talked to. Then we have the Cape Fear Republican Women's Club. Great group of people there as well. We then went. I've never really talked with the with the Cape Fear Men's Republican Party, but they seem to have a slow, low membership. But they're out there doing something. Then you had Tide Turner's and of course, then you had the, uh, the faith, faith based voters. So there's like, there's a lot of people that kind of work with, but trying to bring those together and unite them together in one team would be really great.

Bob Lewis: I think that's a great improvement. We could look at, uh, I think there are volunteers out there and precinct chairs that don't feel they're getting recognized and don't feel that they people are listening to their ideas. They don't feel like they're valued. I think we need to we need to really value the volunteers, the ground. The ground game is what wins it. I think if you can double that, uh, what we have today in the field at the same time provide them recognition. I just listened to before as you were talking. You were talking about you want people to come back to your podcast and donate, but you're giving them something you know you might give them a cap. I'm not sure what a, you know, a bottle opener. We give them something, a coin. I don't know what you guys are giving out, but those are ways to pull people in and then also recognize them. Very small things to do the attaboys work, but it's nice to have something that recognize what's going on here. Everybody I talked to as a volunteer and we had I met with people for about, well, almost eight weeks. Everybody came to a meeting, said the same thing. I would like to have some identification that says, I'm a Republican. I don't know what it is. When I go out to a fall festival or I want to go out to something in downtown Wilmington, one of the major events, and I'm there a lot myself, I said, it would be great to have you can see your brother or sister, basically, hey, here's what, here's where we are, you know, and it really does what really help.

Bob Lewis: And we just haven't done that. Those are things that I think I would improve communication wise. I think the communication team does a pretty good job. But I think, uh, well, even John identified areas where they thought he thought they were really things kind of fell down the last 4 to 6 weeks. Some people left, left the executive board in the last six weeks that that left openings there that didn't get done. Our slate that we're we're promoting, we're all committed to being there for two years. Now health could change that. Somebody's health could change that. Something could happen to somebody's family and that changes it. You know, you have people who are in the middle of their family and their middle of their career, and you have other people who are retired. Myself, we have about three of us retired from that group. So most likely we're going to be here unless something else happens to us, but most likely we're going to be here. But we have a couple other members who are right in the middle of their career. So they're they could be moved, but those people actually have businesses here. So they're really stuck in this community. They're in this community for for a long time. They're not going to be moving without moving with their business. So.

Reuel Sample: Well, Nikki has the next question. Let me get that up on the screen for you. She's got to put her glasses back on.

Bob Lewis: Yes.

Bob Lewis: Did you wear that during the election?

Nikki Bascome: I did not, maybe I should. Maybe I could have one. Seeing that I was handing out a ballot that didn't have my name marked. Yeah. Okay, so the New Hanover County GOP relies on committees like you had mentioned, Bert with his data team and the communications committee. Um, to get a lot of the work done. I'm adding stuff in here. Um, how will you structure the committees in order to get Republicans elected?

Bob Lewis: Well, I think one of the things I think you need is you need to we're talking about Republicans. So let's talk about candidates. Once we recruit good candidates, is getting them involved. And then basically bringing the teams and committees around them say these are the 4 or 5 people. Well, I'm looking at next this year's elections. You got a mayor up in in the city of Wilmington. You got three positions up on the city council. These are going to be very important going forward. You got $242 million. Just got in for a bridge grant from the feds. Some Thom Tillis actually brought to us for a change. But I love Thom after he brought the money to us. Because now now the county has some decisions to make, along with the state that make that make that thing and get it to to reality. Uh, I was on the I was on the MPO WMPO for two years, and it was frustrating for me. I like Bill, I've met Bill a number of times and I've met some other people that are on the, the the facts are no longer on the city council, but city Council and Bill were all around getting, getting, building this big sky bridge for $1.2 billion ten years ago, which would be more than ten, 11 years ago.

Bob Lewis: And basically today that would be like a two and a half to $3 billion type project that no one's going to fund. We had also we also had a a bridge replacement identified at about 275 million at the time, which looks like it's going to be 750 million. Now, I think what you need to do is we need to really we need to get some Republicans on that, that council. You know we need to get we definitely got to get the Reichenbach in Waddell. We need to get those two elected for sure. But let's go take the third position out there that's sitting out there. We need to we need to get into the city and put some people down there to vote. Uh, the things that we do on the committee is also would be combining it. Really a person who's running for election should have a list. These are the people you need as part of your team. That whole list, every committee births, team comms team. You know, as you go through those committees, you need to have a list for the candidates and educate them what these all do. And here's how they can help you. Because you look at the comms team and I look at Bert's team, he's got they've got valuable tools that every single contestant or candidate can really use.

Bob Lewis: And I think it's very important that we get those out there and get them using those things, because they're very valuable. Anybody who is out knocking on doors will tell you this thing here was the most valuable tool, and it was because of Bert and his team, not because, you know, because you have a phone number or you have a GPS on here, but it just makes it easier to kind of get out there and know what's going on. Uh, the other thing that I would look at is, is what committees could we improve? I will say this in talking to a lot of volunteers, they're frustrated because they would like to be on these committees and they get passed over. I keep and I would like to be on the comms committee. I would like and they probably don't understand exactly what are the criteria for the people you're trying to put on that team. And if I use the communications committee as a good example, there are people that even my wife, she's she's a web designer. There are people that can help the comms team. And they you can kind of look at what are the job levels that you have and what could you do on that committee.

Bob Lewis: You could bring more people in. So I think there are a lot of volunteers that kept saying, I would like to get more involved before I'm out there just doing a campaign. I'll get out the vote campaign. I would like to be more involved on a campaign, but every time our committee, every time I put my name in, I don't get called or people don't really want me involved. So I would really look to all the volunteers and say, hey, can we get you on a committee? So it's because when people meet on a regular basis and I'll use an example, would be the gala. People are meeting thanks to Rick. People are meeting every Wednesday at noon and he's providing lunch to everybody. Crazy enough. But in that process that that team is coming together, they're thinking of what they can do. How can I get this? How can I get it? How can I get something that they can auction off? How can I get people to get a table? How can I get people signed up to even just to come? So I think if you have more people on the committees, I think that definitely would be of value.

Reuel Sample: Final question for you. And we are at five minutes left, so we're doing just fine. Uh, the final question for you is how can people find out more about your slate, for instance, your website, emails, so on and so forth? How can people find out more about your slate?

Bob Lewis: Uh, right now we have we have our own website up. We've had it up for a long time. Um, and so you're really going out to but we just did a web page because once, once the slates are decided, whoever wins the slate or whatever happens, the web web website's going to be gone because the website's got to be the NHC GOP. Com. It can't be. Can't have a slate, you know, website sitting out there. It's going to confuse people. So ours is actually a web page. So it's a landing page. That landing page basically is www.nhcgopresults.com Results. Results.com. So it's nhcgopresults.com and you can get to the page and there's information. The other thing is their contact information on there. You can talk to any one of us. You know right now it's talking about we actually been talking about publishing phone numbers. So people can just call us and talk to us. Everybody that I hear from says, I don't know, Bob. I've never met him. I haven't been there. I don't know him. I said, well, you know, all I can tell you is that, you know, I'm probably a little different the way I manage. You know, when I was in, uh, when I was at, in the business community, out in corporate community, there were times when people die because I ran large sales organizations, in consulting organizations where people say, Bob's one of those guys that says he wants to lead, follow or get out of his way type person. When I moved over and started working with a nonprofit over the last ten years, the Island men, you know, we have 250 men and we have a great time together.

Bob Lewis: When we go to an event or we we do fundraising event, we're like, it's a party for us. Everybody wants to get involved. I got 250 members. We do what is now traditionally the Dragon Boat Regatta in Carolina Beach. It's become a core event for the beach. Actually, it's not just us. And I put that thing together, uh, almost 12 years ago. And basically, when we started that thing, you know, we started we started making we started netting around 3000 bucks today. We we net $25,000. We give it to Ocean Cure, who works with disabled people. You probably know Kevin Murphy works with disabled people on getting them on the water. So we you know, which is so he's either on dragon boats, it's on surf boats and surfboards or it's out. And they had a they have a I think they might have got rid of it. They used to have an outrigger, but I think they got rid of the outrigger. But you're going to see like every, every weekend these teachers volunteer their time every weekend with Kevin. And they're taking, you know, people from the military come in who have had issues over the years, people who are to say kids are disabled, they take them out. Um, it's a great, great thing that's happening in this beach. And Kevin also has been very instrumental in getting people from using the beach access to wheelchair access that we have in, in, at the beach areas in Caroline and Curry Beach. And now I think in Wrightsville Beach and using them basically once you get to the sand is he's also built mats to hold people so that the wheelchair can actually move in further in.

Bob Lewis: And then we have 30 of these great water beach chairs, which I mean, you put somebody in them, they float. You can take and actually put somebody in the water. So I'm not saying you're going to go deep, but you get the splashes over your legs and your body a little bit. It's pretty cool. There isn't. There isn't a beach up and down the East Coast that matches what we can do to help those with individuals with mobility issues. So at the end of the day, I'm a I'm the kind of guy who's like, I'm going to lead follow. I'm not a lead. Follow and get out of my way type of guy. I'm more like, I'll go out and do whatever it takes. You guys can follow me or you guys can do your own. Somebody always says, Bob, we have. You're like the face of the Isle of Man. I said, we have a 250 faces and you. And if we all work together, that means we're going to we're going to we're going to we're going to get a lot more people involved in this thing. Uh, but that's the same thing here, I think, with the volunteers talking about, I don't get any recognition that concerned me because volunteers are going by the wayside. You can't let somebody go by the wayside that's been here, and you can't. You know, you're not going to replace their experience. You're not going to replace their passion if they leave us. You know, that's my opinion.

Reuel Sample: We are down to 53 seconds. Uh, Bob, I'm going to give you time for your elevator pitch. Why should people vote you as the NHC GOP?

Bob Lewis: Well, I'd say myself. Or actually I'm going to work like we work as a team. We're a team. We're not a slate. I know that's a word in, you know, politics. But we're a team, basically, and our team works together. And I can tell you this, that we're all committed to being here two years and working through this things over the next two years. We're also we're also people. We don't have a lot of history, so we don't really care what's going on in the past. We're open for everybody. We're we're putting our arms out to everybody. We welcome every single conservative religion or Christian, uh, Republican to come and join us. And then we're going to we're going to help you. We're going to help you get your degree, get involved in the process itself. Number two, when we have something, we go out and do fundraising. We're going to have fun. You're going to have fun. You're going to be invited to social events for fun as well so you get to meet people.

Reuel Sample: I'm going to stop you right there. We are out of time. And with actually a seven seconds over, thank you very, very much. Uh, the the, uh, convention is coming up next week.

Bob Lewis: I appreciate it.

Download Podcast: 

https://www.buzzsprout.com/2437709/episodes/16694706-episode-10-bob-lewis-candidate-for-nhc-gop-chair.mp3?download=true

Website

NHC GOP Results Slate:  https://nhcgopresults.com/

Slate Members

COUNTY CHAIR: Bob Lewis

1ST VICE CHAIR: Kristen Bray

2ND VICE CHAIR: Craig Dorsey

TREASURER: Dolores Coe

SECRETARY: Mary Maroudis

Transcript:  Season 2 Episode 9

John Hinnant - Candidate for NHC GOP Chair

Reuel Sample: Welcome to the second half of our special podcast with the candidates for the NHC GOP Party Leadership. I'm Reuel Sample and I am joined by Nikki Bascom. Nikki, let's have you introduce our next contestant on the podcast.

Nikki Bascome: Oh, I am so excited, John Hinnant, come on down. You're the next contestant on Is Your price, right?

John Hinnant: $1 Bob.

Reuel Sample: Good evening. Good evening John. Welcome to the podcast. As we did with with Bob last night, I'm going to show you our official Wilmington Conservative timer. You've got 30 minutes to answer your questions. Uh, what? We will do.

Nikki Bascome: So much money on this. Can you tell.

Reuel Sample: High tech stuff here, folks. Uh, you've got 30 minutes. We've got the exact same questions that we asked last night. If you get through them all and there's time left over, we'll do some follow ups. Not fact checking, but just follow ups. If you go the whole 30 minutes, then we go the whole 30 minutes. Uh, so this is this is up to you to see how you want to run. Run it. So the time begins after Nikki successfully reads the first question you just.

Nikki Bascome: Had to say successfully.

Reuel Sample: Let me bring that on up, and here we go.

Nikki Bascome: Okay. John Hinnant, how did you decide to run for chairman of the New Hanover County GOP?

Speaker4: Great question. Thank you. Yeah. So, um, after the 22 campaign, I had a number of people ask me to consider running for chair. I had a, um, a campaign where I kept, um, I was running for state House, but I made it a point to bring downballot people with me. When I had meet and greets and I had rallies and, and, um, I was, I was it was the phrase party unifier was used with me. Um, and I just didn't I didn't feel like my political career was over. Um, and was talked to by a lot of people. And so we decided my wife and I decided to run for county commissioner in 2024. Uh, I had a good campaign. Uh, came real close to raising the money I needed to raise and that I thought I needed to raise. And, um, uh, you know, came in, came close. It was the most contested county commission race in all of North Carolina. There was no county commission race as close, separating first place from sixth place by 1%. As tight as our race was. And, um, within about a week, I started getting phone calls and text messages, and it probably ended up being about 3 to 4 dozen people who said, John, you ought to consider running for chair.

Speaker4: And so, um, I think after about the the second dozen came through, my wife said, you know, maybe we ought to think about this. If everybody keeps calling us and we got stopped in the grocery store a couple of times and, um, and so it's just, you know, it's it's truly humbling. Um, and, and I think that it's, um, for me, people say, well, what do you want to do? And I was like, well, you know, I tend to think of myself as a leader, and I think I want to provide some real leadership. I think that that's been and not to be derogatory or negative to the current team, but there's there's been some turnover and a lot of things end up on the very few plates. And so very few people end up carrying doing two and three and four jobs. And, and I think that what we need to do as a leader for me is to make sure we get more buy in from volunteers and make sure we get more people helping carry the load. I don't want any one person doing a job by themselves.

Speaker4: I want to make sure that everybody has 2 to 3 helpers, making sure that the work is not hard, but the work is fun and the work is engaging and it's rewarding. And I want to make sure that we don't have, um, some of this divisiveness that's going on. Um, it's really strange. I the more I engage with people, the more I hear I won't work with fill in the blank. And I'm sorry we all have the same goal, and we got to get on the we got to get on. We're all on the same boat. And if you're at the front of the canoe and the back of the canoe is taking on water, you have to realize that's your problem too. And so we got to get together as a party and do a better job. And so, um, I was in the thick of it in 2022 when we swept the school board race, and New Hanover County carried all six white, six statewide judicial races. So we can get back to that. It's just a matter of having the right leadership. And so why did I decide to do this? Because I was asked by so many people.

Reuel Sample: Uh, next. Next one is from Nikki again.

Nikki Bascome: I have so many questions. My whole life revolves around it. So what relationships do you have with district seven and state leaders? And how will you use those to benefit New Hanover County?

Speaker4: That's a great question. I, in my run for state House, I got to know the House caucus political director, Steven Wiley, who I think is probably one of the brightest minds in the state on Republican politics. I've become friends with John Bell, who is now the rules chairman. He was the House majority leader. Uh, Speaker Dustin Hall and I have spoken a number of times. Um, Jason Simmons and I text message each other quite regularly. Um, Congressman Rouzer's district director. Chance Smith and I have been friends for over five years, I've been talking with a young man who who was on the legal team at the North Carolina GOP. Um, he's relocated here for now, and I'm waiting on his confirmation. But he might step in to be our executive director if my slate's elected. And having worked on the NC GOP, he's going to make sure that our political strategy is closely aligned with the state GOP. But I've also been crystal clear we've got to be uniquely tailored to the nature of our county being so purple. So I have a lot of relationships with people in and out, in and around the the district and statewide. Um, of course. Um, uh, my wife is a member and an associate member of the Lower Cape Fear Republican Women's Club, which covers New Hanover and Pender. And so I've got relationships with elected officials in both Brunswick and Pender. So I believe strongly that I have the relationships to, to to build an alliance to southeastern North Carolina to make sure that we're getting our voice heard statewide.

Reuel Sample: Next question is coming from me. So, you know, it's going to be intelligent.

John Hinnant: And the screen breaks.

Reuel Sample: According to the latest numbers from the Board of Elections, New Hanover is fairly split between R's and D's, but with a large independent bloc that votes Democrat. How will you keep Republicans competitive at the polls?

John Hinnant: It's a great question. In fact, I kind of mentioned this at the town hall the other night. Um, we have to provide value and service as a party. Year round, we can't just show up in October and November and but suddenly be relevant. We have to be relevant all year round. And I think the key to winning in the municipals comes in June, when it's time to do municipal and county budgets. We just went through a massive Reval in New Hanover County. My house went up 71% in value. And they're going to claim. They're going to claim they're doing a revenue neutral budget. But every time we've done a reval and they claim it's a revenue neutral budget, our taxes go up. And in the city of Wilmington, my taxes have gone up twice in the last four years. And this is not something I'm doing because I'm going to be a party chair. It's doing I'm doing it because I'm it's personal to me. I'm pissed off. It's getting more expensive to live in this community. And in a time when housing affordability is is an all time low, it's a crisis level. Inflation has been eating up our household budgets. If your taxes go up, then your mortgage payment goes up because your escrow has to increase to meet the demand for your 30 year mortgage payment. And so this this is just extending and increasing the cost of housing if we allow our local governments to raise taxes. And so I plan to create an ad hoc committee for government affairs.

John Hinnant: We've got a number of volunteers already identified who are going to monitor the various elected boards, and my instruction to them was you got to be in the room when they're having the budget workshops, because you got to be able to read the room. You can't watch it on TV and understand how people are wheeling and dealing behind the scenes. And so I want to make sure that we can win the budget battle in June, July. Then when we come back out in August and September and we start knocking on doors, we can say, yeah, we were involved in the City Council budget process. You can see our chairman up there speaking in the public hearing. You see all these other people in red, white and blue wearing MAGA gear saying, hey, don't raise my taxes. And so we if we provide service and we provide value year round, I think we'll start to get to some of those independent voters. But we also need to message to them better. One of the key things for me is improving our communications. I think we have to do a better job of messaging to the independents, and that's where being closely aligned with the state GOP political strategy is going to be critically important because they've got experts, they've got political scientists, they've got people who are specialists at this. And so it's important that we align closely to them, but also understanding we have to tailor to the very purple nature of our county.

Reuel Sample: Next question. As I bring it up.

Nikki Bascome: And you're the intelligent one.

Reuel Sample: Easy. Evaluate what the county leadership has done. And we're talking about the GOP county leadership has done right, and where they could have improved over the last two years.

John Hinnant: I'll give credit where credit is due. Fundraising was phenomenal. They this current leadership did a great job with fundraising. And they've set a new standard. They've they've established and they're executing a fundraiser not for them but for the next slate. And I think that's critically important because when they can't, we all know what happened. When they came in, there was almost no money in the bank and they had to hustle. And as a candidate, I was one of them. I had to I had to write a check, and I had to buy my sponsorship to the LDR gala early. We had to step up to make sure that we could protect the full faith and credit of the party, and so I give them a lot of credit. I think they did a great job at, um, at fundraising. I think, uh, the party's leadership, uh, probably struggled a little bit with communication. I had heard that there was discussion to try and update the website, and it kept getting they kept spinning their wheels. Um, I know that the party has a database of somewhere between 11 and 30,000 email addresses, but we didn't utilize it. We didn't do any candidate profiles and email to our people. That cost us almost nothing.

Speaker4: And it generates a high return because you get you get the candidate's name, face and story into the inboxes of a Republican voters. Um, I think in 2023, I was knocking doors in the municipal election, and I remember as we were walking out, yeah, we're going to see lazy voters. Explain that to me. And they say they only vote in the presidential elections. They live in the annex areas of Wilmington and they never vote in the municipals. And that proved to be wrong. You know, you have to know you have to have the right strategy. And this is why it's so important for us to be politically aligned with the state party, the, um, you know, so I think we I think they could have done better at communication. They could have done better at strategy. And I know that the executive board was running strategy out of there, out of out of their committee as opposed to a strategy committee. Um, that's something I'm looking to reconstitute. Uh, I'm also looking to add a few other people to it that have worked in the political arena professionally. Um, to, to kind of help us, um, make sure we understand the consequences before we make the decision.

Reuel Sample: Okay. Next. Uh. Next question. Uh, and we are at 18 minutes left. So we are doing really well in terms of time coming up on the screen for you.

Nikki Bascome: The New Hanover County GOP relies on committees to get the work done. How will you structure the committees in order to get Republicans elected? You've already touched on a lot of it, but go ahead and reiterate some some of the ideas.

Speaker4: So this is big because I think our I'm told but I'm told that our communications committee almost kind of completely fell apart and is barely existent at this point. So in my first 30 days, we'll have 3 to 4 committee interest meetings where we'll open up the GOP. We'll have members from each committee present at a table around the room, and we'll invite everybody who attends the convention. We'll invite anybody we have an email list for, you know, hey, we'll put it on social media. If you're a registered Republican, you want to help get Republicans elected. We've got all these standing committees. There's no need to structure the committees. The committees are structured by the plan of organization. And so what we need to do is fill the room and fill people, fill the committees with people that would have an interest and a desire. I've already, um, been in talks with some of the folks at, uh, the College Republicans at UNC Wilmington. And we've got a young lady, Peyton, who is a communications and marketing major. She's going to join the communications team. And she and I had a long talk and she said, listen, I'm a full time student. I have an internship. I'm concerned about my ability to commit the time necessary. And I said, Peyton, I want you to pick the thing you have the capacity to be successful at. And if TikTok becomes an American made company, the New Hanover GOP will likely have a TikTok channel and Peyton will be the one that makes it happen. Um, I don't know what this old dude's going to look like on TikTok, but we're going to give it a shot. Um, there's also a dance.

Nikki Bascome: Some dances. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker4: I'll do my 1980s moon dance for you, but, uh, the, um, the other students of political science major, and he's looking for getting he's looking to get into the weeds with things. And, and what's great about these kids is they they want to stay here, and they can't get plugged into our community without a group like the New Hanover Republican Party. And so we know everybody in town. I don't know why we couldn't help them stay here and find a great career when they graduate. So I think having those open committee interest meetings is going to be big. If people are willing to come out on a Monday night for a county convention, they've got to be willing to give us an afternoon or an evening or morning, one day a week, an hour, to contribute to the success of some of our committees. Um, and do that, I think, um, I feel like if our communications committee is about 15 to 20 people, uh, we could break down every little element of communications to a different person, and it should just be streamlined. And I've already built out a calendar, a 12 month calendar column on a on a sheet of paper, and down the horizontal lines is how many emails a week, how many social media posts per platform, how many postcards when we mail a postcard, or when we do letter campaigns and every communication social media post, everything's mapped out already. We need a communications committee to kind of come in and fill in the blanks. And so, um, I'm really excited about that. I think it's going to bring some fresh, youthful energy into the organization. And I think you'll see a difference on day 31 once we get the committee filled, I think you'll see a big difference.

Reuel Sample: Final prepared question that we have for you, John. How can people find out more about your slate?

Speaker4: Yeah. So we do have a website. It's the slate. Com. It's the most original slate name in recent history in the GOP.

John Hinnant: Um.

Speaker4: And so it's my name. It's The Hinnant Slate. Com. Um, the homepage is kind of wonky on your mobile, so take a look at it on your laptop. You can also go to my old website. It's the same place elect John. Com. Um, we are a group of a dynamic group. I'm really proud of my team. Um, we've got Don Rudy, who's the current treasurer of the GOP, uh, 82nd airborne, retired CPA, uh, plays golf 4 to 5 days a week. Great guy. Married 45 years to his wife, Susan. Susan's a trophy wife. And what I mean by that is when she plays golf, she wins a trophy. She wins tournaments almost weekly. Um, Florence Gadzekpo, uh, for secretary. She's an accounting specialist at UNC Wilmington. Um, she, uh, telling her story. Uh, it was only a couple of weeks after the Bill Clinton inauguration in 1993. She realized that the Democrats weren't Democrats. They were socialists. And she they they were governing against her Christian values. And so she became a Republican back in 1993, uh, she was the precinct chair for M06, and, uh, Donald Trump won her precinct by almost 10%. And that's because she went out and knocked every Republican door and every right leaning, unaffiliated door.

Speaker4: She would work all day Saturday. She would knock doors Sunday. She would knock doors after work Monday through Friday. Uh, just a hard worker and so charming and such a sweet person. She's amazing. Um, second vice chair is, uh, Sha Sha has been in Wilmington since 2017. She and her husband retired from the FBI. So she traveled the world and she was heavily involved in community politics, community issues, and Saudi Arabia when they were stationed there. Um, when she got back to the States, she volunteered at the inauguration for Trump in 2017. And then when she got to Wilmington, she immediately got involved. Was the precinct chair for H02. Uh, she since moved to Castle Hayne. And so she's the precinct chair of Cf01, where they had an 88% turnout of Republicans in 2024. And if you look at the results for Cf01, that's where we want it. That that that 88% turnout because it was close. Uh, but we got the vote turned out there. And, and she's such a super hard worker. She, she volunteered every day at early voting. She volunteered at the GOP headquarters once a week and mopped the literally mopped the floor of the GOP once a week. Not for her own glory, but to make sure the place looked great for us.

Speaker4: Um, and then my first vice chair, Thomas Murphy. He owns a, um, State Farm agency. Back in 2020 he got real active, and he and some other business owners created the Cape Fear Business Alliance, uh, in frustration. To whose essential and who's not essential. And and so when I ran for office in 2022, uh, one of my first events, I was having a hard time finding a photographer based on my politics. And so I reached out to them and they said, hey, we got you a photographer. No problem. So they plugged me in. Um, and those guys, he's been a huge help. Uh, Thomas has, over the years donated to local candidates and hosted fundraisers at his home for local and statewide candidates. And combined, the five of us. Uh, I went through the campaign finance reports for the New Hanover Republican Party and the five of us combined in 2020 for this is a shocking number. I don't know if you've heard this. We gave $15,000. That's 25% of the GOP's operating expenses, the five of us combined. But we put our money where our mouth is and we lead by example. And that's how we'll govern the GOP when we're elected.

Reuel Sample: We are at ten minutes and 32 seconds. So you really blew through those, which means that you get to answer a lot of follow up questions. One of the things, one of the things that happened today on the Wilmington Conservative is that we published the report of the Election Integrity Committee, and I'm sure you haven't had a chance to read that.

John Hinnant: I was anxiously awaiting seeing it in my inbox, but I am interested to hear about it.

Reuel Sample: It is up on the Wilmington Conservative website, and it's just still being put out there. How are you going to continue to make sure that we have secure, safe and fair elections here in New Hanover County? What kind of what kind of oversight can the chair of the party provide for that?

Speaker4: Yeah. I think it's important again that you have the right people on the election integrity team. Unfortunately, our chair, Matt Borsky, is changing professions and it's it's unknown how much he'll be able to remain involved. But Jules Rothlein and Joe Ellen and the rest of the people in the committee are just phenomenal. And I think it's important that we get them the support they need. And the young man, I didn't mention his name, but the one that sat on the North Carolina GOP legal team is now living in Wilmington. If I can get him to to agree to be on board with us. And he said, if I don't take this other professional opportunity, I'll do whatever I can to help the Hanover County GOP. If I can get him in there, I think it'll help having a set of legal eyes on it. Um, and I believe there's going to be a movement afoot from from both the Trump administration as well as the North Carolina, uh, to go same day voting paper ballot. No machine counts, no Mail-In. I think there's there's enough of a push I'm seeing on national social media channels like X there, there's Trump is regularly bringing it up. Elon Musk is bringing it up. And uh, and Elon is investing in election integrity himself. Um, I don't know if you're aware, but America PAC is still on the ground in North Carolina. He is. North Carolina is one of the states. Elon is remaining engaged in. And so, um, I think we're going to see some headway on, um, federal and statewide efforts to make our elections the most secure ever.

Reuel Sample: One of the questions, one of the things that you brought up earlier was about some of the divisions in the Republican Party. You you mentioned the lower Cape Fear women. There's also another women's group here in in New Hanover County. They've got Republicans who are spread all over the place in terms of their thoughts about the party. How are you going to bring that divisiveness together? How are you going to unite the party or is that even possible?

John Hinnant: Well one, it starts with leadership. Two, it starts with better communications and three accountability. You. Promises made, promises kept. That's what. That's what we got to do. We got to. We've got to build. Um, one of the things I want to do is I want to move into. What's called a consent agenda when our executive committee meets. And for those that don't know. Our executive committee is all of our precinct chairs, all of our officers, all of the. Local elected officials. And, um, in the consent agenda, we will email out, uh, which will. Be early in the agenda. All the committee reports. So all the committees. Hey, we didn't meet or. Yeah. We we've had three meetings. Here's what we've done. And so the committees will be giving us a report. Of what they had. And so, uh, members of the executive committee will see exactly what's going on. Across the organization before they even show up to a meeting, and they may be coming to the meeting wanting to know what's going on. They're going to know everything that's happening before they show up. And so we we implemented a consent agenda when I was CEO of Wilmington Downtown Inc.. And what happened was the bulk of our meeting shrunk down to about 30s or a minute, because everybody had to report at home for a week and they read it. And so then you can spend the rest of your hour on big issues like strategy or a communications plan, which hopefully we have before the first committee.

John Hinnant: Um, executive committee meeting. But the idea is make sure everybody's crystal clear on the strategy, because when we go out to talk to voters, everybody's got to be on the same page. Everybody's got to be using the same phrasing and words and communication style. We want to make sure we empower our volunteers with all the knowledge that we have. I can't tell you how many times I stood in line, uh, during early voting and Election Day. And a voter would say, hey, I have a concern about Mark Robinson. Well, let me tell you about Josh Stein. Let me tell you that he voted for budgets that put a $6 billion in debt. Let me tell you that he voted for budgets that furloughed state employees. He voted for budgets that froze teacher pay. And as AG, he refused to defend our state and he refused to enforce the law. The attorney general has like two things to do. Enforce the law and defend our state. And that's how. And that's. And it wasn't a matter of me trying to convince them to vote for Mark Robinson, but to get them to understand how important it was to vote against Josh Stein, because he's the most liberal person ever elected in statewide politics in North Carolina. Most.

Nikki Bascome: It took a lot to to get any investigations on the sexual abuse here in New Hanover County. And that was under Josh Stein's watch. He was attorney general at that time, and he should have been on it. And he should have been the first one knocking on New Hanover County door saying, what can I do to help? And he did.

Speaker4: Yeah. And listen, I understand that I got into the 24 race knowing that the top of the ticket was going to be very noisy, be it Trump, be it Robinson, be whoever. And and and Nikki and I went in there fully aware of what was going to happen and and it's and it was we as a party didn't do a good enough job training our volunteers who were electioneering at early voting about understanding who the candidates were that we were supporting, but more importantly, giving us the oppo research on the Democrat side. I think that's important because we we had volunteers that were just kind of conceding the, the, the item, and we have to do a better job of getting everybody ready.

Reuel Sample: We're at four minutes left, and I want to make sure that I give you time right at the end for your elevator pitch. But, uh, 2025 is coming up for a I'm sorry, 2026 is coming up with a huge Senate race. And, you know, it's going to be Cooper on one side. How are we going to unite folks behind whoever gets that Senate, that Senate nod from the primaries.

John Hinnant: Yeah so, you know, it's, um, you know, if the Roy Cooper is the Democrat candidate, he also voted for budgets that furlough teacher furloughed state employees. He doesn't have a very good legislative voting record either. And he is a very partisan. He's demonstrated he's very partisan. Uh, the Senate is the upper chamber. It's where we're supposed to send our best, right? Um, and it is estimated that that race is going to be $1 billion on both sides with a B. And so what's what's going to be critically important is that we get the momentum and energy behind our local down ballot races, because we have to focus on our down ballot races. And if we can deliver our down ballot races, we can deliver for the Senate race.

Reuel Sample: We are at 257. I am going to give you the rest of the time for your elevator pitch. Tell us quickly why people should vote for you for NHC GOP chair.

Speaker4: Thank you Reuel. Thank you Nikki I think, um, one the only way you can vote for me is if you register at New Hanover GOP org and do it before tomorrow night. Is it tomorrow night? No. Thursday night.

John Hinnant: It'll be Thursday night.

Speaker4: The 27th at midnight is when pre-registration cuts off. It'll be $10 more at the door, and they will only take checks or cash. And you can only support me if you're a delegate. So you have to get there early enough to sit in your precinct meeting and work to get become a delegate at the convention. And then you get to vote for leadership. I bring a unique, battle worn campaign experience from two recent campaigns. Um, and I've worked at the height of digital technology, and the future of political campaigning is going to have to incorporate digital as well as long format entertainment venues like podcasts. It's going to take a lot of different techniques and technologies that, um, uh, you know, only somebody as recently tested as I am understands. Um, we have to improve our leadership. And it starts with leadership, and that comes from the top. We have to improve our communications and we have to improve our accountability. Um, if we can address those three things out of the gate, I think it will improve the unity of the party. And as we go into victory and when we when we come out of victory lane, as they say, uh, it will be a unified party if we get everybody across the finish line. So, um, again, thank you. I'm. It's humbling, man. It's an honor. And it's humbling to have people call you out of the blue or stop you in the grocery store or, or bump into you somewhere and go, hey, man, I want you to do this. And it's, you know, it's nothing about what I've seen from the last 2 or 3 chairmen would make anyone want to sign up for this. So, um. But I feel like we are poised for great success. Um, we've got great momentum. I think the 22 results should have fostered a lot more momentum. And we just took our eye off the ball. And I think that a good leader can keep our eye on the ball. So that's what I'm looking to do. So thank you.

Reuel Sample: Well that is at 23 seconds left over. So there we go.

John Hinnant: My money's worth.

Reuel Sample: Yes yes you did. So I'm going to pause that. John Hinnant, thank you very much for joining us tonight.

Speaker4: Thank you for having me I appreciate it.

Reuel Sample: Look forward to seeing your speech at the convention. And that is coming up March 3rd. We're going to put you back in the green room so that the rest of your, uh, your podcast can upload, and we'll talk to you soon. Thanks again. John.

John Hinnant: Thank you.

Nikki Bascome: Thanks, John.

John Hinnant: Yup. Bye.

Reuel Sample: Well, Nikki. That's it. That's the two candidates from both slates that are running for March 3rd for the NHC GOP leadership. And as John said, why would anybody, why would anybody want to run for that position?

Nikki Bascome: But hang on one second. But wait. There's more.

Reuel Sample: Yeah.

Nikki Bascome: Um, just just so everyone knows. Anyone can nominate another slate on the floor of the convention. So these are the two slates that we are aware of that have come out and said that they're running. Um, these are the two slates that have had the gumption to say, I'm doing this and put themselves out there and and I'm so excited. Thank you. For for, um. I don't even know how to say it. Thank you for allowing me to come up with this crazy idea of, hey, let's have both slates on our podcast.

Reuel Sample: Well, let me tell you, Nikki, if if I ever need a crazy idea, you're on speed dial. So, uh. So, uh uh.

Nikki Bascome: Do you ever want to have fun?  More cowbell. You need more cowbell.

Reuel Sample: Oh, man. Well, thank you all very much for joining us on our podcast. We're going to be splitting this podcast up in a variety of ways for folks to compare and to see everything. So, uh, our job here as at the Wilmington Conservative is to allow you to get all the information that you can without any fact checking on our part. So and we I think we have done that. Well. So, uh, this has been the the Nikki and Rule podcast experience. I'm Reuel Sample.

Nikki Bascome: And I'm Nikki Bascome.

Reuel Sample: Thank you all for joining us.

Download Podcast: 

https://www.buzzsprout.com/2437709/episodes/16694727-episode-11-john-hinnant-candidate-for-nhc-gop-chair.mp3?download=true

Website

The Hinnant Slate:  https://www.electjohnhinnant.com/

Slate Members

COUNTY CHAIR: John Hinnant

1ST VICE CHAIR: Thomas Murphy

2ND VICE CHAIR: Char Marker

TREASURER: Don Rudy

SECRETARY: Florence Gadzekpo