Rep. Mark Brody was elected the Republican national committeeman for North Carolina during the state convention May 7.
Delegates elected Brody as the committeeman after the representative “ran on a platform of standing firm on conservative principles and believing in the North Carolina Republican Party platform,” according to a press release.
Brody will be one of three members for the state’s Republican National Committee, replacing Rep. David Lewis. Two others will serve as the state party chairman and national committeewoman. Together, the committee will focus on bolstering the Republican Party.
“The caucus is very proud of the work Representative Lewis did as committeeman and we know Representative Brody will be an outstanding member of the Republican National Committee, too,” conference leader Charles Jeter said in the release.
In the same statement, Brody said he was proud of his new position.
“It is an honor to be chosen by my fellow Republicans to serve the great state of North Carolina as Republican national committeeman,” he said. “I look forward to working with Republicans all across this state to elect Republicans from president down to city council.”
Brody told the Record late Monday that as a member of the committee, he will help support his party and work on rules for party conventions, help set up debates for candidates and assist in coming up with rules for the party.
“It’s basic function is it’s a policy-level position,” Brody said.
Brody said the committee sets up debates between the Republican and Democratic nominees until the November election.
“I’ll also deal strongly in legislation, getting the word out about registering people to vote, and raising funds for the national party as well as the state party,” he said.
After the election in November, work begins for the next presidential election.
“After November, we go into an analysis of what happened,” Brody said. “Whether we win or lose, we analyze what we did and how we can do things better, then start to lay the groundwork for the 2020 elections. It seems like it’s really far away, but you know campaign season starts two years before the elections.”
Brody said his job will be to help support the Republican presidential nominee, whoever it will be, and that he anticipated his party would win the presidential race and handle the controversy surrounding presidential candidate Donald Trump despite some discussion of a third party.
“If you’ve lived through a number of these things, it’s not as unusual as it may seem,” Brody said. “We have had these controversies before and we manage to get through them. That’s how Ronald Reagan got through. It’s not as unusual as it seems. It gets tense; people get very emotional about their candidates. That’s how folks are, but when reality comes down to one Democratic nominee and one Republican nominee, they have to make a choice.”
In addition to the new position, Brody will have his hands full with his normal duties in the legislature, where he is co-chairman of both the agriculture and education- community colleges committees. He is currently busy working on the state budget.
“I think everybody realizes that pay raises for not only teachers but state employees is going to be right at the top of our list,” Brody said. “There’s no doubt about that. We’re just working on the details. We’re going to carry on meeting as close as we can the goals the government set out for pay increases. So, I think it will be good. We have a surplus to work with, which is always nice. The primary goal is to take care of the basic functions of state. If there are surpluses, we plan to set that aside for a rainy day fund. For Medicaid, we saved $319 million from what we budgeted and at the same time have met our obligations to those in the program. It’s a very efficient program, partly due to the efficiency measures we put in.”
Brody is also planning his campaign for re-election.
“I’ll do what I did before: get out and make my plan and bring my issues forward as we did before,” he said. “I have a vote to defend, which I proudly defend it, and I also stand by our issues, including HB 2. I voted for that and I’ll stand by that on my election, as well as the other issues we deal with. Looking at (the) budget right now, I think it will be a really good budget. Hopefully we’ll bring something really good forward for North Carolina and taxpayers. That will be our campaign.”
Reach reporter Imari Scarbrough at 704-994-5471 and follow her on Twitter @ImariScarbrough.