NCGOP chairman Jason Simmons seeking another term as party leader

Jason Simmons, chairman of the North Carolina Republican, tells Anderson Alerts he will run for another term as the leader of the state party.

NCGOP Chairman Jason Simmons addresses reporters at a news conference in Raleigh on Nov. 6, 2024.

North Carolina Republican Party Chairman Jason Simmons will run for another term as the state party leader, he told Anderson Alerts on Thursday.

Simmons took over the NCGOP shortly after then-candidate Donald Trump tapped Michael Whatley as Republican National Committee chairman following last year’s primaries.

Simmons had previously served as executive director. He has since worked to amplify the importance of early voting and bolster GOP candidates.

Last year, Republicans stunned Democrats by turning out in greater numbers leading up to Election Day. This came in spite of fears of depressed turnout in red counties impacted by Hurricane Helene.

“In the 2024 election we accomplished something never done in North Carolina history before: outright winning the early vote and getting more registered Republicans to vote than Democrats,” Simmons said in a statement to Anderson Alerts.

But 2024 also saw mixed results for Republicans, with the the GOP falling one seat shy of holding its legislative supermajority and losing a number of Council of State races (including the worst gubernatorial loss in the state since 1980).

This has prompted some criticism that the party ought to play a bigger role in the primary process and recruiting candidates who stand to fare better in a general election.

“We let the primary voters decide who they want to represent them,” Simmons told Anderson Alerts in August. “And then, it's our job at the party, post-primary, to work with the campaigns and the candidates to get them elected.”

Since the election, Simmons has also kept the state party engaged in a monthslong effort to overturn an apparent defeat for Court of Appeals Jefferson Griffin.

Trump handily carried North Carolina. Simmons says he’s running to build on that success.