Challenger and political activist Doug Brown rocketed to victory on a landslide 80-50 vote to capture the chairmanship of the Buncombe County Republican Party from incumbent Glenda P. Weinert during the party’s annual convention on March 18 at A-B Tech’s Ferguson Hall in South Asheville.

About 135 to 140 people attended the convention, Brown told the Daily Planet in a March 23 telephone interview. He said his two-year term as chairman of the party began immediately after the convention ended.  

The vote to elect him was “roughly 80-40,” according to Brown, who noted that he did not have the figures in front of him and was going by his memory.

However, Weinert, in a followup interview with the Daily Planet later March 23, difffered with Brown, contending the vote actually was 80-50. Still, either result would constitute a landslide win for Brown. (See the related story to the right for Weinert’s point of view on the convention — and the party’s leadership changes.)

In a brief press release, titled “New Buncombe County GOP chair hops in the saddle” and dated March 23, Brown stated, “With big boots to fill, Doug Brown will take the reins from Glenda Weinhert (Weinert) as chair of the Republican Party.” 

He also mentioned the election of all new party board members in the release.

In addition, Brown asserted that, under the new BCGOP leadership, “their” mission is to achieve a Republican representation in the county, city and school board offices, which are currently all Democrats.”

Brown added, “The GOP office is located at 18 Regent Park Blvd., in Asheville.” 

He ended the release by noting that – “to volunteer or donate” — the party’s website is http:/buncombecountygop.org and its telephone number is 255-5800.

Brown grew up in Orange County, Calif., and has lived in many places around the nation. In September 2017, he moved from Elsah, Ill., to Asheville.

So why did Brown move to Asheville?

“My wife bought a franchise — and I came here for tennis,” he told the Daily Planet. (Brown noted that he is — to put it mildly — an avid tennis player.)

As for the March 18 convention, he said, “It was abruptly ended with a motion to adjourn,” while others, including himself, “wanted to revise the plan of organization” prior to adjourning. 

“The motion (to adjourn the meeting) passed 34-31, so it (the convention) ended... The sad thing was there was no recognition for the outgoing party.” (Weinert, her officers and board members — all were swept out of office.)

“All of a sudden the meeting was over,” Brown told the Daily Planet, with a note of sadness.

“There was no deserved recognition for all of the work that was done (by the previous BCGOP leadership),” he lamented. “There was disappointment that that didn’t happen. We didn’t get to celebrate the ‘outgoing team.’”

Undeterred, Brown told the Daily Planet, “We will be recognizing (the previous BCGOP leadership team) during the Republican Town Hall meet on Monday night (March 27).” (This edition of the Daily Planet was printed late morning of March 27, prior to the town hall meetiing.)

“Before the election happened, I had a sort of team of people that I was working with... and I came into the convention with a slate — and that slate (that included Brown as chairman) won. 

He added, “I had hoped they would be elected — and they all were elected.”

Besides Brown, other top BCGOP officers elected — all on Brown’s slate —  included Gloria Michael, first vice chair; Robyn Hite-Heath, second vice chair; Bruce O’Connell, secretary; and Kaye Hand, treasurer.

In addition, board members at-large, all of whom also were on Brown’s slate, included Sherry Higgins, Sonia Humphrey, Bob Ray, Stu Brown (no relation to Doug Brown) and Mitch Skroski.

Much of the meeting featured speeches by U.S. Sen. Chuck Edwards, R-Hendersonville; state Sen. Warren Daniels, R-Morganton; state GOP Chairman Michael Whatley and District Chairman John Anglin. Also, Hal Weatherman, the Republican candidate for lieutenant governor was unable to attend, so a representative addressed the BCGOP on his behalf.

Regarding the recent past, Brown told the Daily Planet, “We had the 2020 elections — and a fireball of emotions coming out from Republican voters. And we were coming out of COVID. All of that had to be dealt with by this outgoing (BCGOP) board. It was uncharted territory and that was not an easy ship to navigate. They did it well and dealt with the ‘furnace blast’ that came out” from the 2020 elections. “And we appreciate that. God bless them (the previous BCGOP leadership)! That was a hard 15 rounds in the ring!”

His voice rising, Brown then declared, “Our fresh troops are ready to carry the torch to get Republican candidates elected.”

So what now? the Daily Planet asked Brown. Now that he is the new chairman, what are his aspirations for his tenure in office?

In response, Brown unveiled the following six goals:

* “We need to reintroduce House Bill 118, which changes the way we vote for school board representatives.

• “Of course, we’d like to see redistricting of (districts) 114, 115 and 116, so (local Republicans we have a fair fight... A diverse environment is healthy not only in nature, but in board rooms and in government,” as well.

• “I’d love to talk to Asheville City Council and the Buncombe County Board of Commissioners that, as a rule, two people from the opposite party must be represented” on council and the commissioners.

• “I’d love to see partisan elections for City Council, initially. The reason is because the Democrats win the primaries — and so we have no Republicans (by law) on the general ballot. That is just plain unjust and unfair. So the primaries should be partisan for City Council and the mayor. I think the (city) school board should be, too,

• “The way it is right now (with districting), we don’t have a chance of getting someone elected. So what do we have to do... we have to build a ‘Republican machine’ that is interactive with the community, events, organizations, groups, and we need to broadcast our points of view about reparations, Critical Race Theory in school, infrastructure crumbling, Canton paper mill closure, homelessness, high taxes...

• “I’d like to do a weekly newsletter, a weekly YouTube ‘state of the nation’ — in short, we need to be relevant to our community and inform them about what’s going on... And to do that, we have already got a 12-committee task force — ‘the 12 tribes of common sense,’ including candidate improvement, community outreach, election integrity, research, marketing and ommunications.

• “Besides getting Republicans elected, our goal is to foster a positive environment in our party that will spread to our community,” Brown said, concluding his interview with the Daily Planet.