Trump, Tillis, and NC Supreme Court races: NC GOP chairman discusses the year ahead

Jason Simmons became chairman of the North Carolina Republican Party in March 2024 — only six months before voters would start casting their ballots in an election featuring races for president, governor, and more.

Simmons had big shoes to fill. The previous state party chair, Michael Whatley, left the role to lead the Republican National Committee after overseeing multiple statewide wins for the GOP in North Carolina. Party leaders believed Simmons could generate similar success. Before becoming chairman, Simmons served as the state party’s executive director under Whatley and worked as a regional director for Donald Trump’s 2016 and 2020 presidential campaigns.

In November, Simmons helped Trump win North Carolina once again. And on Saturday, June 7, members of the North Carolina Republican Party rewarded him with another two-year term as chairman.

Trump-backed Simmons wins second term as NC's GOP chairman

Simmons spoke with WRAL News ahead of Saturday’s election about party operations, last year’s election results and U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis’s bid for reelection next year, among other things. Below is a transcript that has been edited for brevity and clarity.

WRAL: What still needs to be done to improve party operations?

SIMMONS: Every election cycle brings new challenges, and there's always something new to every election cycle. Just because we did something in 2024 doesn't mean that you're able to perpetuate that going into 2026.
The electorate is different. The priorities are different, the environment is different. It's understanding what are those conditions and how do you address and meet those challenges in the moment. But the basic principles of the elections are still the same: It still takes a lot of brute force, getting out there every day, getting in front of the voters of North Carolina, explaining why it's important how to go vote.

You have a lot of people that are still relatively uninformed about the process of voting, and especially where we have a lot of new people moving into the state every year. And so every election cycle, it's getting in front of those voters and highlighting, you know, this is how you vote, this is where you vote, and more importantly, who to vote for. And here's your conservative candidates and why the conservative principles here in North Carolina have benefited our state so immensely.

WRAL: The North Carolina Republican Party spent hundreds of thousands of dollars helping Republican state Supreme Court candidate Jefferson Griffin contest the results of his race against incumbent Allison Riggs. [Griffin challenged the ballots of more than 60,000 voters]. Ultimately, you didn’t get the result you wanted. Was the effort worth it?

SIMMONS: I commend the [Court of Appeals judges and state Supreme Court] justices that took up those cases, reviewed the merits of it, and then put out their decisions that affirmed Judge Griffin's position. These individuals who voted in our elections: there were real questions about the legitimacy of their ability to cast their votes, or the process by which they cast their votes. Obviously, when it got to the federal courts, the federal court did not decide on the merits of the case. It looked at more process oriented issues. So Judge Griffin, when he saw the federal court’s ruling, understood where the courts were going. He respected the court's decision and then withdrew his petitions for any further appeals. But we stand with Judge Griffin and applaud his efforts, and especially the judges here in North Carolina that took the time to review the merits of the case and decide it accordingly.

Federal judge tells state board to certify Riggs' victory in disputed NC Supreme Court race

WRAL: Do you anticipate having the same issues during next year’s state Supreme Court race, when a Republican candidate will challenge incumbent Democratic Justice Anita Earls?

SIMMONS: We're in the process of reviewing that. Are these statutorial changes or are these rule making changes that would need to be applied at the North Carolina State Board of Elections?

The only thing that we continue to ask for from the board of elections is that the elections be fair and transparent. We were not asking this board of elections, or any other board of elections, to take a biased approach. We want the elections to be run in a manner that people can have confidence in the way that they are being administered.

WRAL: Historically, midterm elections are more difficult for the party occupying the White House. Do you think next year’s state Supreme Court race will be harder or easier than last year’s?

SIMMONS: When Michael Whatley took leadership of the state party, he set up our “judicial victory” operations, making sure that we were highlighting our judicial races and the importance of them. We will want to continue to highlight what Justice Riggs as well as Anita Earls have put forward as far as from the bench, and the opinions that we would very much disagree with.

NC GOP votes to censure Republican U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis, citing his record on gay marriage, immigration

WRAL: Members of your party have taken issue with Republican U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis, even voting to censure him in 2023. If he’s the GOP nominee for Senate in 2026, how can the state party help him?

SIMMONS: I would expect a very robust primary. It would be his responsibility to get out there and talk to the voters in the primary and highlight again why he should be reelected. Then from the party side, post primary, it's our job to elect Republicans. That means getting out there and again, getting the vote out for all of our Republican candidates up and down the ballot.

WRAL: The Republican Party, for a long time, has promoted free markets. President Trump says there’s an imbalance in trade and has introduced tariffs on imports from nearly every nation on the planet. What do you say to people who are worried about an economic fallout from those tariffs?

SIMMONS: What I would highlight — especially over the last 40 or 50 years of trade deals, whether it was NAFTA or others — is that North Carolina has been negatively impacted by those deals.

We're not talking about companies that have left North Carolina. We're talking about entire industries that have left North Carolina because of those trade deals and offshored those industries. You're talking about the textile industry. You're talking about the furniture making industries. Especially the Triad, as well as across North Carolina, those industries have been absolutely wiped out because of those trade deals.

What President Trump is looking to do is reset and make sure that North Carolina is again in a preeminent position to be able to bring those companies, those industries back.