RALEIGH — In June the NCGOP elected a chair with a long history in state and national politics and a vice-chair with a local, grassroots Tea Party background.
“I am not someone that is a county chair, a district chair or an establishment type person,” Vice-Chair Miriam Chu said. “I am not someone who spent 20 years in the GOP.”
Given their different backgrounds but similar focus, Chu said that she’s “very optimistic,” about working with Chairman Michael Whatley and that so far they have had “very good communications.”
“He understands the people who elected Donald Trump. It is ‘majority USA’ that elected Donald Trump,” said Chu. “To win in 2020, we are all going to have to work together.”
Winning the vice-chair spot was a close call, with Chu taking 50.26% of the vote over Mecklenburg GOP Vice-Chairman Sarah Reidy-Jones who received 49.74%.
The NC GOP’s vice-chair position was previously held by Michelle Nix, who resigned earlier this year to run unsuccessfully for the third congressional district seat left vacant by the passing of Rep. Walter Jones in February.
Chu said she wants people to know that she “did not get elected vice-chair because it’s a title.” Instead, she believes she was elected because there are “a lot of changes that need to be made.”
Chu, who is married to Dr. Willy Chu, a surgeon with Pinehurst Surgical, retired around six years ago. The couple has six children together, the youngest of whom graduated from college this past spring.
Though not a North Carolina native, Chu has lived in the state for about 35 years. Before that, she lived in Kansas, Kentucky and Georgia.
Chu found herself involved in politics only in the last decade, when she received quite a shock at how “oppressive” the government was when it came to starting a business, from licensing to insurance and taxation to basic logistical costs.
“If you cannot enjoy the fruits of your own labor, you’re just not free,” Chu said. “Economic liberty is the ultimate litmus test of whether or not you are free. If you get to keep what you work for then you’re free.”
During the Obama Administration years, Chu became active with the Tea Party, serving as the Chair of Moore Tea Citizens and then as Moore County precinct chair. Later, Chu would become Vice President of Moore Republican Women’s Club and serve as an 8th District at large member.
The top priorities of the new Vice-Chair line up with that of Chairman Whatley in terms of more transparency, state-level races, and the need for more recruitment of conservative candidates.
The state judicial races in 2020 are “most definitely” a top issue in the eyes of the NCGOP membership Chu said.
“In the communications that I’ve had with the rank-and-file out there, this is a real high priority,” said Chu. “And you are going to see a logistics and fundraising cooperative effort in the state like there has never been seen before.”
“It’s going to take all Republicans working together to win the elections in 2020 and we’ve got to make sure that the down-ballot races are not neglected,” Chu said.
Pointing to the Democratic Party’s continued shift farther left and to Governor Cooper’s veto of the Born Alive Survivors act, Chu said that we are “fighting for the heart and soul of this country like we never have before.”
“We’re no longer talking any kind of moderate pro-abortion or pro-choice – in their words – activism anymore,” said Chu. “This is outright pro-infanticide.”
“The Republican Party platform has the values that made America a free country. If we don’t fight for those and get people elected who support those values, we are lost,” said Chu.
