Jason Simmons is Chairman of the North Carolina Republican Party. He was the party's executive director before this and took the chairmanship when Michael Whatley moved to the Republican National Committee. This clip is his answer to the hardest question anybody on his side gets right now, and it ends with the number that answers it.
Jenny Beth Martin puts the frustration to him straight. Two years into President Trump's term, people are frustrated, and she says rightly frustrated, because the economy is turning but the relief they were hoping for by now is not where they want it. How do you talk to somebody about that honestly while asking them to show up anyway?
His answer is that you do not ignore the realities of the political environment you are in. You point at what Republican policies have actually done for everyday Americans, and you are honest about the short term. He argues the pressure on the pocketbook right now, gas prices included, is a short term consequence of dealing with Iran, which he calls the largest single state sponsor of terrorism in the world, and of the work on Venezuela that opens up energy supply outside the Middle East. He says the underlying economic indicators are strong, and he does not pretend the price at the pump is not the thing you see every day when you drive past the station.
Jenny Beth Martin's read on it is that this is the difference with President Trump: taking a problem and working to solve it instead of leaving it for the next administration to handle. Short term pain, long term gain, so that our children and grandchildren do not grow up with what Iran has done to Americans hanging over them.
Then she asks about voter registration, and he brings the number. Go back to when President Trump was first elected in 2016. Democrats enjoyed a 645,000-voter registration advantage over Republicans in North Carolina. Since then, the Democratic party in the state has lost more than 300,000 registrations and Republicans have gained more than 300,000. Today, ten years later, Republicans hold a registration advantage of more than 10,000. He calls it a structural advantage going into this election, and he is immediately clear that it only counts if they turn their people out at a higher rate than the other side.
The other thing he will not let go of is the large block of unaffiliated voters in North Carolina, and his pitch to them is the simplest one in the hour. Why did you move to North Carolina? You moved here to leave those blue states, and to leave those policies in New York, New Jersey and California. Ballots have been dropping in North Carolina since September 4, and early voting starts in mid October, which is why he says no party can take its foot off the gas or take anything for granted in this state.
Watch the full episode at jennybethshow.com. Sign up to be a poll worker or a poll watcher at helpatthepolls.com. Learn more at teapartypatriots.org.
00:00 — The people who are frustrated, and rightly frustrated
00:41 — How do you address that honestly
00:52 — You cannot ignore the realities
01:18 — Iran, energy, and the decision the President made
01:34 — Short term pain at the pocketbook
02:36 — Taking a problem and actually solving it
03:24 — Forty-eight years of the same problem in the Middle East
04:04 — The American people as the first priority
04:31 — A 645,000-voter Democrat advantage in 2016
04:50 — The Democrat party here has hemorrhaged voters
05:10 — Republicans now hold the advantage
05:32 — Why did you move to North Carolina
#JennyBethShow #NorthCarolina #VoterRegistration #Midterms2026 #GroundGame #GasPrices #EnergyPolicy #UnaffiliatedVoters #GetOutTheVote #TeaPartyPatriotsAction