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Who is Chad Brown, the Republican running to be North Carolina’s secretary of state? We took a look, and explained why, if you care about democracy, this is a race you CAN’T miss. Watch the video below.
So far, we’ve talked about Elaine Marshall, the Democrat running for NC Secretary of State, and we’ve talked about what’s at stake in this important statewide election.
To recap: Marshall says she’s concerned, and with good reason, that if a Republican MAGA-type wins this seat, the Republican legislature could give this single office more power over certifying our election results (it has none of that now), and that’s something to be concerned about.
But what about Chad Brown, the Republican running in this race?
Brown doesn’t have a big statewide profile. Marshall does. She has the benefit of having held this office for 27 years, in addition to being a former state lawmaker and, at one point, a US Senate candidate.
Brown, on the other hand, has been a local leader in his native Gaston County for more than a decade. If you’re not familiar with Gaston County, it’s a suburban county just outside Charlotte that’s dominated by Republican candidates like Brown.
He’s a former professional baseball player, a relief pitcher. Check him out. But after baseball he turned to politics, where he’s been a hard right leader as mayor of the Gaston County town of Stanley and then as a member of the conservative-dominated local Board of Commissioners.
The secretary of state’s office is really not a very political office. It’s a bookkeeping kind of role, helping small businesses get off the ground and advising investors, which is Marshall’s office has focused her campaign on.
Brown’s taken a different approach, a more ideological one.
On the issues, he describes himself in one sentence as “Christian, Pro life, Pro 2nd amendment and Conservative,” which really doesn’t have much to do with the actual job. “I’ve taken a proud stance for the unborn!” he says in another section of the website, but again, the secretary of state doesn’t write laws on reproductive health.
On his site, he does say that he wants to “fight for the common person to help give them some direction through a cumbersome government,” but in his public appearances he’s talked about his role as a tax-cutting county commissioner, which, again, the secretary of state can’t cut your taxes.
You can get a sense for who a candidate is by who they’re hanging out with too, and on his webpage, Brown says he’s a supporter of Mark Robinson, NC’s far right Republican candidate for governor.
We’ve reached out to Brown for an interview, so we’ll let you know if that happens.
As I mentioned before, Brown is running this fall against incumbent Secretary of State Elaine Marshall. It’ll be on everyone’s ballot, statewide.
For more info on this and other important NC races and all the voter information you need, bookmark Cardinal & Pine’s 2024 Voting Guide.
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Since day one, our goal here at Cardinal & Pine has always been to empower people across the state with fact-based news and information. We believe that when people are armed with knowledge about what's happening in their local, state, and federal governments—including who is working on their behalf and who is actively trying to block efforts aimed at improving the daily lives of North Carolina families—they will be inspired to become civically engaged.
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