Young Republicans name new chairman
By Steve Herring
Published in News on February 1, 2017 10:07 AM
Jay Bravo
The Wayne County Young Republicans organization, revived last September just in time to help out in the election campaign, is looking for new members.
It is looking for members not only interested in politics, but just as importantly helping out in their community.
Open to Republicans ages 18 to 40, the group had been inactive since about 2008, said Chairman Jay Bravo of Pikeville.
"We are just recently formed," Bravo said. "We are going to build a coalition of diversity among young people and active participation. So we are looking to recruit new members and get active in helping out the community."
Bravo said he thinks the county's Republican leadership was wise in deciding more youthful participation was needed and got the ball rolling to revive the group.
Vice chairman Brittany Evrard of Seven Springs was instrumental in starting the group back up, getting members to be more active in county politics, and helping party leaders out, Bravo said.
Bravo, a native of Bronx, New York, moved to Wayne County while serving in the Air Force. He has been in the Air Force Reserves since 2008. He is in the divinity school and law school at Duke University.
He is research assistant for state Sen. Jim Davis of Franklin.
Ms. Evrard, a graduate of East Carolina University with a degree in teaching, is a substitute teacher.
Growing up in Bronx, Bravo said he had not really cared about politics.
"I was drawn to the Republican Party because I liked the message that was given -- the economic message and traditional faith values, family values," he said. "That endeared me. So I decided to get active and help out when needed and where needed.
"An interesting side note, I am the first Puerto Rican nominated for the chairmanship position. So I think that is a big moment of pride for us to build on diversity and definitely show that you can be of any color, creed or race, anything, religion."
The perception of the Republican Party's lack of diversity is not correct, he said.
Bravos said Young Republicans members let the established leadership focus on what is going on politically on the state and national levels.
"We try not to focus on that," he said. "Our focus here is going to be community. That way I think we can endear more people because people are just tired of all of that's going on from either party. We want to be a place where you can come and really effect change in the community and not have to worry about stuff like that.
"Now of course we hold true to our Republican values. But, there is no need to get into divisiveness. There is enough of that in the world. We are going to join up and do some good things for the community."
Members have helped with the campaigning, Ms. Evrard.
"So we really started with the election, helping out there," she said. Now we are just really getting the ball rolling on other things as well."
That includes possible fundraisers to benefit the community, he said.
"We will probably have fundraisers for us as well because we also want to do social events, Ms. Evrard said. "It's not just going to be meetings. We are planning on having more social events for the community, for young people."
The group meets on the third Thursday at 6:30 p.m.
The meetings start in the GOP headquarters on South Center Street and normally last less than an hour. But afterward the group normally moves to a restaurant for fellowship, Bravo said.
Anyone interested in joining should attend a meeting -- the next one is Feb. 16 -- send an email to waynecountyyoungrepublicans@gmail.com or visit the organization's Facebook page.
There are no dues.