By Brandon Moseley
Alabama Political Reporter
On Thursday, January 29, the members of the Alabama Republican State Executive Committee from the Sixth Congressional District voted to make Chris Brown the Chairman of Congressional District.
Brown said in a statement on Facebook, “I am humbled and honored to announce that I was elected as the Chairman of Congressional District 6 for the Alabama Republican Party. I would like to thank the members for putting their faith and confidence in me. I will work very hard to grow our party, elect Republicans in our state and promote Party Unity.”
The Executive Committee members met at the North Shelby Library on Highway 31 at 6:30 PM.
In the closing days of the campaign Brown accused his opponents of mounting a last minute negative campaign against him attacking his family and character. Brown dismissed those attacks as, “desperate tactics.”
Brown promised that once elected he would have monthly e-mail correspondence to all members of District 6 about all Steering Committee activities. “Everyone on the State Committee needs to know what is going on at the Steering Committee level. I pledge that I will attend every County Party meeting in District 6 (unless two fall on the same night).”
Brown also promised to work towards party registration in Alabama: “I am a strong proponent for Party Registration. The only way we protect the integrity of our Party and our elections is by having voters register as Republicans,” Brown wrote.
Brown promised to work hard to elect Republicans: “We need leaders who will do the tough grassroots work to help elect our Republican candidates. The best way to elect a Republican is by going door-to-door for them. Additionally, as your representative on the Steering Committee, I will fight for the most Republican area of Alabama, District 6, to ensure that the State Party is not just raising money from our areas, but investing in District 6 as well.”
Despite the Republican Party’s dominance in Alabama politics, Brown said that there was still room to grow the Republican Party. Brown wrote, “We need to bring more and more people into the Republican Party, especially younger people and minorities. We do not need leaders whose philosophy includes statements like “Too many young people are getting involved with the Republican Party.” I do not believe in watering down our Party by changing our beliefs. However, I do believe our Party is stronger when we are actively seeking engagement from more and more conservative Republicans, regardless of their age, gender, or ethnicity.”
Brown promised more transparency and honesty. Brown said, “We need leaders that stand up for their principles and fight for what is right even if it is not popular. For too long we have had steering committee members who acted as rubber stamps for bad policies and allowed our leaders to break our by-laws.”
Chris Brown is a founding owner of Red State Strategies. Their web site describes Red State Strategies as: “A full service Republican Political Consulting and Public Affairs firm. With over 16 years of firsthand campaign experience in Alabama, Florida, Mississippi and Tennessee at the local, state and federal level, Red State Strategies offers a unique perspective of winning in the traditions of the Republican Party. Through building grassroots networks to targeted voter contact through direct mail and media to developing unique campaigns, Red State Strategies is one stop shopping for political consulting.”
Brown claims in his bio that he has a proven track record of winning elections in Florida, Alabama, Tennessee and Mississippi.
In 1997, Chris was the House Liaison for the Republican Party of Florida as House Liaison, where he was responsible for coordinating the Republican races for all 120 House seats including candidate recruitment, fundraising, and voter contact programs. The Florida GOP saw its majority increase from 61 to 75 over the next three years.
In March of 2000, Chris joined Tidewater Consulting in Tallahassee, FL where he worked on several key legislative races.
Brown went back to work for the Republican Party of Florida as Political Liaison in 2001. There he oversaw the opposition research for all statewide offices, maintained the voter file, and organized the state voter contact programs. Then FL Governor Jeb Bush was re-elected in the 2002 election. 2002 was the most successful Republican election in the history of Florida sweeping all statewide offices including the re-election of Governor Jeb Bush.
Brown came to Alabama in July 2003 when he was hired by the Alabama Republican Party as Executive Director. He oversaw all Republican political operations during the 2004 election cycle. ALGOP swept all statewide offices and increased the number of Republicans at the local level.
From 2005 to 2012, Chris owned and operated Southern Insights in Birmingham, AL. His clients included: Attorney General Troy King, Senators Scott Beason, Trip Pittman, Ben Brooks and Clay Scofield, and Representatives Jim Carns, Arthur Payne, April Weaver and Paul DeMarco.
Chris Brown was mentioned several times in Rep. Mike Hubbard’s (R from Auburn) book, “Storming the Statehouse,” where the two sometimes disagreed on Republican strategy.
Chris has been the Chairman of the Jefferson County Republican Party, the Southern Political Director for John McCain for President, the Chairman of the Young Professional Republican Federation of Alabama, the Chairman of the Greater Birmingham Young Republicans, and served as a delegate for the 2008 and 2012 Republican National Conventions.
Chris Brown is a graduate of Florida State University and his married to the current Chair of the Greater Birmingham Young Republicans, Jackie Curtiss. They have one son.
