Wednesday, former State Representative Paul DeMarco (R-Homewood) was elected the chairman of the Jefferson County Republican Party by unanimous consent, during a special called Executive Committee meeting.
DeMarco takes over for former Vestavia Hills Mayor Butch Zaragoza, who announced his retirement last month.
“I am excited to get to work with our outstanding members and affiliated organizations as we enter the 2020 election cycle,” DeMarco said. “We are committed to campaigning on behalf of all our local and statewide candidates on the ground here in Jefferson County.”
Alabama Republican Party Chairman Terry Lathan said, “Chairman DeMarco will be an excellent addition to our ALGOP organization. His commitment, enthusiasm and longstanding conservative actions are valuable to our causes. We look forward to working with Chairman DeMarco.”
DeMarco represented the communities of Homewood, Hoover, Mountain Brook and Vestavia Hills in the Alabama Legislature from 2005 to 2014. He left the legislature to run for Congress; but was defeated for the open Sixth Congressional District seat by Gary Palmer. He is a past president of the Mid-Alabama Republican Club – one of the oldest and largest Republican clubs in the state. He is a sought after political analyst on radio and television, and writes a column that appears in numerous newspapers around the region.
Republican fortunes have soared in the state of Alabama since 2002 with the GOP winning in places that had long been Democratic controlled. Republicans have been much less fortunate in Jefferson County though. Barack H. Obama carried Jefferson County in 2008 and 2012 and Hillary Clinton carried it in 2016. The GOP lost both the sheriff’s race and the district attorney’s race in 2018 prompting fears that they could lose their narrow three to two majority on the Jefferson County Commission in the near future.
