I desperately wanted to win the raffle at the Durham GOP open house on Tuesday night.
In the new headquarters in a refurbished garage on Hillsborough Road, I sipped my champagne punch and anxiously checked my ticket number. As one of 40 or so attendees, I thought I had a pretty decent shot at walking out with a prize.
It’s not that I particularly wanted the actual prize—the Trump and MAGA merch, piled high on a table in the corner, would not win me many friends in ultra-blue Durham—but I never win raffles, and I was hoping that fortune would smile upon my effort to check in with the Bull City’s minority party and see what, if anything, the new headquarters said about the local group’s outlook. Did the new building lease coincide with a new lease on life for the Durham Republicans?
One smiling woman, recognizing the INDY’s progressive perspective, cheekily offered me a MAGA hat from the table.
“Oh I shouldn’t, thank you.” I said, not wanting to overturn the free and fair law of chance that is the foundation of a random raffle system. “Otherwise it’s not fair, right?”
Not a minute later, the man sitting next to me got his number called and selected a “dark MAGA” hat, as popularized by tech billionaire and now head of government efficiency Elon Musk.
I ultimately did not win anything, but swallowed my pride—and several slices of a sheet cake frosted to read “GOD BLESS AMERICA”—while a cardboard cutout of 45-47 flashed his double-thumbs-up approval from behind a podium.
Raffle aside, the open house was a pleasant affair. Over a potluck dinner, attendees discussed their attempts to go to the inauguration, their hopes for President Donald Trump’s “unifying” policies, and their concerns about the slew of pardons Biden issued on his last day.
Of course, Trump has issued his own barrage of pardons, including for some 1,500 of his supporters who violently attacked the Capitol on January 6, 2021. That was just the start of Trump’s sweeping week-one actions—as you have likely seen in your midnight doomscroll through the New York Times’s executive order tracker. He shut down diversity, equity, and inclusion programs and revoked 60-year-old protections against discrimination in hiring practices. He declared a national emergency at the Southern border, expanded powers to quickly deport people without court proceedings, and authorized immigration officers to make arrests in previously off-limits schools and churches. He withdrew the United States from the Paris climate agreement and rolled back federal environmental justice initiatives, among other policy changes.
These issues loomed large over events held across the Triangle on inauguration day, where local leaders spoke somberly about resisting attacks on civil rights and immigrant communities—a stark contrast to Tuesday’s open house, where talk of national politics was quickly replaced by concerns over driving home in the snow falling outside.
Members were also excited about the new headquarters, which they said was in a nicer part of town than their former spot in the Old Five Points area. Several also pointed out to me that the new location didn’t have any stairs to climb, which was good for their older friends.
Christina Crosby, Durham GOP chair, told the group in a short welcome speech that “we’re ready to get to work in Durham County.” She added that some voters are frustrated when they look at a ballot and don’t even see Republican candidates.
But that work would start later.
“Tonight is just about having a good time, eating all this food, celebrating the win, and meeting and talking to each other,” Crosby said.
Durham may be a Democratic stronghold, but the Triangle still gets its fair share of attention from Republican candidates. The day before the election, Trump rallied in Raleigh to remind everyone, including the “beautifully coiffed” women of North Carolina, to “get out and vote.” And on Election Day, Mark Robinson stopped by an Orange County polling site and held a watch party in Raleigh.
Barring a political earthquake, though, I would be more likely to win the MAGA merch raffle than the Durham GOP would be to win a city council seat.
In 2024, Durham County gave about 80 percent of its vote to Kamala Harris (though Democrats didn’t meet the ambitious turnout goal that they set for themselves). Less than 10 percent of Durham’s registered voters are Republican-affiliated. And while Trump won the northernmost precincts of Bahama and Rougemont, those rural communities are not involved in city elections.
Still, Crosby previewed this November’s municipal election, when three city council seats and the mayoralty will be on the ballot.
“Anybody interested? Let me know,” she said with a laugh.
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Reach Reporter Chase Pellegrini de Paur at chase@indyweek.com. Comment on this story at backtalk@indyweek.com.