Blair Stewart
There has been a changing of the guard, so to speak.
Blair Stewart was appointed as the Graham County Republican Party’s new chairman at the GOP’s Aug. 26 meeting. He succeeds Steve Odom, who will stay on the local party’s executive committee as vice chair.
“I am very humbled and appreciative by the confidence that Steve Odom and the rest of the Graham County GOP Executive Committee have placed in me by asking me to accept – and subsequently electing me to – the position of Graham County GOP Chairman,” Stewart said in a statement released Aug. 26. “It is a responsibility I take very seriously, and saying that I have big shoes to fill by following Steve and previous chairmans would be an understatement! The bar has definitely been set very high, and all I can do is give it my all as I press toward the mark and the goals of the local, district and state Republican Party.”
Odom has worn many hats in the county through the years, including a stint as sheriff and as a member of the board of commissioners.
Odom said in a statement released the same night of the meeting that he asked Stewart to assume the role several weeks before the official appointment.
“My friend Blair Stewart has been my right hand for a few years now, (and) filled in as our party’s first vice-chair on occasions when I wasn’t able to attend meetings or conference calls,” said Odom. “He has been a great help and I must say, he knows more about the party’s history than anyone I ever knew. In fact, before he was our first vice-chair, he was our party’s official historian.
“Please help me congratulate Blair Stewart as our new party Chairman and wish him the best. I will be there for Blair and help him in any way possible.”
Stewart’s vision for the county GOP is simple: stay the course.
“I am unapologetically a Christian, Conservative Republican,” Stewart said. “On matters of faith and principle, there is no room for compromise, as I will someday answer to a much higher authority than any executive committee or government entity. I accept this new responsibility realizing that our great country that I love -- our country I thank God so much for, the greatest country on the face of planet Earth -- is in the most perilous and tumultuous time in our nearly 250-year history as a nation.
“Every goal -- from the precinct, county, state and national level -- should be to restore to America the greatness she once enjoyed, the respect on the world stage we once had, and the Judeo/Christian Conservative morals and values this great nation was founded on.
“Going forward, may we continue to work together as a united team, while keeping our focus on the aforementioned goals that are so extremely vital to our continuing existence as a nation.”