Bibb County GOP Holds Winter Celebration 2025
By Sheila Duncan
Reporter
(Photos by Bridget Stokes)
The Bibb County Republican Party held its Winter Celebration on Thursday, January 30, 2025, at the Bibb Medical Wellness Center. The evening began with a Social Meet and Greet at 6:00 p.m., followed by dinner.
Jerry Pow delivered the invocation, and Mayor Mike Oakley led attendees in the Pledge of Allegiance. Senator April Weaver shared updates on party news and recent election successes, while ALGOP representatives provided insights into statewide party developments.
Entertainment for the evening was provided by musician Rick Harris. The highlight of the night was the keynote address by Ellen McNair, introduced by Bibb County Chamber of Commerce Director Brian Hilson. McNair, who serves with the Alabama State Department of Commerce, holds the prestigious Certified Economic Developer (CEcD) designation from the International Economic Development Council. She is a trailblazer in Alabama’s economic development landscape, being the first woman to serve as Secretary of the Alabama Department of Commerce, the first woman in the state to earn the CEcD designation, the first female president of the Economic Development Association of Alabama (EdAA), and the first woman to lead a major economic development initiative in the state.
The event concluded with expressions of gratitude to all who contributed to its success. Senator April Weaver left attendees with an inspiring quote, “In 2010, Republicans took control of both chambers of the Alabama Legislature and swept all statewide offices for the first time in 136 years. Since that time, we have continued to build the party at both the state and county levels. At the state level we flipped a record 50 seats in the 2022 election cycle (which included 14 county bd of ed seats, 1 superintendent of education, 7 county commission seats, 3 circuit court judges, 6 district attorneys, 4 district court judges, 7 sheriffs, 7 coroners and one state house seat). In the 2024 election cycle, there were an additional 40 offices flipped, many of them in former Democrat strongholds. Republicans now hold over 73% of all partisan elected positions on the federal, state and county levels-up from 65% in 2018. I am proud to say that Bibb County is certainly contributing to those numbers with almost 87% of county level partisan positions bring held by Republicans. In recent years, the Republican party has broken many records at the state level. In 2023, we hosted three presidential candidates in the state, we broke multiple fundraising records at the state level and qualified over 230 individuals to be on the Republican ballot statewide. Our goal here in Bibb County is the continue to grow our party and to have record growth here as well. We invite all Bibb County Republicans join us at our next meeting at 7pm on April 10 at the Sawmeal Restaurant. We are excited to start growing our next generation of party members and we especially encourage young people to join us. We want our local party to also continue the trend of breaking records, and we are focused on continuing to grow our party at the local level.”
