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Lincoln, Reagan Day Dinner turns out a crowd
by Lindsay Craven

The Yadkin County GOP held its annual Lincoln, Reagan Day Dinner at the Yadkin Moose Lodge on March 15.

More than 200 people were in attendance for the dinner.

“It’s an off year, and I see a full house tonight and that’s a good thing for me,” said Warner “Bodie” Wingler, GOP Chairman said. “We didn’t get everything we wanted last year, but after the election I went to bed and woke up with a Republican governor. And that made me proud.”

U.S. Rep .Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., was present at the dinner to help award the organization’s Republican of the Year award.

Before Foxx assisted with the award she took a moment to discuss her work in Washington, D.C.

“We are not going to raise taxes,” Foxx said. “We are going to adopt a budget this week that stops spending money we don’t have. It will balanced in 10 years, it will protect Medicare and it will provide a fair opportunity for all Americans.”

Foxx said that she is also sponsoring the Skills Act, described by the house Republicans as legislation that will reform the nation’s workforce development system, including the streamlining of duplicate and ineffective job training programs.

Foxx said that there are several Republicans who are fighting this act because they don’t believe it leans far enough to the right. Foxx said that it is important that you don’t refuse to act because legislation is not 100 percent ideal.

“I compare it to if you’re a receiver on a football team and you get the ball and realize you can’t get a touchdown. So you just sit down,” Foxx said. “I think you get as far as you can.”

Following Foxx’s speech, the organization honored Carol Privette as the Republican of the Year.

N.C. Commissioner of Agriculture Steve Troxler took the podium as the event’s keynote speaker.

“When I come to Yadkin County I feel at home,” Troxler said. “You all understand the importance of God and family, and I’m standing in the reddest county in the state and the reddest county in the nation.”

Troxler said that Yadkin County is responsible for his win this past election season. He said that he wasn’t able to win counties housing big cities likes Durham, Forsyth and Guilford and Yadkin County’s sweeping vote made up for those losses.

Troxler said that it’s important that the state continues to grow its agriculture business and exports. He noted that there are a couple of things the state has to focus on to make that happen.

“If we focus on things that in North Carolina that we need to focus on we can do wonderful things in agriculture in our state,” Troxler said. “First we need to protect the natural resources we have to have in order to farm. Second we need to work on transportation reform in the state. We especially need to focus on our ports.”

Troxler noted that he made observations of China’s port export system and that North Carolina must learn from that system in order to be more successful. He said that the state has recently put coal storage at ports in Wilmington in order to increase exports there.

To close out his speech, Troxler told the audience to make sure a Republican is voted into the Senate seat currently held by Sen. Kay Hagan.

Troxler then assured the audience that he was not saying that to announce his plan to run and that he had no intentions of running for Senate.

“I love North Carolina, and I’m doing exactly what I need to do,” Troxler said. “I need to be in agriculture.”