However, with an open mind and a commitment to finding meaning in their trip, the couple journeyed to our nation’s capital determined to celebrate what they considered the greatest political victory of their lifetime. In the end, the trip delivered, but not necessarily in the ways they assumed.
In a series of interviews with The Smoky Mountain News, which accompanied the Wetzels throughout much of their journey, they also revealed much of what many conservatives were feeling ahead of a second Trump presidency, offering a chance to take in this strange inaugural weekend through the eyes of those who worked on the local level to get him elected again.
Prior to this journey, the only times Wetzel had been to Washington, D.C., were Dec. 12, 2020, for the second “Million MAGA March” and Jan. 6, 2021, for the notorious Stop the Steal Rally, during which she walked up to the Capitol but stopped short of gaining entry once she saw others committing acts of vandalism and violence.
Wetzel, 65, is an unflinching conservative, but it wasn’t always that way. Born in Los Angeles at the hospital where Robert F. Kennedy died about eight years later, she attended UCLA and majored in political science with hopes of one day becoming the first female governor of California, despite the admission that even just dipping her toe into politics made her realize it’s a “dirty, nasty business,” an opinion she feels even stronger about now. At that point, she was a Democrat.
When asked why she’d get involved in such an unsavory realm, she offered a simple response.
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“For me, it’s a calling,” she said.
GETTING INVOLVED
In 1996, Wetzel, who spent much of her working life as a career coach, moved to Lake Tahoe, where she met Rook, who for years was an adaptive ski instructor who taught blind children and those with other physical disabilities to hit the slopes. In 2012, the couple moved to North Carolina and now lives in McDowell County. Wetzel said God brought her to Western North Carolina.
Over the years, before arriving in The Tarheel State, Wetzel changed her voter registration from Democrat to Independent and eventually Republican.
While Wetzel had tossed aside any desires to get directly involved in politics, she was roped back in when her husband began helping Republican Mark Robinson in his 2019 campaign for Lieutenant Governor. Around that time, Wetzel met Madison Cawthorn, the controversial young firebrand who would go on to win NC-11 in 2020, and decided to jump back into the arena.
Seeing Wetzel’s commitment, NC-11 GOP Chair Michele Woodhouse encouraged her to get more involved and run to become the McDowell County GOP chair. She eventually became the NC-11 GOP’s Second Vice Chair.
“Roxan Wetzel brings a fire and passion, along with a true servant’s heart, to political leadership, something that is unique in this space,” Woodhouse said. “She was an incredible MCGOP chair and NC-11 Second Vice Chair. She pours herself into the work and has earned the respect of elected officials, peers and volunteers.”
Wetzel said she initially balked at the opportunity to become more involved.
“I was like, ‘not just no, but heck no,’” Wetzel said. “Then I met with my pastor, met with my elder. I prayed about it, and God said, ‘if not you, then who?’ So I was like, ‘OK, here I am.’”
As Wetzel learned more about party structure on the state level, she felt more pride in her role within the party and became even more active at the local level.
“The Bible tells us — God tells us — to build our foundation on a strong rock … and it starts right in your county party organization from the precincts built on the local party level,” Wetzel said.
Throughout her life, Wetzel has viewed everything through the lens of her staunch religious beliefs, and politics has been no different. She considers the whole realm as a “ministry,” a chance to use the gospel to shape the moral direction of her community, the state and even the nation.
As she learned more about the party structure and elections, her commitment grew, and so too did her knowledge base. Neither was an accident. Wetzel likes to recall the old adage, “He who knows the rules win the game,” and she went from waving signs for Cawthorn and Robinson in 2019 to being elected county chair in 2021 and then eventually the 11th district’s second vice chair before her most recent milestone when she became the district’s presidential elector last year.
MRS. WETZEL GOES TO WASHINGTON
Electors individually cast votes for the president and vice president, votes that are recorded on a Certificate of Vote and confirmed by electors’ signatures.
“It’s part of the permanent congressional record, my signature,” Wetzel said.
Roxan Wetzel was not only an elector, but she was also the Vice Presidential Teller for North Carolina following the 2024 election. Donated photo
In addition, Wetzel was chosen as the state’s Vice Presidential teller, meaning she got on the microphone in the North Carolina to verbally confirm NC-11’s election of J.D. Vance. This technically gives her the title of “The Honorable Roxan Wetzel” for the rest of her life. She joked that her husband now frequently simply refers to her as “The Honorable.”
“Just to think that you’re part of that history of our government is a very cool thing,” she said.
Because Wetzel was an elector, she was offered VIP tickets for Trump’s inauguration as the country’s 47th president. She and her husband left McDowell County in the frigid early morning hours of Saturday, Jan. 18, and arrived at their hotel just north of Washington, D.C. late that afternoon. However, the trip had an uncurrent of uncertain anxiety following the announcement that they would no longer be able to attend the inauguration in person.
Wetzel admitted it was disappointing to hear that she wouldn’t be able to see her president — whom she’d already seen speak somewhere around a dozen times — inaugurated in front of the Capitol.
“That would have been beyond cool,” she said, adding that she believes that the decision to move it indoors had nothing to do with the subfreezing temperatures and everything to do with a potential security threat. The deep state will stop at nothing to stop Trump, her husband, Rook, posited.
Not being able to see the inauguration up close wasn’t the only change in the Wetzels’ schedule. On Sunday, Jan. 19, the couple had planned on attending three events announced as a series called “Kingdom to the Capitol.” The events, all led by Christian singer-songwriter Sean Feucht aimed to offer praise to God and prayers for Trump. However, along with being hamstrung by a late start that day, as the temperature dipped and skies darkened, the couple grew uneasy. Once the snow began sticking to the road, they hightailed it back to the hotel.
“I do regret not pushing through and going to one of those,” Wetzel said.
JANUARY 6
Although things changed, Wetzel did get to do one thing near to her heart when on Jan. 19 after arriving in the area, she went to the Washington, D.C. jail for a vigil dedicated to those incarcerated for their acts on Jan. 6, 2021. The men in those jail cells were largely being held either because they had new charges or were awaiting sentencing. These vigils had been taking place for about the last three years and continued all the way up until inauguration night.
Wetzel recalled her own experience on Jan. 6.
She’d organized a trip including two buses that went from North Carolina over to the capital for the Stop the Steal rally as part of the larger organization Liberty First Grassroots. She had previously organized the Dec. 12 trip, her first time ever to Washington, D.C. As Wetzel began fielding inquiries from conservatives interested in making the trip, a Western North Carolina woman with a large following on X — then Twitter — mentioned that Wetzel was organizing the trip and posted Wetzel’s phone number publicly.
“My phone was blowing up for three and a half weeks,” Wetzel said.
Fielding the flood of inquiries left Wetzel tired and weary by the time buses departed late in the evening on Jan. 5. After riding through the night, by the time she arrived for the rally in the predawn hours of Jan. 6, she said she was exhausted. However, once she saw how large the crowd was — she thinks the numbers were vastly underreported by the media and puts the number well over 1 million — she caught a second wind.
When the time came for the group to march to the Capitol, Wetzel said the crowd was singing “patriotic songs and hymns,” but she sensed a vibe shift and became concerned that “Antifa” was present and she claimed that law enforcement was taking a lax approach to the situation.
Once the group reached the Capitol, Roxan said she scratched her head as she watched angry rioters climbing the walls and entering the building. She heard loud booms and saw spires of smoke rising from the riotous crowd.
“I said, ‘they’re going to get arrested,’ Like, you can’t scale that. And then the tear gas started flying and stuff and we left and got back to the bus,” she said.
When she finally sat down in safety, Wetzel looked at her phone and saw about 130 text message and missed calls. At that point, she didn’t know what all had transpired. From then up to this inauguration weekend, Wetzel said she tried not to advertise that she was at the Capitol on Jan. 6 since she feared repercussions and even social ostracization. The hoodie that she’d worn that day featured the words of the group she traveled with, as well as the date. It’d hung in her closet unworn for the last four years.
A man plays his guitar outside the Washington, D.C. jail while surrounded by other demonstrators. Jeffrey Delannoy photo
However, last Saturday, she wore it to the jail for the vigil. While Wetzel considered the trip to be largely “anticlimactic,” that visit may have been the high point.
That night, there were about 50 people on hand, including various members of the media. The mood was somber yet hopeful. A man played an electric guitar with a small amplifier. Another man offered a brief but intense prayer, and several people spoke, including some who’d already served out sentences after being convicted for offenses related to Jan. 6. Even the mother of Ashli Babbit, the woman who was killed by a Capitol Police officer after trying to breach a security perimeter through broken glass mere feet from fleeing elected officials, was there. Many called for not only the defendants to be released but also for the prosecutors in those cases to face some kind of retribution.
Demonstrators knew the names of the people in the jail. At one point, a man in an orange jumpsuit appeared in a window of what appeared to be the infirmary and waved.
“That’s Ryan Wilson,” one woman exclaimed, referring to an Oregon man who was convicted in October of last year for assaulting law enforcement with a weapon. As the crowd waved to Wilson, he waved back enthusiastically.
Wetzel produced multiple Facebook live videos as she quietly took in the scene and held her husband’s hand, but she also interacted with some in the crowd. One woman was the mother oof Barry Bennet Ramey, a Florida man currently on house arrest for his role in the attack on the Capitol. When Wetzel, who herself has a significant following on X, went to sign the sweatshirt, she was overjoyed to hear that Ramey’s mother had actually heard of her before.
Roxan Wetzel signs a sweatshirt in support of a Jan. 6 convict who is on house arrest. Kyle Perrotti photo
In an interview the following night, Wetzel said that even if she didn’t experience anything else that weekend, she’d be happy.
“My heart was warmed by the hopeful atmosphere,” she said. “It was amazing that what came through was hope and that the United States of America is still a great country, and we’re going to fly the American flag, and we’re going to talk about Jesus, and we’re going to pray.”
In the hours following his inauguration, Trump pardoned or commuted the sentences of over 1,500 people charged with crimes related to Jan. 6. Trump also ordered the attorney general to dismiss the 450 or so pending cases related to the storming of the Capitol. Following the pardons, just two nights after Wetzel stood a few hundred feet from the jail, a much larger crowd showed up to celebrate the men who were about to be released.
Prior to the wave of clemency, Wetzel said she believed that everyone other than those who damaged property or perpetrated violent acts should receive clemency. Trump ultimately pardoned those people, as well as some of those with convictions related to violent crimes. Following the pardons, Wetzel said she wants to see even more actions to provide reparations for the convictions.
“I absolutely think that they should not only be pardoned, but they should be compensated for their constitutional rights being violated,” she said.
THE WATCH PARTY
Once Wetzel realized she wouldn’t be able to go to the inauguration, the question quickly emerged: what to do for the big day? By Saturday, word worked its way through the grapevine that someone was hosting an inauguration watch party at a swanky club in Washington, D.C. At the time Wetzel RSVP’d for her and her husband, the ticketing app showed only about 25 people going. By the time the doors opened at 10 a.m. on Jan. 20, 300 had RSVP’d. Ultimately, many more showed up, all from North Carolina and fellow swing state Michigan.
“God just had his hand on us, blessing us with the right connections,” Wetzel said.
The man who planned the last-minute event, a Charlotte attorney and lobbyist named John C. Snyder III, talked to The Smoky Mountain News about how it all came together. It started at about 6 p.m. the Friday before inauguration, only hours after it was announced that most who had tickets wouldn’t be allowed into the Capitol to see the swearing in.
He quickly got up with some friends to coordinate the planning. While they had initially booked a smaller venue, they began to feel that more people may want to come and booked Sax Dinner Theater and Lounge. It turns out that was a good call.
“Here we are Monday morning, and this place is full, elbow to elbow, with 500 people,” Snyder said.
The crowd at the watch party was festive and raucous. Jeffrey Delannoy photo
The venue is a somewhat small but opulent space with gold-colored chandeliers, plenty of red velvet and varying shades of white marble. Art featuring nude women, ranging from campy pagan to neoclassical, adorns the walls and even the ceiling. The inauguration was shown on a large TV behind thick glass above the long oak bar. Aside from hosting a room full of conservative Trump supporters, it more often hosts burlesque shows.
“That was wild,” Wetzel said. “We felt like we were somebody.”
The crowd was eclectic. There were plenty of people who seemed accustomed to such venues and wore club outfits, ball gowns and suits with ties. There were some in cowboy hats and matching boots. Plenty wore jeans and comfortable winter coats. But they all had one thing in common — they were there to celebrate what they considered the beginning of a new golden age for the United States.
By about 11 a.m. as the inaugural ceremony began, many had beer and cocktails in-hand, eagerly awaiting the big moment. They cheered any time most Republicans appeared on screen and booed any time a Democrat appeared. Perhaps the loudest boos — aside from when Biden walked in — was when they saw Trump’s former Vice President, Mike Pence. While the group enjoyed seeing members of Trump’s family and inner circle, the one that drew the loudest cheer was his youngest son, Baron, who some articles said helped the Trump campaign reach the youngest contingent of voters. The only person for whom the crowd seemed to have a mixed reaction was House Speaker Mike Johnson.
When Trump himself walked into the rotunda, an ear-rattling “USA” chant erupted that eventually morphed into a “fight” chant, echoing Trump’s words following a July 13, 2024, attempted assassination in Butler, Pennsylvania.
Roxan Wetzel and her husband, Rook, at the watch party. Kyle Perrotti photo
Wetzel and her husband stood right up in the front of the room so she could capture the TV screen on Facebook live. She became emotional throughout the ceremony, something she said she didn’t expect. She wiped away several tears when Vice President J.D. Vance was sworn in.
“I don’t know if it was because I was a Vice Presidential Teller, but … it just kind of gripped me,” Wetzel said.
LOOKING FORWARD
Following the watch party, as Wetzel and her husband drove from Washington, D.C. to Pennsylvania to see family, she did one more interview with SMN, during which she said it was exciting to be in the capital following Trump’s victory. The massive electoral win was thanks not only to the Trump campaign itself, but also to the massive GOP apparatus, of which Wetzel was a part.
“It’s pretty exciting,” she said.
Going forward, Wetzel said she doesn’t plan on trying to climb the ladder in the NCGOP, but she does plan on staying involved to some degree. She said it was tough for her and her husband, even going back to when she was a chair, a time during which she said she was “completely unsupported” by her own county party.
“I was trying to do work and tell people it’s not just a social club,” she said. “So I have no political aspirations.”
Wetzel said she hopes that the NCGOP considers its own commitment, as well, saying that she was disappointed to see party leadership back away from Mark Robinson in his run for governor last year once he became embroiled in controversy.
“We saw what happened, and we saw how that impacted the council of state races when they all backed away, thinking it would save them, and it didn’t work,” she said. “Coming from a position of cowardice is never going to win the battle.”
“I guess I’m just an activist,” she added.
Ultimately, Wetzel wanted to encourage conservatives to continue to fight and not become lazy just because Trump won a second term. After all, midterms are less than two years away, and the party not in the White House historically makes major gains in the House and Senate during those elections.
Voters often rely on those who are engaged at the local party level to help guide their votes, so even just getting engaged with county organizations can go a long way toward determining an outcome in both primary and general elections. For example, Wetzel said that in the last five or so years that she’s been involved, she’s handed out thousands of voter guides and spoken with thousands of voters.
“Being there, standing there, just handing them voter guides is huge,” she said.
When asked what she hopes to see from the next four years and the second Trump administration, Wetzel said she hopes to see Trump act on promises made during the inaugural address, including the clemency he delivered to the Jan. 6 convicts mere hours after the interview.
“I hope he can get people to engage and not slip back into complacency,” she said. “And we can hold these elected officials’ feet to the fire to do what we have voted them in to do.”
This post was originally published on here
