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Leigh Brown, a North Carolina Realtor who served as the National Association of Realtors’ vice president of advocacy in 2021, announced on Thursday via Instagram that she had filed to run for Congress.
This marks the second time Brown has made a bid for Congress, following a run in 2019 during which she ended up suing the Federal Election Commission (FEC) after the organization ordered her to stop running her business ads in advance of that year’s primary.
Brown also serves as one of NAR’s Realtor Code of Ethics trainers.
In her social media announcement, Brown asserted that she was “an unapologetic conservative who is ready to take the fight for the soul of America right to the establishment.”
On her Congressional campaign website, Brown lays out four key components to her campaign: financial stability, parental rights in schools, border security and “faith, family, freedom.”
Brown ran for Congress in 2019, in a special election to the U.S. House to represent North Carolina’s 9th Congressional District. The National Association of Realtors Political Action Committee (RPAC) made nearly $1.3 million in independent expenditures in support of Brown’s Congresssional bid, according to campaign spending reports tracked by Open Secrets.
Brown finished fourth out of 10 candidates running in the special Republican primary on May 14, 2019, receiving 2,672 votes, according to Ballotpedia.
Over the years, Brown has become known in the industry for her outspoken nature as much as for the leadership positions she’s taken on. This past summer, she was disqualified from running for first vice president of NAR by a committee that reviews candidates before they can be considered by the NAR Board of Directors.
Brown was pulled out of the running due to what the committee deemed inappropriate comments and likes on social media.
The social media activity in question largely revolved around Brown’s political and religious views. In one case, Brown liked a tweet by another individual who said on social media outlet X, “You are a sick pervert if you are taking your children to a drag queen show.”
In another case, Brown commented on a tweet about The Hill’s coverage of the use of the term “pregnant persons” to discuss pregnant individuals who may not identify as women. In response to this term, Brown commented, “It’s women, you insufferable fools.”
After her NAR application was rejected, Brown deleted all the tweets in question and posted a video of herself explaining the context of the tweets.
