PEMBROKE — Federal, state and local politicians gathered Friday night for the opening of North Carolina’s first Republican National Committee Community Center.

Located at 106 N. Main St. in Pembroke, the Community Center is the latest strategically targeted location as part of the RNC’s multi-million dollar effort to engage voters in the Lumbee Tribe as well as the Robeson County community as a whole.

“This is the 21st community center that the RNC has opened across the United States and we’ve got Asian American offices, we’ve got Black outreach offices, we’ve got Hispanic outreach offices, but I’m really excited that this is our first Native American Office that we’re opening up here,” said Michael Whatley, chairman of the North Carolina Republican Party.

RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel implemented the initiative to show up in minority communities, and opened community centers across the country to engage with minority voters on their home turf. The community centers will act as a hub for voters to volunteer as well as be a place to come together and discuss the issues that affect them and their families, according to the RNC website.

“Ronna McDaniel talked to me about our offices… she said that we want to make sure that were going into communities that matter and that we are putting down flag and we’re establishing a presence that is more than just showing up a few weeks before election day and asking for people to vote,” Whatley said.

“When we talked about where in North Carolina do you wanna start a strategic office, where do you want to start with a community office, Robeson County was very natural and it was the first place that we thought,” Whatley added. “When you think of this county, the tri-racial make up of it, a third being Native American, a third of them being black, a third being white, this is just an absolute perfect place.”

Three years ago, four years ago, five years ago, people would not have believed the community center would happen in the area, said David Rouzer, Representative of the 7th Congressional District.

“But it shows the commitment … it’s all about relationships, because when you know people, when you have a relationship, you understand what the concerns are, you understand what their dreams are, you understand what their values are,” he said.

Congressman Dan Bishop said that the Lumbee Tribe has been mistreated, and has “suffered under unfairness unspeakable for hundreds of year and it continues to this day.”

“Let the word go forward the Republican Part has changed, the Lumbee people has changed and we are intersecting together at a point in history and it is a good thing,” Bishop said.

Lumbee Tribe Member and N.C. representative candidate Jarrod Lowery thanked the RNC and North Carolina Republican Party chairs for thinking of Robeson County and the Lumbee People.

“Native people, we have feel like and have been for decades, for centuries, we have been left behind, not just left behind but heard. No one cared about the way we felt,” Lowery said.

“I say this to our republicans running for office that have tribes in their territories and districts, individual liberty and tribal sovereignty is the core of the Lumbee people,” he added.