Former Louisiana GOP director moves to D.C. to work with the Trump administration
Lafayette native Jason Doré moved to Baton Rouge in 1999 to attend LSU and stuck around the Capital City. After six years as executive director of the Republican Party of Louisiana, the longest-serving state party director in the nation recently left for Washington, D.C., tapped to work for the U.S. Small Business Administration’s Office of Advocacy.
Doré gave us the scoop on his new post and what he’ll miss about Baton Rouge.
What does the Office of Advocacy do, and what will you do there?
The Office of Advocacy is an independent office that serves as a watchdog within the government on behalf of small businesses. As the assistant chief counsel for external affairs, I’ll oversee our information and congressional affairs team.
We hope to hold regulatory reform roundtables across the country to solicit feedback from individual small businesses on what regulations are harming or creating barriers for growth for their businesses. I hope the first set of roundtables will be in Louisiana in early June.
How does it feel to be joining President Donald Trump’s team?
I think it’s an honor and humbling to be able to serve in any administration. I am particularly excited about serving in this administration and in this office, as President Trump has made reducing the regulatory burden on small businesses a focal point of his domestic agenda. Regulations have a huge impact on small businesses, especially those in Louisiana, and I’m thrilled to be a small part of the effort.
What are you most proud of from your time at the Louisiana GOP?
Since January 2011, we obtained majorities in both houses of the legislature, the Supreme Court, Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, Public Service Commission, and captured both U.S. Senate seats. The election of Sen. Bill Cassidy is one thing I’ll always be proud to have been a part of. There were many naysayers, even within our party, that doubted Mary Landrieu could be defeated. We did it and did so in landslide fashion.
What do you like best about Washington, D.C., so far?
We are renting a rowhouse in the Eastern Market neighborhood near Capitol Hill. Our neighborhood reminds me a lot of the one we’re leaving, the Garden District. There is a real community feeling to it. There are tons of places within walking distance from our new place, so we’ll rarely use our car. I ride the metro to the office every day. I’m most looking forward to seeing our daughter enjoy the many things (such as parks and museums) our neighborhood and city have to offer.
What will you miss most about Baton Rouge?
As someone who hasn’t missed a home, away or bowl LSU football game since 2007, I’ll miss living a mile from campus and attending the sporting events at LSU. But I think we’ll miss our Baton Rouge community the most. We love our friends, colleagues and neighbors in Baton Rouge, and we’ll miss them dearly. But we’ll do our best to visit often, and I don’t plan to miss any home football games.
This article was originally published in the June 2017 issue of 225 Magazine.
