NC DEMOCRATIC PARTY
CHAIRS WANTS HOUSE
REPUBLICANS TO REMOVE
REP. BROCKMAN NOW
By Cash Michaels
Contributing writer
North Carolina Democratic Party Chair Anderson Clayton knows that Guilford County Rep. Cecil Brockman is legally presumed innocent until proven guilty after being charged recently with two counts of indecent liberties with a minor and two counts of statutory rape, but the isn’t stopping her from demanding that Republican leadership in the state House begin the process of removing Brockman from office immediately.
NCDP Chair Clayton told WRAL-TV last week that id Brockman, a six-term Democrat representing High Point and Guilford County, doesn’t voluntarily resign his office as other Democrats leaders, including Gov. Josh stein, have demanded he do, then legislative leaders in the Republican-led state House should immediately begin removing Brockman from the seat he has held since 2015.
“[Republican House Speaker] Destin Hall should bring folks back to Raleigh and they should remove [Brockman] from the legislature,” Clayton told WRAL-TV last week when the legislature was briefly out, adding “We should make sure that places like High Point have representation right now in Raleigh.”
Reportedly, Speaker Hall is already looking into what “House rules and constitutional requirements” must be met to have Brockman, who thus far has ignored all calls for him to step down, removed. Hall has agreed with Democratic calls for Brockman to step down, calling the charges against him “shocking and extremely serious.”
NCDP Chair Clayton says that Rep. Brockman has lost the High Point community’s trust, and can no longer effectively represent them. If he were to return to service in the legislature, Brockman would be a distraction.
“You can't exactly help people from a jail cell,” Clayton said.
“The charges that were brought against Representative Brockman were serious charges, and we believe that anybody that's accused of something like that and has been held on a million dollar bond right now does not deserve to represent the people of North Carolina.”
The last state House representative to have been removed from office was Thomas Wright of Wilmington in New Hanover County in 2008. Wright was charged with using campaign funds for personal business and using his office to get a loan.
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NC REPUBLICANS AGREE TO
DRAW NEW MAP CREATING
NEW GOP VOTING DISTRICT
THAT HURTS BLACK VOTERS
By Cash Michaels
Contributing writer
In an effort to help Pres.Donald Trump gain an electoral advantage in Congress, North Carolina Republican legislative leaders have agreed to redraw the First Congressional District in northeastern North Carolina, where Congressman Don Davis current represents, so that Republican voters there will have a clear advantage come the 2026 midterm election.
If a Republican challenger were to win the First Congressional District, that would add one more seat to the Republican majority already in Congress. Other States, like Texas, are also redrawing their voting Lins to give Trump more Republican House districts and add to that GOP majority.
The new Republican-leaning First District in North Carolina would, by all accounts, dilute an area of black voting strength that has elected a black congressional representative for at least the last 30 years. The redrawn district would lower the percentage of black voters by at least ten percent. The new map would make white Republicans at least 60 percent of the voting population.
Democrats are not happy about the new First District voting map.
“The General Assembly works for North Carolina, not Donald Trump. The Republican leadership in the General Assembly has failed to pass a budget, failed to pay our teachers and law enforcement what they deserve, and failed to fully fund Medicaid. Now they are failing you, the voters. These shameless politicians are abusing their power to take away yours,” said Gov. Josh Stein.
NCDP Chair Anderson Clayton went scorched earth on NC Republicans for their new district.
"North Carolina Republicans Phil Berger and Destin Hall are weak, subservient cowards, willing to steamroll the people of our state so they can give Donald Trump what he wants – power without accountability.
“Today, the GOP Leaders announced they will be tearing up our already brutally gerrymandered congressional maps and redrawing them to give more seats to Congressional Republicans. Let me be clear: maps should not give you power; voters should," said Chair Clayton.
"When politicians pick their voters instead of voters picking their politicians, that’s not democracy. That’s corruption."
Interestingly, African-American plaintiffs just lost a lawsuit in federal court claiming that legislative Senate districts 1 and 2 were redrawn in a manner that denies the majority black population in northeastern North Carolina the representation of their choice, in violation of Section 2 of the 1965 Voting Rights Act.
A Republican federal judge ruled against those black plaintiffs, saying that they failed to prove that racial discrimination was still a factor in denying African-Americans the right to vote.
Ironically, a similar important case is before the U.S. Supreme Court now involving the state of Louisiana establishing a second majority-black voting district in a state where one-third of the population is black. White plaintiffs in that case are arguing that establishing a second majority-black district there per the Voting Rights Act is a violation of the constitutional law outlawing the use of race.
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