BROCKMAN RESIGNS FROM
LEGISLATURE; CLEARS WAY
FOR CRIMINAL TRIAL
By Cash Michaels
Contributing writer
The choice for Cecil Brockman was apparently academic.
Faced with serious criminal charges of allegedly taking indecent sexual liberties with a minor child, the six-term Guilford County Democratic state House representative decided last Friday to pour his energies into defending himself, instead for fighting for his longheld office.
“I am currently facing criminal charges brought against me in Guilford County,” Brockman wrote in his resignation letter to the Office of the North Carolina House Clerk. “Due to the seriousness of these accusations, I need to focus on my defense of these allegations.
“As a result, I am currently unable to fulfill my duty and service to my constituents in Guilford County,” Brockman continued. “As a result, I am resigning my position from the NC House of Representatives effective immediately.”
If Brockman, 41 of High Point, did not issue his resignation when he did, he would have faced a bi-partisan House committee appointed by Republican House Speaker Destin Hall to review the charges against him, and formally recommend his removal from the state House.
Even though several top Democratic leaders noted that regardless of how serious the charges were, Brockman had the right to due process, all of them, from Gov. Josh Stein to Democratic Party Chair Anderson Clayton to Democratic House Leader Robert Reives, all called for Brockman to relinquish his office, saying that it would be difficult at best for him to adequately represent his Guilford County constituents under such a dark cloud.
It wasn’t long after the formal announcement of Speaker Hall’s committee that Brockman tendered his resignation through his House office.
The High Point Democrat was arrested October 9th by the State Bureau of Investigation on two counts of statutory rape and two counts of indecent liberties with a minor child under the age of 16.
The charges are based on an investigation into allegations that Brockman met a 14 year-old teenager on a dating app, went to live with the child in Atlanta when it turned 15 in June, then moved back to High point with the child in August.
Local law enforcement first became aware of the relationship when Brockman reported the teenager missing October 5th. Referring the case to the SBI, the child was later found, and after reviewing alleged sexually explicit videos involving Brockman on the child’s phone, the former representative was arrested and charged.
Thus far, Brockman has had one court appearance via wifi transmission from a hospital bed, where he was arraigned and bail was set at $1.05 million .
Cecil Brockman is set to make his next court appearance on Nov. 13th.
Meanwhile, the Guilford County Democratic Party is expected to select a replacement to fill out the rest of Brockman’s unexpired House term, and forward that recommendation to Gov. Josh Stein for his approval.
On its website, the GCDP states, “Members of the Guilford County Democratic Party’s County Executive Committee (CEC) who live in N.C. House District 60 will meet on Zoom Saturday, November 15 at 10:30 a.m. to choose a replacement for Representative Cecil Brockman. Brockman resigned his seat October 31.
CEC members who are eligible to vote will be notified by mail and email.
A Candidates Forum will be held on Zoom at 9 a.m. November 15, just before the meeting. Both the forum and meeting will also be livestreamed on the Guilford County Democratic Party’s Facebook page.
For more information, email gcdpchair@guilforddems.org. Be sure to include “District 60 CEC Meeting” in the subject line.
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“CHILDREN ARE HUNGRY…” SAYS
BISHOP BARBER REGARDING HOW
TRUMP ADMINISTRATION IS
CUTTING SNAP BENEFITS
By Cash Michaels
Contributing writer
With the federal government shutdown which began October 1st, now the longest in United States history, the effects are certainly being felt here in North Carolina.
Certainly there are federal employees here who have been either furloughed or fired, and airports across the state are experiencing slowdowns as a result of air traffic controllers not showing up for work because they haven’t been paid as Republican and Democratic lawmakers in Washington, D.C. continue to argue over reopening the government.
But the most important crisis rising from the federal shutdown is the fact that over 40 million people across the nation - 1. 4 million of those right here in North Carolina - were having to do without their Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits as of November 1st. Their funding for food had been cut off.
The Trump Administration, through the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, refused to release SNAP contingency funding as of November 1st so that low-income people could purchase food, blaming Democrats in Congress for the shutdown.
Two federal Judges last Friday ruled that SNAP benefits should be provided, and Pres. Trump told reporters shortly afterwards that those SNAP contingency funds would be released as soon as the administration received legal clarity on the order, which would further delay implementation of the order.
According to the North Carolina Dept. of Health and Human Services (NCDHHS), out of the 1.4 million people here who rely on SNAP benefits, “More than 700,000 households receive benefits each month and 4 in 5 families participating in SNAP in North Carolina have either a child, senior or an adult with a disability.”
"Food and nutrition are foundational to good health and people should not have to worry about their families and communities going hungry" said NC Health and Human Services Secretary Dev Sangvai. "NCDHHS hopes for a quick resolution to the federal shutdown to ensure people in North Carolina are not at risk of losing critical food benefits."
Bishop William Barber, president and senior lecturer of Repairers of the Breach; and co-chair of the Poor People’s Campaign, calls the federal government shutdown a “…moral crisis of Republicans holding food for hungry people hostage so they can keep the extreme cuts they made to healthcare that are projected to kill 51,000 people next year.”
On Saturday, November 1st, Bishop Barber wrote, “At the Capitol on Thursday, our Moral Monday delegation prayed that the courts would order the Trump administration to use emergency funds to re-charge EBT cards today. Yesterday, US District Chief Judge John J. McConnell said that the USDA must do that under law, yet tens of millions of people who planned to buy groceries on the first of the month cannot.”
Bishop Barber continued, “When people are hungry, we are called to feed them. But we must also organize their pain. Jesus said, “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for justice.” Children are hungry on the day after Americans shared candy with whoever knocked on their doors. In this moment, we must all come together to build a voting block that can fundamentally shift the politics of this nation.”
“And we must do it in the places where those who are drunk on power have decided they are “safe.”
Calling it “our Edmund Pettus Bridge,” Bishop Barber called for a campaign to “…register and mobilize every eligible voter in the Congressional districts that North Carolina’s legislature just gerrymandered to create an additional vote for MAGA extremism in the US House.”
Barber held a moral mass meeting Sunday at St. James Christian Church in Wilson to “… announce a campaign of litigation, nonviolent resistance and mass voter mobilization…” to begin in the First Congressional District, which Republicans in the NC General Assembly just redistricted to give Pres. Trump one more congressional seat in the 2026 elections.
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