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CHARLOTTE — Salt & Light, North Carolina’s largest faith-based policy conference, featured prominent conservatives last weekend in Charlotte such as former South Carolina congressman and current FOX News host Trey Gowdy, Colorado U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert, FOX News host Pete Hegseth and radio host Larry Elder.
The two-day event held on Sept. 23 and 24 included a lengthy list of pastors, activists, political candidates and elected officials.
“It’s the people in this room who can save our nation,” said Jason Williams, Executive Director of the North Carolina Faith and Freedom Coalition. “President Barack Obama was right; elections do have consequences. We have to do our part. The future of our state will be decided on November 8th.”
Dr. Mark Harris, former candidate for North Carolina’s ninth congressional district told attendees “We are under attack in this nation, and we are under attack by something called cultural Marxism.”
The conference’s keynote speaker was James O’Keefe, founder of Project Veritas. His speech revisited a number of the past investigations his organization had conducted. He also detailed recent court dates related to videos exposing operatives from Democracy Partners that coordinated altercations at Trump rallies in 2016. The videos showed Democracy Partners were paid by the Democratic National Committee and had direct ties to Hillary Clinton’s Presidential campaign.
“What happens in our country – when you do expose them – well, we got sued,” said O’Keefe of the Democracy Partners case. O’Keefe described how the judge compared Project Veritas to the Ku Klux Klan and that the judge sent the jury back twice to deliberate until they finally assigned monetary damages against Project Veritas.
“If you are lying, cheating or stealing, we will make you famous,” O’Keefe said in his closing comments.
North Carolina’s Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, NCGOP Chairman Michael Whatley and U.S. Rep. Ted Budd (NC-13) all gave prepared remarks. In his address, Budd noted his endorsement for U.S. Senate by former President Donald Trump.
“Majorities matter, we have to win at every level. When we do, we have to remember who sent us to Washington and why,” Budd told the audience.
Robinson, who spoke for around 25 minutes, was welcomed by cheers and applause. In his remarks, Robinson mainly spoke about the illegal immigration crisis at U.S. southern border and said, “Criminals are running wild in our nation’s cities.”
Talking about the lack of action to secure the border, Robinson called out the Biden administration for its lack of action on the border, but in particular, Vice President Kamala Harris for sitting back and “giggling.”
What is wrong with that lady? Do we even have a vice president? Where is she?” asked Robinson.
Robinson also took aim at President Joe Biden as “hands down the worst president I’ve ever seen; he is the worst leader of anything I’ve seen.” He went on to say, “It is safe to say that China is in charge of America right now. He is a weak, ineffective leader.”
He also remarked that “Our economy is in a shambles,” and “Inflation is through the roof.”
N.C. House Speaker Tim Moore (R-Kings Mountain) and WBT radio host Brett Winterble also made appearances.
Education was a theme of several speakers including that of Corey DeAngelis, the leading national voice on school choice and executive director of the Educational Freedom Institute, who fired up the crowd multiple times during his speech.
“The government school mafia… the government school cartel… has finally overplayed its hand and awakened the parent revolution that we’ve all been waiting for,” DeAngelis said during his remarks.
The Charlotte event was Salt & Light’s fifth annual conference hosted by the nonpartisan N.C. Faith & Freedom Coalition (NCFFC). The organization is affiliated with the national Faith & Freedom Coalition, which launched in 2009. North Carolina’s chapter formed in 2019.
NCFFCS’ work focuses getting information to voters on issues relevant to faith communities and on “empowering faithful Christians with the facts necessary to understand which public policies reflect our values, and which ones undermine them.”
Video from the conference can be viewed on the NCFFC YouTube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/c/NCFaithFreedomCoalition