RALEIGH — A candidate running for vice chair of the North Carolina Republican Party had addressed his past criminal history issues amid a recent resurgence of the topic.
Addul Ali, who is the current chair for the Cabarrus County GOP, is running to become the statewide vice chair for the NCGOP. He is also the political director at Frederick Douglass Foundation of North Carolina and co-host and co-founder alongside his twin brother of the Urban Conservative Podcast.
In the past, Ali had faced charges of driving with a revoked license and a misdemeanor charge of resisting a public officer tied to the license issue. Criminal records and background checks on Ali have been circulating among GOP party insiders this week, which he addressed in an exclusive interview with the North State Journal. In the interview, Ali said the charges have been cleared and were brought up in the past when he ran for various positions. North State Journal received several anonymous submissions of criminal records and background checks on Ali which he addressed in an exclusive interview with North State Journal.
“First and foremost, if anybody knows me, they’ve known since I’ve been involved with the GOP, I’ve been up front about my record,” Ali said. “I ran successfully in 2021 to become the chairman of the Cabarrus GOP, with many of the people – if not all of the people – on that executive committee and the delegates to that convention, aware of my old charges.”
He added that his past is “100% of what made me who I am today and I don’t shirk away from it.”
Ali also ran two campaigns for Kannapolis city council in the last ten years and said the same thing happened back then.
“This is old, honestly, it’s old news,” Ali said. “They tried this back in 2016-17 when I ran for Kannapolis city council. It came up when I ran for Cabarrus County chairman and I’m uniquely aware that it’s going to come up in my run for state party vice chair.”
A second question regarding Ali’s background that has emerged is an apparent warrant for child support filed out of New York. Ali said that wasn’t about him or his children and involved identity theft.
“I think that everybody knows what it’s like to be a…have somebody that’s been affected by identity theft,” said Ali. “And that’s what the situation that I was dealing with that child support situation…[it] was a matter of identity theft, which caused me to not be able to get a driver’s license, but I was able to get that cleared up and I was actually a driver for AAA for several years – which you cannot do with a warrant.”
When asked for more details on the child support issue, Ali said years ago when he traveled to New York, his wallet and ID had been stolen and that someone had used his social security number “to set this thing up apparently.”
“And they had put a block on my license, so I had to go to New York and get that clarified…get that released,” Ali said of the child support warrant issue. He added that while that was going on, he was still driving.
“I was a 21-22 year-old parent trying to drive back and forth,” said Ali, who is now in his early 40s. “So, I’ve got all that rectified and I’ve had my driver’s license for years and years and I’ve not had a problem.”
“It’s not something that’s an issue now and for somebody to say that I have a warrant for…I think it’s just ridiculous,” Ali said.
Ali said his children are with his wife and reiterated that “this child support warrant thing” was “a matter of identity theft.”
So, I’m not shirking away from it. I’ve never shirked away from it and quite frankly to have the support of people like our state Senator Paul Newton, who’s endorsed my campaign for chair for vice chair,” Ali said. “I just got an endorsement from state Senator Ted Alexander, Wayne Sasser, and others have stepped up to endorse me knowing what the decisions were that I made in the past and how I corrected those decisions and my leadership record in the GOP speaks volumes to that.”
Ali also added that with all the support he has received, he believes he is an example of “you can come from absolutely nothing and make something of yourself.”
“And if people want to use that to attack me, I’m fine with that. I’m okay with that,” Ali said.
On Mar. 10, Ali posted a video on Facebook, apparently the first in a series, discussing his background.
