At least a few liberal candidates have an interesting new strategy for overcoming their struggle to win seats in the North Carolina General Assembly: They are pretending to be Republicans.
A group called NC Educators on the Ballot is playing a large role spearheading these efforts and recruiting party-switching candidates. The group claims to be nonpartisan, saying its only goal is to create strong public schools. But it goes on to explain that to support public school education, they must use the “tactic” of recruiting candidates to file in Republican primaries due to “today’s political reality.”
NC Educators on the Ballot is also encouraging Democratic voters to change their party affiliation to vote for these newly minted “Republican” candidates in the Republican primary. In North Carolina, unaffiliated voters can vote in either party’s primary.
So let’s meet some of these “Republicans”! Thanks to the iVoterguide questionnaire, published last week, we have some insight into the beliefs and policy stances of these otherwise relatively unknown candidates.
First, there is Dr. Christopher Wilson, who is running in the Republican primary for N.C. House District 117 against Republican incumbent Rep. Jennifer Balkcom. Wilson is the director of bands at Polk County Middle School. He recently changed his party affiliation to Republican.
When asked whether the government should protect parents’ fundamental rights to direct their children’s health and education, Wilson said, “The government should support the health and education of teachers, who have the proper training in this arena. Parents lead with their hearts and not their brains.” Not only is this nowhere close to conservative, it is also unconstitutional since the N.C. Supreme Court recently declared parental rights to be a fundamental right.
In another survey question, Wilson denied that physical and social gender transition efforts are abusive to children, saying, “This is up to the parent and child, not the government.” Apparently, Wilson only supports parents’ rights when the parent is seeking to confuse the child or to make medical decisions that permanently damage their body.
When asked on the survey if males should be allowed to compete in female sports and access female private spaces like bathrooms, Wilson took a “neutral” stance and wondered whether the survey questions were meant to “inform voters or to simply divide us.” I would bet that high school and college girls (and their parents) in District 117 would like a straightforward answer to his position. Women and girls have the right to fairness and safety in sports under current N.C. law — thanks to Balkcom, who sponsored the bill in 2023. But N.C. girls still don’t have the right to privacy and safety in public school bathrooms and locker rooms, an issue still to be addressed by the General Assembly.
Next, there is Pamela Zanni, running in House District 81 against Republican incumbent Rep. Larry Potts. Zanni changed her party affiliation to Republican. She wants the minimum wage raised and taxpayer dollars to fund health care for all citizens.
When asked whether unborn life deserves legal protection, she said, “Every situation is different.” And when asked what separation of church and state means to her, she said, “It means keep your beliefs out of my classroom.” None of these stances are anywhere near being in step with the values of the very conservative House District 81 (R+20 CPI).
Then, there is Kelly VanHorn, running in House District 105 against Republican incumbent Rep. Tricia Cotham. VanHorn recently switched her party affiliation to the Republican Party and has voted consistently in Democratic primaries in the past. When asked about parents’ rights, VanHorn said that the state must protect the child if the parents’ beliefs are deemed “discriminatory.” Presumably, this would include children whose parents oppose all forms of gender ideology, including gender transitioning.
All of these candidates were rated “liberal” based on their answers to survey questions and other data by iVoterguide.
Bad actors can be deterred from undermining primary elections by changing state election law. First, N.C. should extend the deadline for voters to change their party affiliation to 90 days before the primary. This reduces the ability of voters to make a last-minute party switch to vote for a candidate who has party-switched. Additionally, the state should have closed or partially closed primaries like 19 other states. Both of these changes would protect the purpose of primaries in North Carolina — which is for each party to pick their own nominee.
Ashley Vaughan is communications director for NC Values Coalition.
