Wesley Knott will continue to serve as chair of the Wake County Democratic Party (WCDP) following a successful vote of confidence in his leadership at Saturday’s county party convention.
Some Wake Democrats called for Knott’s resignation last week based on his decision to endorse Nida Allam in the recent competitive primary for North Carolina’s fourth congressional district. Knott called the vote of confidence himself, and said he would resign if it failed. Seventy-four percent of convention delegates voted for him to continue in his role—either because they supported his decision to endorse Allam, or just didn’t think it was worth firing him over.
Knott endorsed Allam over incumbent Congresswoman Valerie Foushee in December, bucking the tradition of party chairs staying neutral in primaries. He went on to appear in a campaign advertisement for Allam that was critical of Foushee, speak in support of Allam at a rally headlined by Bernie Sanders, post about Allam on his personal social media, and author an op-ed in The Duke Chronicle that praised Allam and suggested Foushee is corrupt. Knott was identified as the local party chair at the rally, in the op-ed, and on his social media account. (Foushee won the race by a narrow margin.)
Two complaints were filed last week to the North Carolina Democratic Party (NCDP) calling for Knott’s removal, claiming his endorsement and campaign activities for Allam violated NCDP rules. Knott said he expects both complaints “will be found to be meritless.” The NCDP’s council or review, a special statewide committee, will make the final determination. The vote of confidence is separate from two petitions seeking Knott’s ouster, but suggests he could weather removal procedures.
Knott’s naysayers argued that he abused his visibility and authority as WCDP chair to unfairly elevate one primary candidate over the other. Though Knott endorsed Allam personally, and not on the party’s behalf, they claimed that line is too blurry since he is the party’s face and voice in Wake County. Other critics were offended by Knott’s negative comments about Foushee, a Black woman incumbent with decades of experience in public service and a progressive voting record.
“I know there are a lot of people in that [74%] that disagree very strongly with the decisions that I made in this primary election,” Knott said during the convention, which was held on Zoom and streamed on YouTube. “Let me just say how moving it is for me for you to trust my continued leadership. I recognize it not as a vote of agreement in all of my decisions, but in your trust for us to be able to turn the page together.”
He added that “there is a lot of work to do to repair a lot of trust, to build and strengthen a lot of relationships,” with the people who wanted him to resign. “I’m committed to doing that [work],” he said, “but I’m very excited to turn the page with you all in November. We’ve got a lot of elections to win.”
Last year was a successful one for the WCDP. Democrats won 33 out of 34 municipal elections in Wake County, including in the county’s more conservative suburbs. During the convention, Knott announced that the party’s get-out-the-vote efforts—canvassing, phone banks, robocalls, text reminders, and more—more than doubled turnout among low-propensity Democratic and left-leaning voters.
“Every election that was decided by fewer than 400 or 500 votes, we made the difference on,” Knott said during the convention. “We are the wave.”
This year, the Wake Dems are working to get Roy Cooper elected to the U.S. Senate, Anita Earls re-elected to the state supreme court, and Democrats elected in the state legislature.
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