Pushback Against Wake Dems’ Endorsements Continues

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Good morning, readers.

The Wake County Democratic Party continues to fend off criticism over its endorsements.

Earlier this summer, county party leaders received a letter from several local Democrats and former elected officials asking the party not to endorse this election cycle in nonpartisan local races. Several of these races (for some Raleigh City Council seats for example) feature Democrats running against Democrats. The letter’s signatories argued that endorsing between Democrats would be divisive. 

The party went ahead and made its endorsements anyway, which had the predictable effect of disappointing some Democrats. 

In late August, Seth Morris, a local attorney, District E resident, and member of the county party’s Executive Committee, filed a complaint with the NC Democratic Party. It alleged that the county party’s endorsement of Raleigh City Council District E incumbent Christina Jones over her Democratic challenger John Cerqueira violated the party’s code of conduct and asked the state party to overturn the county party’s endorsement of Jones.

The state party’s Council of Review dismissed the complaint stating that, though the facts Morris laid out in the complaint may be true, the county party is free to endorse whomever it wants and that the Council of Review doesn’t have the authority to overturn the endorsement. 

Still, the endorsements have caused a ripple effect within the party and have even affected its work with the North Carolina Coordinated Campaign, the campaign arm of the state Democratic party that works to elect Democrats at the federal and state levels and provides resources to local candidates. 

“This campaign from a couple of people in Raleigh to stymie our normal work efforts because of a couple of seats they were worried about … has had a negative impact on every single race in Wake County from the bottom to the top,” says Wake County Democratic Party Executive Council chair Kevyn Creech, who is responsible for leading the endorsement process. “It’s very short-sighted and unfortunate and incredibly and unnecessarily divisive.”

Read more here. Have a good Thursday. 

—Jane

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