A Purity Test for Democrats

The North Carolina Democratic Party is withholding a key resource from four state legislative candidates who have sided with Republicans in voting to override vetoes from Democratic governors.

At Chair Anderson Clayton’s urging, the state party’s Executive Council enacted new rules during a closed meeting sometime last year to deny access to VoteBuilder—a voter contact software the state party typically distributes at no cost to candidates—to one former and three current state lawmakers.

The program allows candidates to track volunteers, identify possible supporters, and develop donor lists. 

The new policy wasn’t announced publicly. It punishes Democrats who have bucked party leadership and serves as a warning to discourage others from doing so in the future. While Republicans have a supermajority in the state Senate, they need at least one Democratic lawmaker to break ranks to override vetoes in the state House.

Clayton said the party decided to revoke access from anyone who voted last year to override a veto by Gov. Josh Stein. Anyone who had voted in the past to override a veto by former Gov. Roy Cooper and who is now challenging a Democratic incumbent also lost access.

She said the policy applies to state Reps. Carla Cunningham and Nasif Majeed of Mecklenburg County and Shelly Willingham of Edgecombe County, and former Rep. Michael Wray of Northampton County, who is challenging an incumbent in a bid to return to the legislature.

“The state party has restricted some of the access to resources that we have for anybody that’s overridden the governor’s veto in the past election cycles that we’ve seen,” Clayton said in an interview. “We need people that are going to Raleigh to actually represent their district and their constituencies and how they got elected.”

The decision doesn’t affect funding from the state party, which is typically distributed after the primaries. The four seats in question are likely all safe for Democrats; there are no Republicans running in Majeed’s and Cunningham’s districts.

Wray’s campaign said he hasn’t asked the party for any help, including access to VoteBuilder. “We have enough funds, we have enough volunteers, we don’t need their help,” said Brad Crone, a spokesman for Wray’s campaign.

The other three campaigns didn’t immediately provide comment.

Several other current and former lawmakers who have sided with Republicans on override votes haven’t been cut off from VoteBuilder because they aren’t challenging incumbent Democrats, Clayton said. 

State Rep. Garland Pierce of Scotland County overrode nine of Cooper’s vetoes during his eight-year term; U.S. Rep. Don Davis did so four times while serving in the state Senate; state Sen. Paul Lowe of Forsyth County overrode Cooper twice; and state Rep. Charles Smith of Cumberland County and former state Rep. James Gailliard each overrode Cooper once, according to data reviewed by The Assembly.

The change shows how the state party is trying to appease its enthusiastic base in liberal districts who have become frustrated by more moderate members, without alienating more centrist voters in other parts of the state. Lawmakers who have defected from the party on key bills but haven’t voted to override vetoes still have access to the tool. 

State Rep. Dante Pittman of Wilson County, for example, initially voted with Republicans to pass a bill prohibiting state funds from being used for gender transition procedures, but then voted against overriding Stein’s veto. (Majeed, on the other hand, voted with Republicans on that override, and the bill became law.)

Clayton said the new policy aims to ensure lawmakers are in alignment with their voters on key issues, and, at the very least, make their positions known to leadership ahead of override votes.

“As a state party, we do expect Democrats to uphold Democratic values,” Clayton said. “If you are not actively supporting our party right now, I think that that is within the bounds of everything that we could have done in the past. It’s just our party did not take those types of stances before.”

Stein declined to comment.

Clayton praised the governor for inserting himself in two primaries this year. He has endorsed Rev. Rodney Sadler’s bid to unseat Cunningham and backed state Rep. Rodney Pierce’s reelection bid against Wray, who lost by the narrowest margin of any North Carolina legislative primary in 2024. 

“Those are good decisions for our governor to be making right now,” Clayton said.