The Caucus: Democrats Put Problem Children in Time Out

Think About What You Did

As folks might remember, I spoke with NCGOP Chairman Jason Simmons about his party overtaking Democrats in voter registrations earlier this year and his messaging heading into 2026. Simmons vowed to keep the state party out of the primaries.

But Democrats appear to be embracing intraparty competition. 

In an interview, North Carolina Democratic Party Chairwoman Anderson Clayton said the NCDP’s executive council—at her urging—decided to withhold an important party resource from certain candidates who have voted to override legislative vetoes by Gov. Josh Stein or former Gov. Roy Cooper.

Clayton said Reps. Shelly Willingham of Edgecombe County and Carla Cunningham and Nasif Majeed of Mecklenburg County are subject to the new policy since they sided with Republicans and voted to override Stein last year. Former Rep. Michael Wray, who frequently voted to override Cooper’s vetoes and is squaring off against a more liberal incumbent in Rep. Rodney Pierce, will also be running without the party resources.

“We need people that are going to Raleigh to actually represent their district, their constituencies, and how they got elected,” Clayton said.

Clayton said she’s withholding from the four candidates access to VoteBuilder, an important voter-contact software that Democratic candidates use to track volunteers and supporters and develop lists of potential donors.

Stein has publicly endorsed Pierce’s reelection bid and is also supporting Cunningham’s top primary challenger, Rev. Rodney Sadler. 

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

Thanks for reading The Caucus, a politics newsletter anchored by Bryan Anderson. Reach us with tips or ideas at politics@theassemblync.com.

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2026 Messaging

The Assembly also spoke with Clayton about her plan to prevent Republicans from securing a state legislative supermajority and improve her party’s brand.

The following Q&A has been lightly edited for brevity.

What’s at stake in the upcoming primaries?

What we’re seeing right now is that communities across North Carolina continue to suffer with uncertainty from an administration that hasn’t respected working-class families.

What we see in a governor like Roy Cooper, our next U.S. senator, is someone that, to me, has always focused on making sure that working-class people in North Carolina have what they need.

Republicans are now in charge of the state and county elections boards. What concerns do you have about voting access?

Republicans are targeting college students, and it’s our job as a party to make sure that we’re on the ground on those campuses, helping people understand that Republicans want to take away your right to vote on this campus. They’ve decided that your vote is enough of a threat to do that and to try to strip those voting sites.

Republicans say it’s hard to retain poll workers for religious reasons on Sundays and that it costs too much to run some of the college campus voting sites. What do you make of those arguments?

Western Carolina University is one of the most visited in the county for voters that come in for early voting. It’s the same thing when you look at Appalachian State University and their polling location. App State was the highest visited early voting polling location because it is so accessible to people in communities. 

I think what you’re going to see from Republicans is only excuses right now for why they want to disenfranchise college students.

Is the state Democratic Party going to make any endorsements? 

One thing the party’s done is really given access to all the candidates up and down the ballot, regardless of what race you’re running for. We try to make the party a place where we equalize the opportunity to resources. 

Free VoteBuilder access for anybody that’s running this election cycle is something that we give out. We’re the only state party in the country right now that does that actually.

Is that offered to all candidates, whether they’re incumbents or not?

Yes, it is.

Gov. Stein has become involved in primaries. Are those two decisions you support, or are you staying out of it?

Those are good decisions for our governor to be making right now. The state party has also restricted some of the access to resources that we have for anybody that’s overridden the governor’s veto in past election cycles or this past year.

So if a lawmaker overrides Stein’s vetoes they have to use their own resources?

As a state party, we do expect Democrats to uphold Democratic values. The party has resources that we are able to then restrict. We define that by overriding the governor’s veto. 

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.

What would be the message to more independent-minded Democrats like Shelly Willingham or Michael Wray who might say litmus tests have caused people to dislike Democrats?

The districts that you just referenced are Democratic districts that vote 60% overwhelmingly with a party that then would support voter enfranchisement, justice for our immigrant communities, economic development, access across rural North Carolina, healthcare access for rural North Carolina, public education for rural North Carolina.

Everybody, regardless of party affiliation, cares about those values. And right now we have Democrats that are sitting in [safe Democratic] districts that are not upholding those right now.

DEI Crackdown

State House majority leader Brenden Jones has taken interest in a video that the nonprofit Accuracy in Media is promoting as evidence that Winston-Salem is defying President Trump’s ban on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs.

In the video, a woman Accuracy in Media identifies as Julie Puckett, the city’s former equity assurance administrator, says that Winston-Salem’s leaders support DEI and are considering adopting “alternative terminology.” “We’re trying to flex with the times so that we can continue the work,” she says. 

Accuracy in Media, which says it has “led the fight” against antisemitism and DEI in schools, labeled the footage “undercover” and did not disclose who recorded it or when. The video says that the group’s executive director, Adam Guillette, returned to Winston-Salem “to speak with Puckett directly,” but she had retired. Guillette instead spoke with Bob Thompson, the city’s language access coordinator. In additional footage labeled “undercover,” Thompson appears to affirm that “the work continues on.”

The video has been circulated on X by Corey DeAngelis, a school choice booster with more than 200,000 followers, and Libs of TikTok, an account with more than 4 million followers that has been influential in setting the Republican agenda on culture war issues. 

Jones apparently noticed the video through a post by Sloan Rachmuth, a conservative political activist and podcaster who ran Michele Morrow’s campaign for state superintendent of education in 2024.

Jones, of Tabor City, has been raising his political profile through dramatic House oversight hearings. In December, as chairman of the House Select Committee on Oversight and Reform, he grilled the superintendent of Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools and the school district’s board chairman over whether they were complying with the Parents’ Bill of Rights, a state law that requires school districts to notify parents if a students asks to use another name or pronoun, among other things. Jones threw picture books he deemed “trash” over his shoulder and told the district leaders, “You weren’t just indoctrinating; you were grooming.”

“Keep an eye on your mailbox Winston,” Jones wrote on X Friday. 

Deborah Clark, a spokesperson for the city of Winston-Salem, said the comments in the video “do not reflect the policies, values, or positions of the City in any capacity.” She said that Winston-Salem had eliminated all DEI programs to comply with executive orders and proposed state legislation and that it “has always complied with legal guidelines and will continue to adhere to any finalized legislative changes.”

— Carli Brosseau

Around the State: North Carolina continues to struggle to fill state worker vacancies (WRAL); Cary’s former town manager made some questionable purchases (News & Observer); North Carolina leaders reflect on the legacy Martin Luther King Jr. had in the state (PBS NC).

Upcoming Birthdays: Rep.Beth Helfrich on Wednesday, January 21; Rep. Ted Davis on Friday, January 23; Rep. Charles Miller and Sens. Gale Adcock and Natalie Murdock on Sunday, January 25.

Let us know what’s on your radar at politics@theassemblync.com.