Trigger warning: discussion of child sex abuse
As a North Carolinian, I swelled with pride when Kay Hagan upended Elizabeth Dole in 2008, as it returned Jesse Helms’ former Senate seat to the Democrats. Even though I now live in West Michigan, the race for that seat has me smiling even more inside, because all indications are that former governor Roy Cooper is well on his way to flipping that seat back after a two-term interregnum by Republican Thom Tillis. Cooper’s Republican challenger, former Republican National Committee chairman Michael Whatley, is running what has to be one of the worst campaigns in recent memory.
Well, last night, Whatley hit a new low. The Associated Press recently learned that a pastor who opened a Whatley campaign event in late August was a two-time convicted child predator. However, when asked for comment, Whatley’s campaign responded with what amounted to a shrug.
On Aug. 28, when Whatley traveled to New Bern, the second biggest city in northeastern North Carolina, for a campaign event hosted by the Craven County Republican Party. Whatley headlined the event with Dr. Oz. Before Whatley took the podium, Daimon L. King, pastor of New Beginnings Celebration Church in New Bern, opened the event by asking for “integrity and honesty” upon the gathering, and that God would undo attacks that have “hammered the conservative movement.” According to the AP, King has become one of the most prominent Black conservatives in eastern North Carolina.
But King also has a very sordid past. Back in 1997, while volunteering as an assistant with the marching band at Athens Drive High School in Raleigh, he was arrested for molesting a 15-year-old student. He was convicted in 1998 and sentenced to six-and-a-half years in prison, but was paroled after five years according to North Carolina Department of Corrections records. Almost 12 years later, King pleaded guilty to molesting a 16-year-old relative and served almost three years in prison. As a result, King has to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life.
When the AP tried to ask Whatley about it, his campaign responded in the worst way possible.
Whatley’s campaign declined to make him available for an interview. In a statement, campaign spokesman DJ Griffin said Whatley did not know King and the event “was NOT planned nor organized by the Whatley campaign nor did the campaign invite any of the guests.”
He emphasized that King had been “invited by the hosts,” which he identified as the Craven County Republican Party.
Officials with the county party could not be reached for comment.
Weak sauce, Michael. Especially after you previously came under fire for your past ties to former state party official Harvey West, who pleaded guilty to sex crimes years before becoming a congressional district committee chairman while Whatley was North Carolina GOP chairman.
It says a lot about the GOP in eastern North Carolina that this monster has any kind of clout. And these are some of the same people wanting to wage pogroms against the trans community? They can take their hypocrisy and stick it where the sun don’t shine.
Almost as outrageous as Whatley’s cowardice is that of the media in the Greenville/Washington/New Bern market. This guy is a powerhouse in area GOP politics, and yet the first we knew of his past was yesterday? However, there’s still a way to hold him to account. King uses his church’s Facebook page almost like his personal page–an obvious end run around Meta’s ban on convicted sex offenders having profiles on Facebook, Instagram, or Threads. Report him here.
We’ll get straight to the point: The financial hardships that Daily Kos is facing this year are tough.
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