Statement on Dishonest Attacks Against Jon Hardister

I have seen a primary opponent of Jon Hardister running attack ads against him, calling him a RINO. These attacks are so far from the truth they are not dishonest; they are flat-out lies.

In 2023, someone in Guilford County, a true RINO, stole a Guilford County School Board seat from a legally and legitimately appointed replacement for a Republican who resigned to take his seat on the county commissioners.

Jon Hardister, who represents part of Guilford County, wrote and helped pass legislation that, for the first time in over 100 years, exercised the state’s authority to kick someone on a local board out of office to remove the RINO from office and replace him with the duly elected Republican.

After removal from office, the RINO switched his party affiliation to unaffiliated, then to Democrat. He has now switched back to being unaffiliated again and is attempting to run against the duly elected Republican officeholder.

Jon Hardister is the furthest thing from RINO; he has actively fought RINOs in government, even going so far as to invoke 100-year-old precedent to remove a true RINO from office.

The bill in question is Senate Bill 9, and you can find out more about the backstory and the bill itself in a writeup on the historical precedent I wrote on Conservative Clearinghouse after it passed.

Statement Urging the Senate to Pass SB9

Over the past few months, I have been proud to work with the GCGOP and Rep Hardister to get legislation passed in the house to help place the lawful representative of GCS District 3 in his seat.

SB9 is now in the Senate, where it should move expeditiously so that Michael Logan can be seated at the next school board meeting. This week, please consider calling or emailing Senator Berger's office and demand that SB9 be calendared and voted on by this upcoming weekend.

Currently, District 3 is fraudulently represented by a representative whose very first vote was to affirm his - and Guilford County School's - commitment to Critical Race Theory.

It is time to restore District 3 to the lawful and correct Conservative representation that it deserves.

Statement Regarding the Censure of Thom Tillis

I have been involved in the Republican Party for almost a decade. For over 2/3 of my adult life, I have and will continue to serve the Republican Party and elect Republicans up and down the ballot. I am honored and privileged to serve on multiple committees and as staff to county parties and campaigns. But those who know me know that I live a relatively private life despite my well-established online presence. This is because I, like many of you, value privacy.

One of the most private things about my life that even only a handful of people know about me, even outside politics, until now, is that I am bisexual. For the last decade, I have not only been a Republican but an LGBT Republican. I only bring this up because I was, frankly, taken aback by our convention’s decision this weekend to censure Thom Tillis for his support of same-sex marriage.

Aside from the obvious that it is an abuse of the censure authority to be censuring for policy disputes, we should be thanking – not punishing Senator Tillis. The bill in question was going to pass, but thanks to Senator Tillis, it passed with an amendment that protected our businesses, our churches, and our communities from being dragged into court for refusing to bow to the predations of the radical left.

I understand that marriage is a deeply sacred religious institution, and I believe the compromise in protecting that institution is that those who believe same-sex marriages violate that institution should not be forced to participate, and thanks to Senator Tillis, those people won’t be prosecuted for refusing to do so.

Our party has always been a big tent party. Whether we were under the leadership of Lincoln, Reagan, or Trump, we have always maintained that our most essential and sacred value is Individual Liberty. Whether it is your individual right to refuse to participate in a same-sex marriage or your individual right to have a same-sex legal union through marriage or otherwise.

Same-sex marriage is settled law and will remain settled law. As of June 2021, a record 70% of Americans support same-sex marriage; that number is up from 67% the year prior. That number only increases as time goes on.

I have been with my wife for going on 5 years now, but before that time, when I was dating and talking to other guys, something interesting always seemed to come up when I mentioned I was a Republican. Bisexual men, and even gay men, who just wanted to live their lives as I do, in peace and without forcing it on others, would tell me that they really like the Republican Party, but in their view, the Republican Party didn’t seem to like them.

There is a huge segment of the LGBT community – yes, even some of the T – that is not in your face with their sexuality. They, like me, don’t make their sexuality a core part of their personality, but rather a small puzzle piece in a huge 1 billion-piece puzzle that makes up the complex DNA that makes us who we are. They don’t care if you acknowledge them, if you know they are gay every time you see them, or if you conform to their worldview. Because they, too, believe in individual freedom. Unfortunately, I believe our party is too caught up in listening to the loudest voices on both sides of the aisle right now and is forgetting about the forgotten men and women of this country in the middle who are desperate to join the party of individual freedom but are quickly turned away by reactionary politics such as what we saw this weekend. We should be embracing those in the middle, especially as the Democrats run as far to the Left as possible and continue to alienate more and more middle-of-the-aisle Americans.

I am not a particularly religious person, so in closing, I will say this, Thom Tillis has my continued support, and he has my appreciation for protecting my friend's religious freedoms, even when they are missing the forest for the trees. I urge my friends and my colleagues in the Republican Party to unite and get ready for a very tough 2024 election. Our Republican party continues to always have my support regardless of the disagreements we have. I look forward to continuing to elect Republicans for years to come.