Former NCGOP director to lead 'election integrity' efforts, serve as election board liaison, says NC Auditor

The leaders of all 100 county election boards in North Carolina will now report to and be trained by a longtime Republican Party operative, Republican state Auditor Dave Boliek has told some county elections officials.

The hiring of Dallas Woodhouse, who led a series of deep-pocketed conservative political groups before becoming executive director of the North Carolina Republican Party, wasn't publicly announced. His hiring was revealed in a letter sent to a select group of elections officials, obtained by WRAL and later confirmed by Boliek's office.

"To assist in your efforts to ensure election integrity while encouraging maximum participation in our elections, I have appointed Dallas Woodhouse as my liaison," Boliek wrote in the letter.

Woodhouse referred a request for comment to Boliek spokesman Randy Brechbiel, who said Woodhouse wouldn't continue engaging in partisan political work while also overseeing elections for the state.

Woodhouse, who led the NCGOP from 2015-19, most recently worked as the North Carolina director for the group American Majority. That group explicitly describes its goal: to help Republicans and hurt Democrats in elections.

"The Progressive Left is set on flipping states that have been reliably 'red' into liberal-leaning 'blue' states," the American Majority website says. "This is done with permanent campaigning which does not cease. And only those who understand, anticipate, plan, and yes, spend, on the Right have hope of combating it. We fight it. Every single day. We are American Majority. We are the nation’s premier conservative training organization, helping put in place a truly unique, separate political infrastructure — for use before, during and after election dates."

A spokesman for the State Board of Elections, which Boliek oversees, didn't respond to a request for comment on Woodhouse's hiring.

A history of conservative advocacy

Woodhouse stepped down from his role leading the state Republican Party in 2019, as election fraud and corruption scandals rocked the party.

The GOP nominee for a congressional district outside of Charlotte, Mark Harris, was blocked from being certified as the winner of a 2018 race for U.S. House after evidence emerged of an absentee ballot fraud scheme orchestrated by some of his campaign operatives. Woodhouse fought hard to stop that investigation from derailing Harris' campaign, but ultimately Harris himself agreed that a new election should be held after his son testified against him during an elections board hearing. Harris wasn't among those criminally charged, and he returned to politics last year, winning a race for that same seat.

At the same time that election fraud scandal was unfolding, the NCGOP chairman, Robin Hayes, pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI as it investigated bribery attempts allegedly made by the state Republican Party's largest donor at the time, insurance magnate Greg Lindberg, who has also since pleaded guilty to money laundering and fraud. Woodhouse was not personally implicated in either scandal and has continued to be active in conservative politics, including as a strategist for the Civitas Institute and a writer for the Carolina Journal — two prominent pro-business groups funded by GOP megadonor Art Pope — and, most recently his work for the American Majority group.

'Eyes and ears' in elections process

Woodhouse's new role as a liaison to oversee elections officials across the state is a newly created job. At both the county and state levels, elections are overseen by five-member boards consisting of three Republicans and two Democrats, who are supposed to work in a nonpartisan — or at least bipartisan — fashion when coming up with election rules, investigating campaign finance violations, auditing allegations of fraud or deciding whether to certify results.

"Mr. Woodhouse will serve as my eyes and ears on the ground in our elections process," Boliek wrote, adding that Woodhouse "will soon coordinate a series of training events for you in your new role."

Boliek took over control of the elections board after Republican state lawmakers changed state law following the 2024 elections to shift control of elections from the governor to the auditor. The change came within days of Democrat Josh Stein winning the race for governor and Boliek, a close ally of Republican legislative leaders, winning the race for auditor.

Similar efforts by Republican lawmakers to strip the governor's control over elections have been ruled unconstitutional multiple times in the last decade — and were also rejected at the ballot box by voters when proposed as a constitutional amendment.

The latest change is still being litigated. Stein calls it an unconstitutional power grab. But a Republican-majority panel on the state Court of Appeals has allowed Boliek to take control of elections, at least while the lawsuit plays out.