NC political candidate, who denies Nazi beliefs, will be allowed on 2024 ballot
A Republican candidate for a state legislative seat, who denies accusations from fellow Republicans that he's a neo-Nazi, will be allowed to run for office in 2024, the State Board of Elections decided on Tuesday.
The board's unanimous vote in favor of Joseph Gibson was related not to his views but rather to his criminal record.
Gibson has a felony record from Connecticut in the 1990s, and Republican Party insiders have been using that to try blocking him from running for office this year. But there's no evidence Gibson is ineligible to vote or run for office, according to rulings from both the county elections board and, now, the state board.
On Tuesday Gibson said he's expecting the GOP to now apologize for the “character assassination, political assassination," targeted at him as he moves forward with his challenge during the primary election against state Rep. Reece Pyrtle, R-Rockingham.
Gibson finished his probation over a decade ago, which state law requires for people to regain their voting rights. And although his political opponents wanted him to provide paperwork regarding his restoration of voting rights from Connecticut — which he has not done — both elections boards decided that it's not required. His testimony that his rights have been restored, combined with the lack of any evidence of further felony convictions since he got off probation over a decade ago, were viewed as enough proof.
The Rockingham County election board's vote split 3-2 along party lines. The board's Republican members tried to prevent him from running yet were outvoted by the Democratic members, who voted to keep him on the ballot.
On Tuesday the state board's vote was a unanimous 4-0 decision — one Democratic member was out sick — to uphold the county-level vote. The two Republican members of the state board indicated they weren't necessarily happy about keeping Gibson on the ballot but that they felt they should respect the local board's choice, since it had heard hours worth of testimony on the evidence.
"I'm leaning, reluctantly, toward the conclusion that we do affirm the county board's decision," said Stacey Eggers IV, one of the state board's GOP members, just before the vote to do just that."
The political battle has gained a higher profile than many such candidate challenges, in part because of the GOP's concerted push to block Gibson from running.
One of the GOP insiders fighting said it could embarrass the Republican Party if Gibson is on the ballot, accusing him of holding neo-Nazi beliefs. Stephen Wiley, the North Carolina House GOP Caucus director, told WRAL last week that he believes that's the only reason why the Rockingham County board's Democratic members voted to put Gibson on the ballot, even as the board's Republican members voted to block his candidacy.
"Democrats decided they wanted a Nazi in the Republican primary, so that if even one person votes for him they can say 'Look, Republicans support Nazis,'" Wiley said Friday.
Gibson strongly denies that he’s a Nazi.
“I’ve never been to an NSM rally,” he told WRAL on Friday, referring to the National Socialist Movement, one of the nation’s largest white supremacist political groups. “I’ve never supported them. But I think that’s coming from my podcast because I have had them call in. But I’ve had Black Panthers call in. I have all sorts of people call in. I believe in the First Amendment.”
Wiley said that in between the county election board’s first vote and the second vote, a report from the Anti-Defamation League, a national pro-Jewish group, began circulating that showed screenshots of Republican politicians — including Gibson — supporting the National Socialist Movement or other white supremacist groups.
Thurman Hampton, one of the Democrats on the Rockingham elections board, told WRAL on Friday it's completely false that the board had that in mind when they voted to let him on the ballot.
“How would I know he’s a Nazi?” Hampton said, adding that if the GOP was concerned about that, they never brought it up during either of the hearings. Those hearings focused solely on whether Gibson was legally eligible to be on the ballot, based on his previous felony convictions. Having neo-Nazi beliefs does not disqualify someone from running for office, due to the First Amendment.
"We were not there to talk about his credibility, or his suitability, or anything like that," Hampton said. "It was one simple question: Was he eligible?"
