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For the last two years or so, there’s been a debate among North Carolina Democrats in Raleigh: party of Big Tent or party of Little Dissent?
It arguably began in the spring of 2022 when Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper made the unusual move of injecting himself in a Democratic primary. He backed challenger Val Applewhite against incumbent state Sen. Kirk deViere to represent part of Cumberland County.
DeViere had often voted with the Republicans, and Cooper said Applewhite would be a “tireless advocate who isn’t afraid to stand up to Right Wing Republicans.”
Applewhite won.
The urge to purge continued in this election cycle.
Ahead of the March primary, The Assembly wrote about efforts to primary four moderate Democratic lawmakers who had occasionally voted with the GOP: Cecil Brockman of Guilford County, Michael Wray of Northampton, Shelly Willingham of Edgecombe and Carla Cunningham of Mecklenburg.
The story noted that the Young Democrats, College Democrats and Association of Teen Democrats said the lawmakers needed to “start acting like Democrats and stop helping NC Republicans pass some of the most brazenly anti-Black legislation” in years.
(Brockman, Willingham and Cunningham are Black.)
Brockman barely survived a tough primary challenge. Wray did not.
Willingham won easily. As did Cunningham, who defeated Vermanno Bowman by 70 percentage points in her northeast Mecklenburg seat.
HB 10 vote
Cunningham, a registered nurse, was first elected 12 years ago. Her late husband, Pete Cunningham, who died in 2010, also served in the House from Mecklenburg County.
This year’s primary was the second time another Democrat has run against her. She has been challenged by Republicans in only two general elections.
If the primarying was meant to send Cunningham a message, it hasn’t been received.
Lawmakers this week took a high-profile vote on whether to override Cooper’s veto of HB 10, which would expand Opportunity Scholarships (the GOP’s preferred branding) or vouchers for private schools (the Democratic Party’s view). The bill also requires sheriffs to work with Immigration and Customs Enforcement to detain immigrants suspected of being in the country illegally.
Cunningham voted for HB 10 earlier this fall. And leading up to the override vote, the progressive group Carolina Forward urged voters to contact Cunningham and urge her to back the governor.
Cunningham, Willingham and Wray ended up voting to override Cooper’s veto of HB 10.
Because four Republican legislators didn’t vote, the three Democrat’s support of the bill was critical for the override to succeed. If they had voted with their party, HB 10 wouldn’t have had the necessary 60% of votes.
In a speech on the House floor Tuesday, Cunningham said HB 10 would “adopt a common-sense approach to public safety — ensuring that federal and local agencies work together to safeguard our communities.”
In an interview with Inside Politics, she said the ICE requirement was as much about finding potential terrorists and criminals as people who have crossed the border illegally. (The Trump administration may have a different idea as it has promised to deport millions of people.)
The bill also provides funding for two new jail inspectors statewide, and Cunningham said that will be critical for inmates in Mecklenburg County detention centers. Eighteen inmates have died in the county since 2018, when Garry McFadden became sheriff.
But Cunningham says she had a harder time deciding to vote for a bill that expands vouchers. Democrats argue that will decimate public schools.
Cunningham said, in her mind, the issue was settled when voters more or less accepted the status quo two weeks ago.
“It was a very difficult decision for me. I’ve never supported school vouchers,” she said.
She added: “If the voters don’t want Opportunity Scholarships they can go to the polls, and tell their elected officials that’s not what they want. But that’s not what happened in the last cycle. Opportunity Scholarships were already on the table when we went in this election and people voted the same way.”
(One could argue, however, that many candidates were running in gerrymandered seats, so there wasn’t a clear opportunity for voters to vote up or down on vouchers. Democrats also picked up one seat in the House, breaking the Republican supermajority.)
Carolina Forward Executive Director Blair Reeves said Cunningham’s “disappointing vote on HB10 goes against the advice of Mecklenburg County's own local law enforcement and will make community policing that much more difficult. We wish Rep. Cunningham had listened to the input of both the constituents in her district as well as Mecklenburg's own law enforcement, and she should share her reasons for doing otherwise."
A low profile, like almost all Mecklenburg legislators
While she voted for HB 10 and for the GOP-written budget last year to enact Medicaid expansion (a move that angered some Democrats), Cunningham has also stuck with Democrats on rejecting a 12-week abortion ban and limits on transgender rights.
Cunningham said she’s been there for Democrats, but said there is tension between her and the Democratic caucus.
“I’m not aligning with what they want me to do,” she said. “And I’ve expressed to them I wasn’t elected to come to Raleigh to represent another entity other than my constituents.”
One challenge with a pressure campaign is that most Mecklenburg voters have no idea who Carla Cunningham is. In fact, most voters here have no idea who any of their legislators are.
While a rural legislator may be something of a big deal representing an entire county, there are 13 House members from Mecklenburg.
Charlotte City Council members have a higher profile. Same with Mecklenburg commissioners, and many members of the school board.
Occasionally there are state legislators who become well known (Jeff Jackson and Tricia Cotham), but for the most part they are interchangeable Democrats toiling in a city three hours away.
A pressure campaign on a mostly anonymous public figure will take a long time to succeed.
One more thought
There is another element to the Democratic Party’s problems with their aisle-crossing House members.
We are less than three weeks from an election in which the Democratic Party’s coalition of white progressives, Black and Latino voters started to unravel.
Should Cunningham, Brockman or Willingham lose reelection, it will almost certainly be in a primary. The Democrats will not lose any net seats.
But it will represent something bigger: A party moving to the left, while some of its core voters stay in place.
“When you primary your moderate candidates then it leaves a bad taste because the Democratic Party is supposed to be a big tent,” Cunningham said.
She said the party is OK with far-left Democrats.
“But when you get in the middle, then you have a problem,” she said.
