After Selma Mayor Tells GOP To ‘Mind Your Business,’ County Republicans Fire Back
SELMA — The Johnston County Republican Party is pushing back after Selma Mayor Byron McAllister criticized the party during his inaugural address last week, telling county Republicans to “mind your business” and accusing outside political groups of interfering in the town’s municipal elections.
In a statement provided Tuesday, Johnston County GOP Chair Marshall Conrad said McAllister’s comments ignored what he described as the real impact of the mayor’s policies on Selma residents.
“Mayor McAllister has hurt many longtime residents of Selma with skyrocketing property taxes and unaffordable utility deposits,” Conrad said. “The JCGOP supported Republican Adele Walker this cycle and while we tried to remain civil in this past election, I am not so sure future Republican boards can let these costly decisions go unanswered.”
McAllister, who won reelection in November, used his Dec. 9 swearing-in speech to criticize both the Johnston County Republican Party and progressive organizing group Down Home North Carolina, saying he opposed outside influence in Selma’s local elections.
“JoCo Republican Party – we haven’t heard a word from you in years, now you’re interested? Mind your business,” McAllister said during the address.
Conrad said involvement in local races is central to the party’s mission and suggested future election cycles may be more openly contested.
“Getting Republicans elected is our business. It’s our top priority,” Conrad said.
The GOP chairman closed his statement with a biblical reference directed at the mayor. “I’ll just leave the Mayor with Proverbs 16:18, ‘Pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall.'”
McAllister’s inaugural address was marked by sharp criticism of his election opponent, former local officials and what he described as poor communication within town government, alongside praise for Selma’s growth and development.
The exchange underscores lingering political tensions following a contentious election season and signals that Republican party involvement in future municipal races in Selma may intensify.
Discover more from JoCo Report
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
AMEN to what the GOP chairman closed his statement with a biblical reference directed at the mayor. “I’ll just leave the Mayor with Proverbs 16:18, ‘Pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall.’”
I will add Galatians 6:7-8 (NIV) “Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life.”
Quoting Scripture at a political opponent may feel righteous, but it’s a dodge, not an argument. The Bible isn’t a prop for partisan point-scoring, and selectively wielding verses as a warning or threat cheapens both faith and public discourse. If there’s a real policy failure or ethical concern, name it plainly and defend it on its merits—don’t outsource accountability to cherry-picked verses while avoiding facts, responsibility, and civic reasoning.
Faith is meant to guide one’s own conduct, not to be weaponized against others in a secular democracy.
?? In ALL thy ways acknowledge him, and he will direct your path PROVERBS 3:6. (God instructs us to look to him for EVERY THING.. decisions, guidance etc. ). No, the Bible scripture is not for church only… It’s a Christian’s daily guidance as is our Father in Heaven
You are republicans, why are you quoting the bible when you go against everything that is in it. As the Bible says, “You brood of Vipers”
“You brood of Vipers” is not a biblical reference to Republicans, it is Archie using a bible verse for his own means of addressing Republicans. You should be careful with that.
AMEN!
AMEN and AMEN…….
I’m not a Selma resident, so I won’t comment on that. However, Mr Conrad’s comments about property taxes are hilarious. It’s a county wide problem, some of us are paying attention.
I’m not for this mayor. But who gives a dang about the gop Get out of here with that mess. The gop will never represent Selma. Keep wishing. Oh and also the GOP will be losing Smithfield
McAllister keep doing a good job🙏🏽🙏🏽🙏🏽
Amen to that he has done better then any other mayor..he is changing Selma to be a clean and nice place to live..
So the utilities deposits have been high for the last 10 years, but we are blaming the current mayor? Property taxes went up everywhere, I didn’t know Selma mayor had any control over Pine Levels property taxes 🤷🏻♀️
The people voted for the mayor they wanted, Walker campaign was weak, it highlighted street construction, and over looked the ridiculous light bills. Guess Selma won’t get the support they need from the county level, however the growth and development will highlight Selma over Smithfield and Clayton. 100% agree about misuse of scripture.. scripture addresses the inner man, the spiritual being, and not to be used as a weapon of discouragement, discord, or to discredit an individual, it is for inspiration of the believers
The GOP? Those are the same dudes who erected the Klan sign in Smithfield.
Please see the documentary film on The History of the Democrat Party by filmmaker, Dinesh D’Souza: The GOP of LINCOLN had nothing to do with that sign here. Thank you!
You are delusional if you believe modern democrats are the same as those Jim Crow democrats.
To be fair…probably NOT. That sign was circa 1967. Johnston’s County was majority voter base democrats (22,572 Democrats vs. 2,704 Republicans per quick search). And most importantly IT WAS 1967…tracing blame back THAT far seems a bit of a reach…although many keep throwing that out there. It is just history…the important thing is to remember it…so that it doesn’t repeat itself.
Nope thats all democrats
Negative sir. The Democratic party established the KKK to establish white supremacy and defeat the efforts of the republican parties efforts towards racial equality. You can google it if you don’t believe me.
The media has painted a portrait of Democrats being for equality and republicans being racist but if you look at the actions of the parties… I mean really look at what each has done you will see it still holds true. If you get your news from the liberal owned media or listen to what the dems SAY then you won’t get the truth. If you think promising handouts means someone is not racist then you are being misled and also being racist yourself thinking only minorities benefit from the huge government waste programs full of fraud and abuse…Even Trump as much as I hate the person I have to admit he has made life better for ALL Americans. I could make a list a mile long but it doesn’t matter people still believe what they want to believe and him being an A hole doesn’t help his case much. It’s his personality I hate but I can see by doing real research on the national debt , interest rates, inflation etc that his policies are working
You might want to read some history, KKK is a Democrat organization, Alice.
I AM SORRY TO INFORM YOU LADY BUT KKK IS A WHITE MAN THING. BE BLESSED!
Absolute Fact!
Negative. That was the southern Democratic Party. It was founded to try to keep the Republican Party from achieving equality.
Of course things have changed since the formation of the liberal media brainwashing everyone to think the Democratic Party is FoR equality now but they are just for votes, by making false promises of handouts and illegal immigration and pushing for a Islamic state. If you really pay attention and ignore what the democratic candidate say but instead look at their actions it will become clear. They are trying to get reliance on the government from voters to create power by offering free housing food healthcare. That’s not opportunity that’s slavery to the government. Convince the people they are being oppressed and need help from big government then use it to control them. If you look at what Trump has done to this country. I mean the real results not the media reports or the disgusting things he says but really look at their actions real numbers. Inflation, employment, interest rates etc.. you’ll see we ARE better off.
I Crop My Row:
AI Overview and FYI:
“The Ku Klux Klan (KKK) sign in Smithfield, NC, which stood for a decade in the late 1960s and 1970s, was erected by the Johnston County chapter of the United Klans of America, (not) the GOP. The sign was on private property owned by a local Klan member, ***** *******.”
Details of the KKK Sign
“Timeline: The original billboard was first erected in 1967 and a new version was put up in 1972 after the first was defaced. It was removed permanently in 1977.”
Ownership:
“The land belonged to ***** *******, a local Klan leader and former bootlegger.”
‘While the image of the historic sign has circulated on social media in recent years, often in proximity to political events or with claims linking it to modern political parties, fact-checkers have confirmed the image is from the 1970s and the sign is no longer standing. The sign was an independent action by a local chapter of the KKK white supremacist organization.”
Now, if you have any (factual) information to prove that any GOP member from that era assisted, in any way, to help erect that da*n sign, provide your information. If not, be careful what you post for the public to be reading.
Calling your post exactly what is: disinformation
Republicans are shady and don’t have the interest of regular people. Only the rich. Hilarious for a republican to quote the Bible.
He didn’t lie. The GOP has had plenty of interference from outside the county. I’m a registered Republican and I know for fact their party made phoneh looking pamphlets with endorsements
My great great grandfather, John Harrison Parker, was a bugler in the Civil War. And, he was once a MAYOR of Selma, N.C. His bugle is in the Johnston County Museum in Smithfield, N.C. Also, my great grandfather, Jackson Pettigrew Temple, was once a MAYOR of Selma, N.C. I tried to get a historical state marker in Selma, N.C. for Parker some years ago.
The mayor rage baited the county GOP and all they could come back with was a Bible verse. This is why no one takes the GOP seriously. CAAG is just Dollar General MAGA – no solutions, just whining.
“Mind your business”…. The guy sounds like he’s in middle school. Tough guy.
Selma is cooked
Smithfield is cooked with these Expsenive houses that we don’t need…
GO SELMA!!
ask’s what happened to the low income housing that we need but keep getting rejected…
Ok. You are ok with Muslims calling for prayer 5 time a day on a outside loud speaker waving their flag in the USA and hate every single person that is not muslin. People waving their Mexico flags everywhere…But you let a good ole country boy wave his Confederate flag and everybody looses their mind.. he is labeled a hater, has no rights to wave his flag of choice. Hate of Americans is hate. And the mayor of Selma is speaking hate. But that’s ok because he’s a Democrat…
Where in Selm are “Muslims calling for prayer 5 times a day on a outside loud speaker”???
As for the Confederate flag…. anyone who waves the flag that represents people who attacked the USA and killed US soldiers and civilians is NOT a true American.
Tell the Truth…you are a joke….evidently you were not paying attention in history class…I suggest you take a history class before you spout your nonsense…I am DA*N proud of my southern heritage…and yes my family owned a plantation of over 3,000 acres… not all slave owners were evil….and the Civil War was NOT about slavery…It was about states’ rights. Lincoln made it about slavery.. Lincoln was a democrat…I’ll fly my Confederate Flag as a right to free speech…thank you very much!
Mind your business….glad I didn’t vote for you and its too bad your mayor. You would prefer to stop homeless folks from staying in a church that the church was going to donate their space, and their time, but because you the mayor, said that they will bring in problems, like drugs, robbery, and made Selma a bad name. It was a WHITE FLAG SHELTER.
SELMA — Sitting much like a judge in a bench trial, the Town Council ruled against a ministry’s request to shelter the homeless during severe weather. To allow the “white flag” shelter, the council had to agree that the ministry, JoCo Dream Center, had proven four findings of fact. Among them: that the shelter would not endanger public health and safety.
Mayor Byron McAllister said the ministry had failed to make that case. “I would say that it would endanger public health,” he said.
The shelter would be in a building on the Temple City Church campus on South Pollock Street, a commercial area with neighborhoods nearby, the mayor noted. Fearing violence, he noted that the shelter staff would be “admittedly volunteer and not fully trained to handle, quite frankly, what may be severe mental illness, severe drug addiction, severe alcoholism.” That is when I knew I would NEVER vote for you or your standards. You feel Selma would be having problems due to homeless you apparently didn’t check your own hometown. I saw with my own eyes folks selling drugs on corners or driving by and handing it to folks on bikes. It happened and still is. Crime is up I don’t care what he says. It was there before the church wanted to help the homeless. Endanger the public health and safety, really? WOW isn’t that being, well hmmm, a ****** remark against homeless. That was a huge issue way before this and before you were in office. Don’t blame the homeless, you need to check yourself. We still have problems like all other townships. It will be that way until the good Lord comes back. But to say homeless folks will bring the problems, is simply wrong. When you pull beside a police officer and say hey that speeding truck pulling a trailer that just sped past you (while you are chewing your gum like a cow and popping it) cut me and the car off and made us have to jerk to side of road to avoid hitting his trailer. His reply, oh, ok. smiled and said to me, “I’m sure someone ahead of him will get him. Yeah, I hear and see how the police are working so hard. When they speed up and down the streets off of Buffalo and do donuts at intersections almost every night. Come on. Shooting until 11:00 PM? Know one shows up. With all the building and growing going on in Johnston County (Selma is one of them) you would think that something needs to be done about the shooting at night (even daytime) because there are now so many new subdivisions that use to back up to farms and woods. Not anymore, but folks still go shooting or hunting not even thinking kids are close by, and they might not even know it. It’s gotten out of control. But Selma needs to make money, they need to grow. That is all well and good, but folks need to first understand if you grow, everything has to grow with it, Police, Fire Departments, Schools to grow with the growth. Yes, places for the homeless who have nothing for whatever the reason. I don’t see that happening. What about the crime and accidents that have gotten worse? So, this Major needs to MIND HIS BUSINESS and start taking care of everything not just the pocketbook. Vent over, for now.
Comment section is a full on brawl lol