Leaders Should Police Their Own Parties

By John Hood

RALEIGH — Although I know full well that bad news draws more eyeballs than good news, I feel compelled to observe that something rather shocking — and promising — happened last week. Both major political parties acted responsibly.

Here in North Carolina, The Assembly uncovered a series of appalling social-media posts by a Democratic House candidate, Shelly Headen, in a competitive Guilford County district. On X.com, Headen once announced that she was “ready for the MAGAs to die off!!” On LinkedIn, she wrote that “the damage [Trump] has done is getting close to surpassing Hilter [sic]” and that “his MAGA cult may be more destructive and evil than the Nazis.” And on Facebook, Headen declared that “our only hope is an attack on US soil,” preferably in Alabama or Louisiana “where the stupid people live.”

Disgusted? You should be. Also disgusted were local and state leaders of the Democratic Party, who promptly castigated Headen and cut their ties to her. Headen’s posts are “unacceptable and do not reflect the values we expect of our candidates,” said Sam Lozier, communications director for the House Democratic Caucus, adding that the caucus “condemns these comments without qualification and will not support Shelly Headen’s candidacy.” The Guilford County Democratic Party formally withdrew “all financial, operational, and organizational support” from her campaign.

Meanwhile, in Texas a Republican candidate for state railroad commission named Bo French posted a picture of orange-clad students cheering on the Longhorns at a University of Texas football game. It wasn’t their choice of team colors that enraged French. It was the (dark) color of their skin. “Like body-cams exposed criminals,” French posted on X, “social media is exposing how many Americans have been displaced by foreigners. It’s everywhere and far worse than any of us could imagine.”

Many Republican leaders in Texas and beyond criticized French for the post, albeit with varying degrees of clarity. The speaker of the state house said that French was “unfit for office” because his comments “demean people because of their race or ethnicity.” U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, who lost the GOP primary earlier this year, called out French’s “intolerance and racism” and observed that this was “how great political parties self-destruct.” Even the odious Republican who defeated Cornyn, Ken Paxton, said he condemned “ racism in all its forms” before changing the subject to the problematic views of his Democratic opponent, James Talerico.

What few Democrats in North Carolina or Republicans in Texas did was to go beyond criticism or disassociation to explicitly endorse the general-election opponent of their party’s nominee — who are GOP Rep. John Blust in the former case and Democrat Jon Rosenthal in the latter case. (A prominent exception is former George W. Bush aide and strategist Karl Rove, who endorsed Rosenthal a few days ago in a widely read Wall Street Journal column.)

Given our highly polarized political environment, I am still heartened that so many (though by no means all) party leaders were willing to disavow candidates of their own party who exhibit such poor judgment, despicable character, and inadequate commitment to core American principles and basic human decency. Over the past several election cycles, partisans have clung desperately to terrible candidates they should have shunned — such as Mark Robinson here in North Carolina — for fear of “aiding the enemy.”

This is a perverse and dangerous use of the term. Those who hold a policy view different from yours or run against your preferred party’s candidates during election campaigns are not your “enemies.” They are rivals, competitors, or simply fellow citizens with whom your disagree.

Bigots, cranks, and other extremists do, indeed, live among us. Some are politically active, in all parties. A few get nominated for office. It is our civic responsibility to expose, call out, shun, and oppose such candidates — not even if they are on our own team but especially when they are on our own team.

Voters often discount cross-partisan criticisms. They’re more likely to heed intra-partisan criticisms.

John Hood is a John Locke Foundation board member. His books Mountain Folk, Forest Folk, and Water Folk combine epic fantasy with American history (FolkloreCycle.com).