Johnston County resident Rev. Dr. Wendy Ella May announced Friday her candidacy for North Carolina’s 2nd U.S. Congressional District. The seat is currently held by Republican George Holding.
May, who lives near Micro, said she plans to bring her experience as an Advocate to the Capitol and restore common sense progressive leadership in Washington D.C.
May said she is committed to fighting for fairness in an economy that seems to be ever increasingly stacked against the working and middle class.
May is a New Deal Progressive Democrat, a champion of reproductive freedom and equity for women, a fighter for human rights, veteran’s, LGBTQ community, civil rights, labor and rural America, according to the press release. She will run on the Democratic ticket to represent North Carolina 2nd Congressional District in the U.S. House of Representatives in 2018.
The Second District covers about half of Johnston County. The Seventh District represented by Congressman David Rouzer covers the remainder of Johnston County.
“At the end of the day, the decision to run for a chance to represent the district in Washington, DC was an easy one to make,” Rev. Dr. May said. “I will work across party lines to make sure that our citizens can earn a living wage, have affordable health care and that our public schools are strong to prepare our future generations for employment.”
May said she comes from a family with union blue-collar roots. She has already formed the Committee to Elect Wendy Ella May for Congress.
In 2016, May was unsuccessful in winning election to the District 2 seat on the Johnston County Board of Commissioners held by Commissioner Ted Godwin of Selma. May is believed to have been the first open LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) candidate to run for an elected office in Johnston County.
A disabled US Army veteran and a member of the Disabled American Veterans, May is the retired founding priest of the Bradley Beach Community Church in New Jersey, founding director of M.E.N.D. 4 Male Survivors of Military Sexual Assault, and the retired President of the US New Methodist Episcopal Orthodox Religious Order and Churches.
May has also founded the MEND I AM Program and the Transformation Veterans Retreat Center in Selma. She is a member of the LGBT Democrats of North Carolina, Democratic Women of North Carolina, and Democratic Women of Johnston County.
