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Devastating, new, in-depth reporting from The Assembly is shining a light on NRCC-backed Sandy Smith, the Republican nominee in NC-01. And it’s ugly.
Whether it’s Smith’s alleged violence towards multiple members of her family, or her violation of campaign finance law and her shady business dealings, North Carolinians will be deeply disturbed by what they learn about the Republican candidate. One thing is clear: Sandy Smith is entirely unfit to hold public office, and voters will reject her this November.
Read highlights below (but really – you should read the whole thing. It’s worth it).
The Assembly: Hurricane Sandy
By Jeffrey Billman
July 21, 2022
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“‘I have been assaulted by my mom,’ the 17-year-old wrote to a Lenoir County court on July 11, 2012, asking for a protective order against her mother.”
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“The girl, who The Assembly is not naming because she was a minor at the time, described her home life as an escalating nightmare. She was ‘constantly’ called a ‘sl*t, b***h, c**t,’ and other slurs. She’d been kicked out and had run away.”
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“She wrote that the Department of Social Services had been called to her Kinston, North Carolina, home three times, and sheriff’s deputies nine times.”
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“A decade later, her mother might be headed to Congress.”
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“The girl was the third person to accuse Sandy Smith of domestic violence. Her father and former stepfather have also said Smith assaulted them. But those allegations didn’t stop Smith from winning a bitter Republican primary in the 1st Congressional District, in northeast North Carolina, in May.”
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“Smith, 47, will face Don Davis, a Presbyterian minister, veteran, educator, and moderate state senator from Snow Hill, a small eastern North Carolina town, this fall.”
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“During the primary, some state and national GOP operatives believed Smith was too extreme to do that. They tried to crush her.”
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“Herein lies perhaps the biggest obstacle to a red wave this fall: In competitive districts, GOP primary voters have nominated candidates who are expanding the boundaries of the far-right, turning likely wins into question marks.”
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“But less important isn’t unimportant. In a close election, Weiler said, candidates do matter. And the Trump-like qualities that made Smith successful in May might turn fatal in November.”
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“Smith’s refusal to speak with mainstream journalists has obscured details of her life that might shed light on her qualifications for Congress.”
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“[…] she hasn’t been challenged on her calls on December 1, 2020, for the ‘arrests of the perpetrators of this fraud’—Trump’s 2020 defeat—and ‘trails [sic] and executions for those found guilty of treason,’ as well as for Trump’s immediate reinstatement. (‘Don’t wait for 2024,’ she tweeted on May 10, 2022. ‘He is the true president.’)”
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“She hasn’t answered questions about why she failed to file financial disclosure statements either time she ran for Congress—a violation of federal law—or whether she would abide by ethics rules if elected.”
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“Smith appears to have earned at least $100,000 a year as an independent management consultant, based on Paycheck Protection Program loans she received in May 2020 and February 2021 […] Like most PPP loans, they have been forgiven. But Smith has criticized the program, telling The Wilson Times in September 2020, ‘There was way too much pork and waste in the previous pandemic bills.’”
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“In 2001, Smith started a company called Kyoto International in Port Orchard, Washington, according to a background report in Roberson’s dossier. It’s not clear what that business did. But in 2005, Smith declared bankruptcy after running up more than $126,000 in debt.”
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“The national GOP has been surprisingly ambivalent about its candidate given the district’s competitiveness. For two months after North Carolina’s primary, the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) appears to have ignored Smith.”
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“In a press release, McCarthy said Smith was part of a ‘record-breaking class of Republican House candidates.’ The release did not mention that McCarthy’s PAC spent more than a half-million dollars trying to keep her out of this class.”
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“The NRCC did not respond to The Assembly’s requests for comment.”
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