They Didn't See Her Coming: Lakesha Womack Whips Tim Moore, That Master of Self-Dealing

 

Tim Moore

 

Tim Moore was Republican Speaker of the NC House and in that powerful position managed to have the new Congressional District 14 drawn just for him in 2024, which he won that year. Going into yesterday, he was trailing a long tail of questionable corruption:

1. One of his earliest documented self-dealings involved obtaining $62,000 in public economic-development grants to renovate a historic bank building in Kings Mountain that he owned and intended to use for his private law practice. 

2. Moore used his legislative influence to advance legislation benefiting 751 South, a controversial 166-acre development near Jordan Lake in Durham County. The legislation overrode Durham officials' opposition to extending water and sewer service to the project. Subsequently, developer Neal Hunter, a financial backer of the project, hired Moore for legal work. Hunter's pharmaceutical startup, KNOW Bio, paid Moore $40,000 in legal fees in 2017. 

3. Moore received $10,000 from the North Carolina Bail Agents Association for legal work involving a dispute with a competing organization that wanted to provide training for bail agents. Shortly afterward, legislation surfaced that would give the association exclusive authority to provide that training. The legislation passed, but state judges subsequently threw it out as unconstitutional.

4. An investigation by WRAL found that Jennifer Gray, who was then Moore's fiancée, was the only applicant considered for two state government positions after Moore's office forwarded her résumé.

5. In 2013, Moore's company, Southeast Land Holdings, purchased an abandoned poultry-processing plant in Siler City for $85,000. The property had environmental problems involving underground fuel-storage tanks. State environmental regulators issued a violation notice in 2014. According to emails obtained by a government watchdog, Moore intervened with the Department of Environmental Quality to obtain additional time to resolve the violations. The agency granted the extension. The company subsequently sold the property in September 2016 for $550,000, more than six times its purchase price.

6. The watchdog organization Campaign for Accountability examined campaign-finance disclosures and found at least $69,300 in payments from Friends of Tim Moore to Tim Moore Attorney at Law. The payments were described as campaign-office rent, but the building was also Moore's private law office, which he personally owned.

7. Moore wanted his former chief of staff and close political associate, Clayton Somers, to become chancellor of UNC Wilmington. Holly Grange, a Republican former state representative and member of the university's Board of Trustees, supported a different candidate. After Grange resisted Moore's preferred choice, legislation was introduced removing her from the board before her term expired.

8. During his first year as a new Congressman, a November 2025 Charlotte Observer investigation reported that:

• Moore made more than 150 stock trades by mid-September 2025.

• He failed to disclose certain trades within the STOCK Act's 45-day reporting deadline.

• He purchased Intel stock shortly before the Trump administration announced a major federal investment in the company.

• He bought shares in health-insurance companies Centene and UnitedHealth after voting for legislation that substantially cut Medicaid spending.

  
  

Who do we thank for ridding us of this chud? 

Womack

 

LaKesha Womack is a Charlotte-based consultant, entrepreneur, community organizer and ordained minister who was born and raised in Evergreen, Alabama. She attended the Alabama School of Mathematics and Science and graduated from Vanderbilt University in 1999 with a degree in political science. Her campaign biography says she is pursuing a Master of Legal Studies at Vanderbilt Law School. Womack founded the Womack Consulting Group, which advises small businesses, nonprofit organizations, faith-based groups and community leaders on strategy, leadership, and organizational development. 

Shortly before the election, Tim Moore publicized that Womack had a felony charge from 2019 against her for failure to return a rental car valued at more than $20,000, a Class H felony in North Carolina. A criminal summons was issued January 14, 2020, and returned unserved in February 2020. It was reissued and served on Womack on October 11, 2026, in Polk County. Womack has acknowledged that she did not return the rental car on time. She has said that she was homeless with her young son after a medical emergency, had no stable address at which to receive the summons, and believed she had resolved the rental-car problem. She also acknowledged owing the rental company money.

They Didn't See Him Coming: New NC Congressman Paul Barringer

 

Barringer

First-term Republican Congressman Brad Knott was also defeated last night by first-time candidate Paul Barringer. The winning margin was over 7,600 votes. Knott earned his law degree from Wake Forest University in 2012. During law school, he clerked for North Carolina Supreme Court Justice Paul Newby and subsequently worked briefly in the administration of Republican Governor Pat McCrory. He also got his DJT endorsement in 2024 and was probably settling into what he imagined would be a safe and secure seat to last him into his dotage.

Paul Barringer, a healthcare consultant, attorney, entrepreneur, and Lee County tree farmer, grew up on a farm and attended local public schools before graduating from Episcopal High School in 1985. He earned a bachelor's degree in American Studies from Davidson College in 1990, a law degree from the University of North Carolina in 1995, and a master's degree in public affairs from Princeton University's School of Public and International Affairs, also in 1995. He has spent more than 20 years working at the intersection of healthcare, law, technology, and government, with particular emphasis on improving Medicaid and other public programs. His professional experience includes work as a healthcare attorney, consultant, entrepreneur, and business executive. He also manages his family's timberland, developed a Made-in-America clothing brand called Mill & Mountain, and provides pro bono legal representation to people with disabilities seeking Social Security benefits. An Eagle Scout and Appalachian Trail thru-hiker, Barringer has also been active in prison literacy and reentry efforts. In his campaign, he emphasized healthcare affordability, fiscal responsibility, government accountability, public education, and the need for an independent Congress willing to exercise its constitutional oversight responsibilities. He presented himself as a practical problem-solver interested in bipartisan cooperation rather than partisan confrontation. Barringer lives in Lee County with his wife, Marcea, and their two children.

They Didn't See Him Coming: New NC Congressman Cyril Jefferson

 

Among the total surprises yesterday was Democrat Cyril Jefferson's 6,000+ vote margin over first-term Republican Congressman Addison McDowell in the 6th Congressional District. McDowell could brag about his hunting jaunts with Donald Trump Jr., and his endorsement in '24 by DJT, but little else.

Cyril Jefferson, the 34-year-old Democratic mayor of High Point (let's praise young North Carolina mayors!), earned his bachelor's degree from North Carolina A&T and "has built a career at the intersection of education, business, and public service." He began his political career with his election to the High Point City Council in 2019 and was elected mayor in 2023, becoming both the youngest person and the first Black man to hold that office. Before entering government, he worked as an educator, youth-development consultant, and education policy fellow. He also founded Change Often, a social innovation firm focused on addressing social and economic problems through collaborative initiatives; the firm was subsequently acquired by Stratagon, where Jefferson became director of the higher-education practice. As mayor, he emphasized affordable housing, neighborhood revitalization, small-business development, and efforts to combat food insecurity. Among his initiatives was a $40 million Housing Impact Fund, reportedly leveraging $38 million in private investment against $2 million in public funding. He has also been involved with the United Way, the NAACP, the High Point Chamber of Commerce, and numerous other civic organizations. Married to Raven Jefferson, he is the father of two sons. 

His life just changed dramatically. 

 

Rout

 

Charlie Wallin

Trying to get my sleep-deprived head around the enormity of the ass-whupping the GOP suffered in North Carolina yesterday -- let alone the whole nation. It's going to take days to fully appreciate that Democrats (or progressive independents) swept 71 of 120 seats in the NC House, including Dist. 93, where Charlie Wallin edged out Republican Ray Pickett by 228 votes. There are several hundred provisionals in that race yet to be cured. Dems also conclusively broke the Republican super-majority in the NC Senate.

OMG ... Virginia Foxx! Are you kidding me? Just 99 votes separate apparent winner Chuck Hubbard, so there'll no doubt be a recount. But ... still! Virginia Foxx! Her battle axe broke its handle.

Equally delicious was Tim Moore's defeat in the 14th CD, the district he drew for himself. Was electoral comeuppance ever more devastating? A long grifting history brought to a sudden end.

Ojeda over Richard Hudson was sweet, but who even imagined the defeat of 1st-termers Brad Knott, Addison McDowell, and Tim Moore? Truly astounding. Thank you, North Carolina voters!

  

Democrats Better Find a Star To Run Against Him!

 

O hell no! Say goodbye to Chief Justice Paul Newby in 2028, just to have the junior Berger in his place?

 

WRAL -- North Carolina Supreme Court Justice Phil Berger Jr., a Republican, has filed paperwork indicating that he is preparing to run for chief justice in 2028.

An amended statement of organization received by the North Carolina State Board of Elections on Oct. 22 shows Berger changed the office sought by his campaign committee, Berger for Justice, to "Chief Justice - NC Supreme Crt."

Berger, who was elected to the Supreme Court in 2020 and took office in 2021, announced in September that he wouldn't seek reelection to his current associate justice seat when his term ends in 2028, leaving open the possibility of running for chief justice instead.

The chief justice position is currently held by Republican Paul Newby, whose term also expires in 2028. Mandatory age limits for North Carolina judges and justices would prevent Newby from completing another eight-year term.

I Watched the Real Thing, and This Satire Seems Right

 

 

Yesterday, outside Trump International Hotel in NYC

 

 

An Upset Brewing in the 5th CD?

  

The Cook Political Report has moved NC-05 from Solid Republican to Likely Republican.

• The district's Cook Partisan Voting Index is R+9.

• Virginia Foxx won her last general election with 59.5%.

• Democrat Chuck Hubbard has raised approximately $863,000, according to the October 14 FEC reporting.

• Foxx had raised approximately $2.19 million by that reporting date.

Cook's rating categories mean:

• Solid Republican: Not considered competitive.

• Likely Republican: Still a clear Republican advantage, but an upset is possible.

   

Dirty Tricks in the Alaska Senate Race

 

“Mistah Kurtz—he dead.” 

--Joseph Conrad, Part III,  Heart of Darkness

 

The two Dan Sullivans: The Senator on the right

 

Kellen Browning's outing of the Peltola campaign this morning in the NYTimes is first-rate reporting. The Alaska Senate candidate's top aides, working with "a mysterious Midwestern operative," apparently participated in a scheme to get someone else named Dan Sullivan on the ballot to confuse voters and draw votes away from the actual Dan Sullivan, Republican Senator (though on the Alaska ballot, the sitting senator is identified as "Incumbent").

See, Alaska has a system of allowing the top four finishers in the state's primary -- no matter their party -- to be on the fall ballot, because they also use ranked-choice tabulations. There are actually three registered Republicans to choose from for Alaska's US Senator on November 3rd, along with one Democrat, Mary Peltola. It appears that the mysterious political operative from Ohio, who used the state's "buckeye" nickname in his email address, was responsible pretty much single-handedly for recruiting both of the other Republicans. It's obvious that splitting the Republican vote among several candidates -- two of them with the same name -- can only help Mary Peltola, and the latest odds right now are on Peltola's winning this race.

The mysterious operative has a name, Jerid Kurtz, and an employment history. He was once upon a time former Congressman Tim Ryan's press secretary. He then went to work for the Ohio Democratic Party as communications direction, and he eventually went professional as co-owner of Wingspan Strategies, a political consulting firm whose Google presence seems to have vanished. Kurtz comes off in Browning's reporting as not only the idea man for packing the ballot with multiple Dan Sullivans but also the on-the-ground chameleon seducer who sought face-to-face meetings in brew pubs with the chumps being targeted for recruitment. Kurtz used aliases when he approached prospects (to one man he was "Zane"). Kurtz was charming and persuasive, encouraging a potential recruit into thinking they were special and moreover needed. He also promised valuable (though unspecified) campaign support, and there was a Peltola-allied super PAC that was willing to throw a little money toward boosting name-recognition for anyone who might divide the Republican vote. For his very successful efforts -- until, that is, this all got reported -- Kurtz brought home some $87,000 for Wingspan Strategies. The Peltola-allied super-PAC 49th State PAC paid the bill. 

Kurtz looks like a late-arriving Nixonian dirty-trickster. Either this scandal will kill his future as a political strategist or it will catapult him into a higher bracket. These days ambitious people enjoy skillful underhandedness. The scandal of course taints Mary Pertola and is upsetting her applecart just 5 days from the election. Talk about October surprises. Also looking bad in all this is the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC), which pushed Kurtz on the Pertola people. Elisa Rios, Peltola's campaign manager at the time this scheme went into effect, was fired in August. She spilled all the beans about Jerid Kurtz and the ballot-stuffing to reporter Browning -- seeking revenge, I suspect, for her firing. She's also Browning's chief source about Mr. Kurtz, so her characterizations of him as a hustler and performative braggart might ought to be taken with a salt chaser.

Browning reports that not only did Kurtz recruit two other Republicans to run in the primary, he also helped lean on another Democrat, David Leslie, who had finished in the top four in the primary and would presumably dilute the Peltola vote: "That Democrat, a progressive named David Leslie, quickly faced calls from his party to withdraw. One of those callers, Mr. Leslie said in an interview, was Jerid Kurtz. Mr. Kurtz met with Mr. Leslie in person, at a cafe in Fairbanks, according to a person familiar with the exchange. Mr. Leslie soon agreed to drop out." 

When Leslie dropped out, that left room for the second Republican, Gerald Heikes, who had finished fifth in the primary. Heikes, a drywall contractor, told Browning that he was recruited to run “by a guy from the Midwest.” Heikes had already thought about running for office and evidently thought the call from the mysterious guy from the Midwest was really the voice of God, calling him to service. Kurtz knew how to pick his victims.