"Most Vulnerable Republican" in NC House May Not Be

 

Rep. Frank Sossamon

Anderson Alerts gave us a handy guide to "the most vulnerable" Republican House members in Raleigh. All things staying equal, knocking off just one of these sitting ducks would break the Republican veto-proof super-majority. ("All things staying equal," of course, if a forlorn hope, since there are several Democrats made very vulnerable themselves by the most recent round of gerrymandering. I'll talk about them later.)

Anderson fingers Frank Sossamon, who has served as rep in House District 32 only since January of 2023,  as the most vulnerable Republican this November. Sossamon is something of a big-wig in the International  Pentecostal Holiness Church, founded in 1911 out of "the holiness movement" with quickly bonded with "the pentecostal movement" of the 1920s. Sossamon is senior retired pastor of a church in Henderson, County seat of Vance Co. (Sossamon's district includes Vance and Granville up on the Virginia border north of Wake.) Since he retired from being an active pastor, he's working full time in the family's funeral home business (they own three). From the video I've seen of him, Sossamon is an affable guy, a straight shooter who knows how to handle diversity, nothing like a typical Southern bible-thumper, and it's telling that the church he pastored for over 30 years is a thoroughly multi-racial congregation (Vance County is almost 40% Black). 

In an historically Democratic district, Sossamon "eked out a win" in his maiden campaign in 2022 (he campaigned heavily in churches) against a Democratic opponent with a personal scandal in his past that exploded at the height of the campaign. District 32 had been a Biden +10 county in 2020, but with gerrymandering is rated for 2024 by the John Locke Foundation's partisan ratings as only D+4. Dave's Redistricting parses the district as 53.2% Democratic.

Other than his assumed apocalyptic End Times/Judgment Day druthers, Sossamon appears to be about as upstanding a community do-gooder as you could find (with a heavy dollop of law 'n' order). From his website: "...member of the Ethics Council at Maria Parham Hospital, former President and Board Member of the Henderson/Vance County Crime Stoppers for 30 years, a member of the Vance County Juvenile Crime Prevention Council, current President and Board Member of the Granville County Crime Stoppers for 10 years, and a member of the North Carolina Crime Stoppers Association Board of Directors...."

But Sossamon's religio rectitude caused him to buy into David Lane's particular brand of Christian nationalism (advanced by the American Renewal Project), so you might have expected him to introduce a bill to force hanging "In God We Trust" in big letters above the Speaker's perch in the House. (The Great Seal of the state -- you know, "Esse Quam Videri" -- presently hangs there.) Sossamon's measure passed the House but got hung up in the Senate. He's very willing to intercede for the local school systems, introducing one bill  -- which passed -- reducing the length of terms on the elected Granville County School Board and another giving flexibility to both Vance and Granville school boards to start their school terms as early as August 1st (bill had moved in the House before the session ran out of time). Interestingly, he introduced a bill to add Tianeptide, an antidepressant already not approved for use in the U.S., to the "controlled substances" list in NC. Is there an underground market in NC for Tianeptide? That bill made it to a second reading but was left dangling at the end of the session. His legislative initiatives aside, he's a loyal Republican soldier voting with his caucus, and you can rest assured that he is dead set against homosexuality and abortions.

In my view, he won't be easy to beat, possibly because he has gone about the job under his philosophy and lifestyle of pastoring, which means comforting the sick, visiting the poor, helping the wounded to find salve for their wounds -- genuine good deeds which he can brag about, and does. That plus the NC House Republican caucus is shoving over $400,000 into a media blitz to help Sossamon keep his seat (Anderson Alerts).

Bryan Cohn, Democrat

Cohn won a seat on the eight-member Oxford City Council (county seat of Granville) in 2021. He says he was motivated to run by the events of January 6th. His campaign website says that he's "a senior solution engineer working in food safety" (whatever the hell that portends). In another place, he sez he's "a dedicated professional in the agricultural industry," equally opaque. But clearly he's ambitious, running for a House seat almost immediately after winning his city council job, to challenge no less a first-term Republican who seems well positioned to win reelection, even in a D+4 district. All that "pastoring" that Sossamon brags about is good politics.

Cohn, as both a young man and a newcomer to the area, doesn't appear to have the community base that Sossamon has earned. So color me deeply skeptical that this seat can be flipped. (Unless something surprising and as yet unknown should reenergize Democrats.)