NC House 24: Democratic Star Takes On Republican Fanatic

 

NC House District 24 is another of those Democratic targets for a flip in 2024. It's the County of Wilson, including the county seat of the same name, and a little bit of Nash County. Civitas rates the partisan lean D+2. The incumbent Republican is serving his first term and may be the only Black Republican in the House. Dave's Redistricting measures Dist. 24 at 50.7% Democratic and 38.5% Black. The Democrat appears to be running a very strong campaign. Of the House races I've so far examined, this one looks the most promising for a flip.

[NOTE: But with the change at the top of the Democratic ticket, many tight districts have every chance of flipping in a new Blue Wave of 2024. That's what I'm predicting.]

Dante Pittman, Democrat

Pittman

Dante Pittman was chosen in its first fellowship cohort by Lead North Carolina, which raises money to put "promising recent graduates" into local government jobs. Here is Pittman's writeup:

Pittman served his fellowship in the City of Wilson while serving as a platoon leader in the North Carolina Army National Guard. He collaborated with the Visual Arts Committee at the Wilson Arts Council to promote arts in the community and designed a survey for a micro-transit program. Pittman played a pivotal role with the Gig360 young professionals network, a social organization for individuals dedicated to sustaining the Whirligig Park, networking, and growing a culture of young living in the community.

"Culture of young." The guy's well networked.

Before Leader North Carolina found him, Pittman was special assistant to the attorney general in the North Carolina Department of Justice. He earned a bachelor’s degree in political science from UNC-Chapel Hill with minors in history and military science. He was an inaugural member of the UNC Institute of Politics and served as state and local editor for the Carolina Political Review. He was also a cadet in the UNC Army ROTC program.

He's deeply embedded in Wilson community life, evidenced by his phenomenal success as a fundraiser for his campaign. Pittman outraised his Republican opponent Fontenot by more than 6-to-1, and entering July Pittman had $161,000 in the bank, roughly eight times what Fontenot had. (But never fear. The Republican House caucus has pumped over a half-mil into Fontenot's campaign to make up the difference. They do not intend to lose this seat.)

Pittman is an attractive candidate with an intelligent affect, nicely captured in this 6-minute narrative that he tells of his life story (video done for the Wilson Education Foundation):

Ken Fontenot, Republican incumbent

He ran as an unaffiliated candidate in 2018 (reportedly with the support of the state Republican Party), got over 49% of the vote, proving he could profitably run as a Black Republican after all, which is what he did in 2022 and won by fewer than 3,000 votes over Linda Cooper-Suggs.

Fontenot

Fontenot is a Chicago native and an ex-Marine. He left the Corps in 2014 to move to Wilson where he became a pastoral candidate at a church there, taught middle school for four years, and currently works as an insurance sales agent in the area. What makes him stand out -- and obviously won him the seat, but that was then -- is his chosen role as Mark Robinson Extremist 2.0.

During his 2018 campaign, he made a video on the “genocide of Black babies,” calling himself “a zealous defender of the family” and asked voters to “Help him stand against abortion” by “supporting and promoting family values.” He also responded to an NC Family Voter questionnaire saying that he supports banning abortion “once a fetal heartbeat is detected.” (NCVoices.com)

He voted for Senate Bill 20, which banned abortion in North Carolina at 12 weeks, and then voted to override Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto of the bill.

Extreme views on abortion played better before Dobbs. Now, maybe not so much. But is Dante Pittman mean enough to use the cultural lever against Fontenot?

Fontenot has not been shy about his extreme beliefs. Recently, he has started posting videos on TikTok where he provides hot takes on culture war issues, such as one video where he (without providing any evidence) claims that President Joe Biden and his administration are responsible for a nationwide crime wave – despite FBI data showing violent crime dropped by 49% from 1993 to 2022 and property crime plummeted 59% in that same period. Bureau of Justice Statistics shows a 71% drop in both types of crime from 1993 to 2022.

You can witness Fontenot's conspiratorial demeanor in a Facebook video.