NC Democratic Party upholds election of Rep. Ashton Clemmons replacement, rejects complaint from Black Guilford Dems

On Sunday evening, the North Carolina Democratic Party’s Council of Review heard arguments brought forth by a group of Black Guilford County Democrats who alleged a tainted process by which Rep. Ashton Clemmons’s seat was filled earlier this month.

In three separate votes, the members of the council voted against the main points of the grievance, which was filed by nine individuals on Aug. 8. In doing so, the council upheld the elections that led to the swearing in of Tracy Clark as the replacement for Clemmons in House District 57.

Clark was voted to replace Clemmons on the November ballot and to fill out the rest of her term by precinct officials in House District 57. Clemmons announced her plans to resign via X on July 15 and officially turned in her resignation on Aug. 5.

The three main complaints outlined in the grievance are as follows:

• The way in which precinct officials cast their votes (in this instance, unweighted, rather than weighted) to replace Clemmons was done incorrectly. 
• The wrong political body voted on the candidates.
• The elections shouldn’t have taken place before the seat had been officially vacated by Clemmons.

“The council found that in all three incidents, the grievance had no merit,” Kathy Kirkpatrick, the head of the Guilford County Democratic Party told TCB on Monday.

According to Kirkpatrick and an anonymous member of the council:

• The council voted 11-3 that unweighted votes were the correct way to vote.
• The council voted 11-0 (with 3 abstaining) that the correct body voted on the replacement.
• The council voted 11-3 that the seat did not have to be vacant for the party to hold elections.

Despite voting against all of the complaints in the grievance, during the almost six-hour call, the council deliberated on whether or not votes should be weighted in future elections. 

As TCB has reported, weighted elections give precinct officials a certain number of votes based on the population of their precinct. Unweighted votes — which is how this election was conducted — mean each precinct gets two votes total. This disproportionately affected Black precincts, the grievance argued.

In a statement to TCB, Byron Gladden — the head of Guilford County’s African American Caucus and a complainant on the grievance — said that while they were disappointed in the final outcome of the hearing, they were encouraged that the rules may become clearer moving forward.

According to both Gladden and Kirkpatrick, members of the NC Democratic Party’s Plan of Review Committee, which edits and deliberates on the official party rules, will review and revise the plan moving forward to ensure that future votes will be weighted.

“While we disagree with their conclusion that no violation occurred, we are encouraged by their announcement that they would recommend that the Plan of Organization Committee revise the plan to require weighted voting for precinct chairs and vice chairs so that we are never faced with a situation like this again,” Gladden wrote.

Kirkpatrick echoed Gladden’s sentiments.

“I am glad that the council has ordered the Plan of Organization committee to make changes,” she said.

Moving forward into the fall, Kirkpatrick said that what is important now is to rally behind Clark who will be facing Republican Janice Davis in the November election.

“We are absolutely going to unite around her,” Kirkpatrick said. “We have to elect Democrats. We don’t have time to continue to hash this out.”