You sold out.

Five previous terms in the NC General Assembly before running on a 2022 platform of pro-public education, pro-choice, and protections for all North Carolinians that got you elected in a heavily blue district and you…

sold out.

And before you talk about that “well I had to go with my heart and my convictions” excuse, the very things you said you would champion on your campaign website just months ago seem not to be important any longer.

Many of us remember what you said on that campaign website. You seem to want to forget about it. In fact, just today that same website which talked about your “priorities” after five previous terms terms was gone. Erased.

Just like your integrity.

In an interview concerning the switch with abc11.com, you stated:

“The party wants to villainize anyone who has free thought, free judgement, has solutions and wants to get to work to better our state. Not just sit in a meeting and have a workshop after a workshop, but really work with individuals to get things done. Because that is what real public servants do. If you don’t do exactly what the Democrats want you to do they will try to bully you. They will try to cast you aside.”

Did you see whom you were standing with when you made your switch from those “bullies” to the NCGOP?

Ma’am, you just went to a party that is run by two people who happen to be right next to you: Sen. Phil Berger and Rep. Tim Moore. If you do not do what those two expect of you, then you don’t remain in Raleigh.

And you know that. You’ve been in the NC General Assembly long enough to know that you must “toe the line” with that party to remain in that party. You know exactly what is expected of you now.

You now become the vote that almost ensures that another 1.5 billion dollars goes to unproven school choice “reforms” that take more money away from traditional public schools. Remember your tenure as an educator in public schools? Sure you do. It was on your website before you erased it.

CMS Teacher of the Year. Administrator at two of the larger high schools in the state.

You were in the NCGA when the party you now embrace started to put “reforms” in place that literally have weakened the teaching profession to the point of massive vacancies and a teacher pipeline that has all but withered away. Why did you leave the classroom and public schools? Was it to commit yourself to “public service” more? For the people who elected you based on a platform that you now have literally erased?

You mentioned in a report done by NPR that you did not think that women’s reproductive rights presented as big an issue now as it was when you ran for office previously.

Bullsh*t.

Have you met the highest ranking member of the party you just joined who is expected to be a candidate for governor named Mark Robinson?

Apparently in 2012, Robinson posted the following on his Facebook account.

Did you have any students who identified as LGBTQ when you were in public schools? Well, the same person who posted the above “open-minded” diatribe representing a party of “free thought” said the following:

What would you say to those students now?

You also noted in your press conference, “I am still the same person, and I am going to do what I believe is right and follow my conscience.” Would that mean you would have been fine to hold the state budget hostage for three years or never have expanded Medicaid if you had switched parties earlier? Would you have voted your “conscience” then?

Or follow the leaders? Because if you are to claim that you are the same person now as you have always, either you are lying to save some face or you made your decision to switch parties long before you made this announcement just months after election.

In which case, you would have been lying. Just earlier.

But what this really smells like is a step to run for another office after this next term. Since you just literally rejected the people who voted for you, it stands to reason that you would not run for the same state representative post again.

Oh, and when you get a chance to ask Tim (or Phil), see how open minded they are about the LEANDRO decision to properly fund public schools.

I’m sure you will follow their conscience in that situation as well.