Comments | Eastern NC Now

This article brings up some very concerning issues about Williams, who supports him and why? Is this the old boy system at work? Does it indicate future corruption? Certainly someone so eagerly sought after and endorsed by Democrats and defense attorneys brings up questions about whether Williams is a true Republican. How impartial would he be as a judge? Seems like he'll be soft on crime if defense attorneys are supporting him that much.

I suppose the most troubling thing is the question of ethics. Not only of the judges mentioned in the article and their decision to be involved in a campaign, especially outside their own party, but Williams' ethics or moral compass himself. A review of the Williams campaign finance reports does indicate the majority of his funding (between 67 to 87 percent based on differing analyses but clearly a majority) comes from defense attorneys. What will he owe them afterwards if elected? What do they expect in return for their support? However, the biggest concern for me came in the mail. I got a letter promoting Williams, a palm card or brochure, that came in an envelope with a return address of Jones & Sasnett, P.A. in Washington, NC. The postage wasn't a peel and stick stamp but a Pitney Bowes stamp machine ink printed postage mark. It appears from this that Jones & Sasnett paid for the mailing, a campaign contribution. This seems to violate Campaign Finance laws about taking contributions from corporations or businesses. Whether this is a violation of Campaign Finance law or not and the repercussions are above my knowledge level. It certainly brings up serious moral questions in addition to legal questions regarding Williams and his campaign. It is even more concerning when you expect someone wanting to be judge doesn't seem to follow rules, laws, and seems questionable in their activities to get there.

Commented: Thursday, February 19th, 2026 @ 2:19 pm By: Nelson Lambert

Here is another telling detail on Armstrong and his special interest fixation. The out of state chemical company that Darren Armstrong wants to protect from lawsuits by injured North Carolinians is Monsanto. Guess whose genetically modified seeds Darren Armstrong produces at his seed operation? Monsanto. Funny thing, that!

Commented: Thursday, February 19th, 2026 @ 10:05 am By: John Steed

The state level teachers unions are pushing students to protest ICE, following their national union's direction, in several southern states such as Texas and Florida. The state governments are actively fighting back to stop it. One wonders if the NC state teachers union will follow suit. If they do, it will be up to counties to stop it because Josh Stein is a screaming open borders leftist.

Encouraging students to abandon instructional time to go out and protest an issue that the teachers union wants them to is nothing but child abuse. Teachers who do that in any state should be terminated.

Sadly, the only teacher I have heard of who has lost his job over immigration enforcement issues was an Illinois teacher forced to resign over posting "Go ICE" on his personal Facebook page. www.zerohedge.com

Commented: Thursday, February 19th, 2026 @ 7:53 am By: borderhawk

Jack, the main teachers union in North Carolina is the NCAE. While some counties have rather vocal local branches, I have not seen any activity at the local level from NCAE directed at the school board since I have been a board member. Most activity of the organization seems to be directed from the state level in Raleigh.

At one time it was easy to determine how many teachers locally were members because they had their dues deducted from their paychecks, and one could take the overall amount forwarded to the NCAE and divide by the amount of dues. At that time a strong majority of local teachers were members. Some years ago, due to the very political nature of the organization, the legislature ended the dues checkoff mechanism and members had to send their dues checks directly to the NCAE. Since that time, it is not so easy to know how many are members, but the numbers statewide seem to have declined.

I would also note that not all teachers who join the NCAE subscribe to all of their political agenda. I have known local teachers who did not agree with all of their politics but wanted some of the insurance they provided and joined solely for that reason. Then there are issues pushed by the NCAE that probably all members agree with like better teacher pay, but of course lots of citizens support that issue, too.

Commented: Wednesday, February 18th, 2026 @ 7:16 pm By: Steven P. Rader

Kidwell is so ignorant that he supported Ted Cruz for President, despite the fact that Cruz showed us all, his Canadian Birth Certificate.

Kidwell and Garris with the Secret Committee, are ruining our local vibes. Such actions are from the minds of a dictator mentality.
JUST SAY NO to KIDWELL so we can heal the rift in Beaufort County.

Commented: Wednesday, February 18th, 2026 @ 11:27 am By: Washingtonian

In Beaufort County:
Calm Authority - NO
Fair Process - NO
Emotional Restraint - NO
Institutional Respect - NO
Relentless Focus on the Mission - NO
Stays Calm Under Provocation - NO
Does not embarrass opponents or silence dissent - NO
Separates personal feelings from organizational decisions - NO
Rules evenly applied - ??? What rules; Dictator rules only

Seems to be a clean sweep in Beaufort County. To salvage this will take something worthwhile to rally around. Leadership is needed.

Commented: Wednesday, February 18th, 2026 @ 8:58 am By: Van Zant

The YOUTH are going to vote to replace the old tired self-serving politicians such as KIDWELL.
He's a politician's politician! A man of Raleigh's elitist.

Our local Republican Party cannot heal until we ...
Just SAY NO TO KIDWELL and the Garris' Secret Committee.

Commented: Tuesday, February 17th, 2026 @ 9:50 pm By: Washingtonian

Does this information in the comment below have something to do with retired teachers running against Rader and Shreve? I understand that Walker was involved in recruiting both of those challengers. Does she want to try to keep all the power in teachers hands instead of parents? Is that the reason for those two challengers? Her leading opposition to parents rights on that school board policy seems to point to that.

Ex-teachers on a school board would be too much under the sway of school bureaucrats and teachers unions, not looking out for the interests of parents, citizens, and taxpayers, which is who the board is supposed to represent. It botders on being a conflict of interest.

Commented: Tuesday, February 17th, 2026 @ 7:46 pm By: Conservative Voter

If you like the special interests, RINO Darren Armstrong is your man, Washingtonian. You have a bad case of Kidwell Derangement Syndrome. If you were at the legislative debate at the Washington Civic Center you would have heard Armstrong defend a failed bill to protect out of state chemical companies from lawsuits by local North Carolinians who get cancer from their products, in which they knowingly used a cancer causing substance without telling customers. Is protecting out of state chemical companies from local people who get cancer from their products your idea of helping local people? Those who recruited Armstrong to run against Kidwell were people aligned with that chemical company. Seems to me that that big out of state chemical company is the "money interest" there and it is Armstrong who is on their side.

Then there were the big money interests who tried to put our eastern NC shrimpers out of business. Ask a shrimper. It was Kidwell who led the successful charge in the NC House to save this industry and all the local "little people" who earn their living in it from the money interests. Oh, and guess what? If you look up the address of the PAC mailing out all those postcards for Armstrong, it just so happens to be the same address as one of the two big money groups trying to put our shrimpers out of business.

Armstrong is a warmed over Basnight Democrat. He was never a conservative. He would be one of those go along / get along establishment hacks if he ever got to Raleigh. NC has way too many of those already and does not need another one.

Commented: Tuesday, February 17th, 2026 @ 5:43 pm By: Rino Hunter

We do not have any of this nonsense going on in Beaufort County Schools, As long as we keep conservative representation on the Board of Education, we will have a team that will be on the lookout for it if it appears.

Where we do have a problem is that some of our Board members are not yet fully on board with the parental rights landmark Supreme Court ruling in Mahmoud v. Taylor. This showed up when I offered motions to amend our existing written school board policies covering how we handled materials that were controversial with parents and the community. For example, we have an existing policy that says decisions on controversial materials will be made based on opinions of educational staff. My motion was to change this to say that they would be made on the basis of the opinions of both parents and educational staff. Charles Hickman seconded my motion. Carolyn Walker spoke against it, saying we should rely only on the opinions of teachers. She got five votes for her position, which is a majority of the nine members of the board.

After that meeting, I emailed all of the other board members several articles explaining the Supreme Court's ruling in Mahmoud v. Taylor plus a full copy of the court's decision. I expect to bring this key parents rights issue back to the board in the future.

Under the Mahmoud decision, all issues dealing with anything that could touch on religion are decided solely on the position of parents. The court ruled that issues related to homosexuality and transgenderism are related to religious beliefs but did not rule on any other issue areas yet. On those issues, schools are required to notify parents of any such content and allow parents to opt their children out of those activities that contain such materials or presentations. When it comes to any matter touching on religion, the Supreme Court has completely frozen out educational experts and left it 100% up to parents.

As long as I am a member of the school board, I will continue to stand up for parents rights.

Commented: Tuesday, February 17th, 2026 @ 5:15 pm By: Steven P. Rader

JUST SAY NO TO Keith Kidwell.

He and his local pal Garris are only here to serve themselves.
NOT YOU...NOT WeThePpl, who here locally.

Commented: Tuesday, February 17th, 2026 @ 12:57 pm By: Washingtonian