Comments | Eastern NC Now

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

Great article!

Commented: Tuesday, February 17th, 2026 @ 11:55 am By: Joe Davis

No Good Deed Goes Unpunished!!
However, I wish to thank Nick 4 his interest n Good Government.
I have little enthusiasm for numbers,accounting,bookkeeping so I must express gratitude 4 what NFritz has done 4 us here n Washington.

The problem wasnt just w th last CityManager, it was the whole indoctrinated CityGovt & its "STAFF." Thankfully some of those r now gone, but not enough.
One thing Trump learned aftr his 1st term is that it was of little help to hav a strong new President if th corrupted cabal undr hm remained th same.
So I say Trump learned his lesson,& in his 2nd term he fired a whole lot of bureaucrats. Our Council needs to do th same. Any advisory committee member who has been w th City for 3-4 yrs or more should be replaced w new blood. And I dare say a few more of th Dept Heads. They r still a problem & are still "working th system" w/out the eyes of the CityCouncil.

But back to Nick Fritz, thank u so much 4 bein who u are. Dont let th corrupt ones pull u down to their

Commented: Tuesday, February 17th, 2026 @ 10:35 am By: Washingtonian

Too many of our teachers are in these radical teachers unions. I would not vote for a teacher for anything unless I knew them very well personally and knew that they were not caught up in this teachers union nonsense. And WHAT are they teaching our children?

Commented: Tuesday, February 17th, 2026 @ 9:22 am By: Bubba

Van Zant: Could there be mendacity at the the core of all subterfuge afloat, like so many varied 'turds, floating in their political punchbowl?'

Commented: Tuesday, February 17th, 2026 @ 3:36 am By: Stan Deatherage

The only people disrupting these meetings are Garris and her devotees. The ones she is claiming to be disruptive are only politely trying to have a legal meeting. Having a real meeting is the last thing Garris and her zombies want, because they have been operating illegally and have essentially been caught. They are performing acrobatics in order to keep this out of any official record in an attempt to wiggle out of this tight spot they have put themselves in. Their arrogance knows no bounds.

In the meantime, Garris and the illegal shadow committee are unilaterally making decisions to exclude and harm conservatives. The people that have hijacked the Beaufort County Republican Party are essentially acting as outlaws at this point in time. Some external controlling authority needs to come and review this sorry situation.

Commented: Tuesday, February 17th, 2026 @ 2:51 am By: Van Zant

These radical teachers unions are enemies of America and are indoctrinating our children. Their members like Davis and Cornelius should NEVER be elected to local school boards. NEVER.

Commented: Monday, February 16th, 2026 @ 8:48 pm By: borderhawk