Chaotic Republican Party Executive Committee Meeting Ends After Police Called | Eastern NC Now

• F. REFRAIN FROM UTILIZING POWERS OF OFFICE IN REPUBLICAN PRIMARY Each Officer and each Member of any Committee created pursuant to this Plan of Organization shall refrain from utilizing the powers and dignity of his or her office or position in any Republican Primary for public office at any level.

    This wasn't the only instance of Garris utilizing her position for personal gain. The process in how Garris became the Register of Deeds is representative. Garris, as party chair, sat on the resignation of the former Register and did not present that information to the Executive Committee for over a month. It's possible this was because she was waiting to ensure she lined up enough votes to win the position for herself. The County Plan of Organization required that Garris should resign as Chair when she was chosen to be the Register of Deeds. She did not. This again becomes a question of ethics.


    One further case in point can be drawn from the 2025 Republican County Convention. The interesting thing that happened last year is that several individuals lost control of most of the Beaufort County Republican Party which they had been controlling for self-serving motives. Two conservatives, Dianne Ahearn and Janet Knight, were elected as First and Second Vice Chairman respectively. Carolyn Garris kept the chairmanship by only one or two votes which were counted in secret. Another major change was in the way the Executive Committee membership is selected. The Kidwell faction lost the vote to hand pick members of the Executive Committee. During the past ten or so years each Executive Committee member was nominated and voted on individually. A well-organized faction of liberal Republicans, RINOs and outsiders (people not familiar with Beaufort County who had lived here a very short period of time) voted in a set number of people who were anything but conservative Republican.

    The Executive Committee went from individual nominations to fill the board with a certain number of seats (21 or so), back to allowing all of the convention delegates who desired to volunteer to serve on the Executive Committee to be allowed to do so. The volunteer system of seating the Executive Committee is how it was always done until a few years ago when several elitist-minded individuals took control of the Beaufort County Republican Party. The volunteer system is much fairer because it allows all factions within the Beaufort County Republican Party to be represented and have a say. This builds party unity and cooperation. It also discourages hand-picked candidates. Under the 21-seat system, this small power-hungry group had been using the county party money to support them and to work against conservative Republicans or opponents.

    The change in the way the Executive Committee is elected did not come easily. When the motion was made to change how we elect the Executive Committee the elitists sprang into action. Representative Keith Kidwell made a motion to amend that, if passed, would have defeated the volunteer Executive Committee. He motioned that the committee have only 15 members. The motion on the floor would have had a maximum of 84 members. Eighty-Four is the number of delegates from the precincts who attended this convention. Had Kidwell's amendment passed we would be back to a handpicked Executive Committee. Then another amendment motion was made by Joseph Knox to limit debate, that if passed, would have not allowed debate. Without debate and explanation of the volunteer proposed motion there would have been a high probability the volunteer committee motion would have been defeated. The Convention was scheduled to be over by 12:30 PM. Because of the games Keith Kidwell and Knox played in trying to defeat democracy, the meeting adjourned after 3:30 PM, an additional three hours. While Kidwell makes sure he votes conservatively in the House of Representatives, his behavior outside of that public venue is self-serving and in league with the county's nominal Republicans. Joseph Knox's only participation in politics is to provide a vote when needed by the RINOs, otherwise he is not seen in Beaufort County Politics.

    Fortunately, both the Kidwell and the Knox motions failed. This allowed the details of the volunteer Executive Committee motion to be explained and voted upon. The new Executive Committee was elected by those who were present at the convention who wanted to serve, having volunteered to serve. As a result, there are about 45 people now on the Beaufort County Republican Executive Committee. This was democracy in action. As it should be.


    Now all factions within the Beaufort County Republican Party who want to be represented theoretically have a say, as they should, and the corruption of the elitists should have been eliminated if the new committee could do its job. Unfortunately, this has not been the case as Garris and her select few continue to dictate the direction of the Party unilaterally.