Queen Garris and Her Victory Committee | Eastern NC Now
Secret committees and the quest for secret meetings continue.
Queen Garris and Her Victory Committee
BY: HOOD RICHARDSON
There are strange things going on inside the Beaufort County Republican Party Republican Executive Committee. The elected Executive Committee handles the affairs of the Beaufort County Republican Party when the Republican County Convention is not in session. The Convention is in session for about 4 hours each year. The Convention elects a Chairman of the Executive Committee and an Executive Committee to run day to day operations.
The Chairman’s duties are set out in the party rules, and the Chairman serves with the approval of the Executive Committee. This is a checks and balances system. Serious problems develop when the Chairman tries to independently run things by circumventing or otherwise ignoring the Executive Committee. The present Chairman, Carolyn Garris, disagrees with the majority of the Executive Committee and has done several things contrary to Party rules and the wishes of the Executive Committee.
She has set up a committee of her friends, the Victory Committee, that supposedly makes decisions that she claims are authorized by the Executive Committee. This is a phony committee that was never approved or set up by the Executive Committee. The Executive Committee does not know who serves on the “Victory Committee”.
A lot of misinformation and outright untruths is being spread by Queen Garris’s supporters. Gail Breed made comments on the Beaufort Observer site that are not true. The Beaufort Observer website address is: www.beaufortcountynow.com/beaufortobserver. Gail Breed claims the State Board of Elections shut down the Beaufort County Conservative PAC. This is not true. I am the Treasurer of the PAC, and I voluntarily shut it down without any mandate or advice from the State Board of Elections.
Garris, without the required approval of the Executive Committee suddenly declared myself, the Second Vice Chairman Janet Knight, and a voting Committee member Sheri Clark, to be disloyal and no longer to be members of the Committee. This never came before the Executive Committee. She then tried, at the January 8 meeting, to eject us from a secret Executive Committee meeting. Garris has no authority to remove anyone from anything.
Queen Garris had the Washington Police called to have us removed for trespassing. Six police showed up and announced that they could find no violation of the law. The lie that is being told by Gail Breed is that the police escorted us to the door. That is not true.
Garris and her team realized they could not have their secret meeting, so they adjourned the meeting by a motion made by John Rebholz.
Queen Garris believes secrecy is necessary to address the following items placed on the agenda by members of the committee. Who authorized the more than $10,000 to be paid to media groups to attack Hood Richardson, Adam O’Neal and Joe Davis? Who raised the money? Who is going to pay it back? Who did Garris appoint to the Victory Committee? Why are Executive Committee meetings being scheduled at the same time as the Conservative Club meetings? Why did Party officials (such as Kidwell, Dority and Garris) become active in the nonpartisan municipal elections as representatives of the Party without the approval of the Executive Committee? Why are there complaints from the Board of Elections about campaign filings that have not been addressed? Why has a lawsuit threatened since October of 2025 not been presented to the Executive Committee? None of these items have been presented to the Executive Committee by Garris. Garris did announce, when challenged, that she had hired her own lawyer for the lawsuit. Why did Garris’s behavior in supporting Ashley Woolard’s brother, Wiley, in the municipal elections cost two Republicans a seat on the Washington City Council (Sheri Clark being one of them)?
Another Executive Committee meeting is scheduled for February 12 at King Chicken Restaurant at 6:00 PM. It is possible Garris will have guards at the doors and deny myself, Janet Knight and Sheri Clark admittance.
Queen Garris is of the mistaken belief that she can have a secret meeting and demand that those present are sworn to secrecy. She probably believes that if they disclose what goes on in the meeting that she can strip them of their membership. Garris has no authority to hold a secret meeting based only on her decision. It is highly probable that organized political parties cannot hold secret meetings to conduct normal business.
These corrupt practices are how dictators get started. I believe registered Republicans want honest, moral and transparent leadership.
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Van Zant said:
( February 16th, 2026 @ 5:56 am )
GM: I think you're right. Those presently running the Beaufort County GOP have no clue about the party rules or the party platform. Worse yet they really have no regard for those things either. It's ironic that they are the ones serving as the "official" representatives of the party locally.
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Van Zant: I have reasonably and rightly concluded that the Beaufort County GOP has absolutely NO clue what constitutes the Republican Party Plan of organization, or the party's platform.
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One thing that is not followed AT All by these present-day leaders of the Beaufort County Republican Party is the Republican Party Plan of organization. Some higher level of the party needs to come down and fix this. The people here are not capable of doing it. As things are, the party will not survive this.
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Hood, in regard to your questions about CF filings (Campaign Finance, since you're probably not smart enough to figure out what CF stands for), all questions concerning any CF filings have been satisfactorily answered and a $500 fine waived. I have a letter from NCSBE stating such. So you can stop whining over this issue. The initial request for issues dating to 2021. I was not treasurer during this period but I researched and resolved these issues to their satisfaction. Their are NO OUTSTANDING ISSUES AT THIS TIME. DO YOU THINK A FINE WOULD HAVE BEEN WAIVED IF ISSUES WEREN'T SATISFACTORILY RESOLVED. WILL YOU BE ABLE TO HAVE YOU $500 fine waived. You are so full of yourself (didn't want to use a dirty word). You are the most devicive individual I have ever known and your club, no longer a PAC follows you blindly.
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Ms. Garris is in total violation of the party rules. She unilaterally expels members she does not like at will. She conducts business without the advice and consent of the Executive Committee. She has formed an illegal secret committee that the Executive Committee hears no report from and does not even know who they are. She and her fellow criminal treasurer are spending unauthorized party money on unauthorized projects. The majority of the actual Executive Committee are made up of a mixture of low character people and outright morons. Almost half of the committee seems to be made up of good people that are being kept from doing business by the others. The leadership thugs will not even hear them at meetings. The party has hit rock bottom.
It is unbelievable that there are not enough people of character to right the ship in Beaufort County. It is equally unbelievable that district and state levels of the party are allowing this lawlessness to tar the reputation and credibility of the GOP. This is so bad it has become necessary for other state entities to step in. To restore anything of value they must: 1. Stop rewriting party rules. 2. Stop illegally and unilaterally expelling members. 3. Stop illegal closed sessions to cover up their crimes. 4. Disclose the roster created at the last convention and explain how it has been destroyed. 5. Disclose the members of the Victory Committee and entertain a report from them to the Executive Committee. 6. Explain their illegal actions and spending during the municipal elections. 7. Take responsibility for individuals using the weight of the local GOP and the local GOP Woman's organization in their local activities including social media. These individuals should only have the authority to use the weight of their individual names and not the actual organizations. This is only a sampling of the crimes these thugs have committed using the name of the Beaufort County Republican Party. It is also clear the leadership will not deal with any of this. The things these people are hiding need to have the light of day shined on them. Candidates with their fingerprints on any of this should not be supported by grassroots Republicans. This is a very bad organization. |
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The question eating at me is What does Carolyn have to say that she feels she can't say in front of everyone? It must be a fabrication of her mind and she doesn't want anyone that knows the truth to hear her and challenge her. Why else would she be making such a big deal out of this?
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Just to add: In North Carolina, the Open Meetings Law requires that meetings of public bodies, including political party committees, to be conducted openly to ensure transparency. Exceptions are very specific: The only exceptions to this are generally related to personnel matters and very specified examples listed in the statutes. Pertaining to political meetings only internal campaign strategy and situations when political committees are working in conjunction with official bodies on situations such as filling vacancies. There is NO exception for general business or anything outside of the very specific things listed.
So, what are these people trying to hide? I would wager they are working very hard to hide the crimes that have been exposed by the articles on this site and by the long list of victims that are protesting the wrongs that have been wrought on them. This sorry situation is a textbook example of why transparency is so important and why honesty and virtue are things to look for in our leaders. |
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Rather than having general supervision of the affairs of the Party within the county, with the advice and consent of the Executive Committee, Ms. Garris is unilaterally dictating to the Executive Committee. Oftentimes she doesn't even tell them what she is doing. If a member is bold enough to ask, she unilaterally excommunicates them.
She didn't like the results of the last Republican Convention, so she made her own committee (Victory Committee) to take their place. That's a complete violation of the Convention itself. Then she started unilaterally getting rid of convention elected members. That's a violation of the party Plan of Organization. At this point, the Executive Committee should make hearings for excommunicated members a secondary concern and that is not something even on the horizon now. The first hearing before the committee should be for Ms. Garris and her crimes. But is there even a functioning committee left? Are there enough knowledgeable members left? Are the majority of the existing members unethical shills for this departure from virtue? Any credible Beaufort County party may already be destroyed. The ramifications of this level of unopposed corruption are worse than many can immediately imagine. Grassroots Republicans in Beaufort County have been betrayed. Pray for the ethical leaders still left. |
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