Comments by Van Zant | Eastern NC Now

Speaking as a Beaufort County Conservative, we are being put in a difficult position. We are not fans of the Phil Berger machine. I know I plan to contribute to the Sam Page campaign. It appears Berger has sold out long ago and he really should be brought up on disloyalty charges for things he has done in recent years. If the North Carolina Republican Party had any credibility left that would happen.

At the same time, our own Keith Kidwell while voting mostly right in Raleigh is utterly hostile to conservatives back home in Beaufort County. Kidwell's close associations with characters at home that hate conservatives is very problematic. Some of his friends in the Beaufort County Republican Party leadership should be brought up on charges also for their own crimes.

We are between a rock and a hard place. If he and his associates would just leave us alone, we could find some way to coexist with the power mad egomaniac. As long as he and his associates are attacking us, we are being forced to pick our poison.

Befuddled: I have heard something about a primary. I don't know much, but I'll be looking into it. Again, local conservatives are being forced to explore options.

Commented: Friday, November 21st, 2025 @ 10:39 pm By: Van Zant

In recent years the local Republican Party has lost a lot of good people for good reason. They have been treated (like c#@!) very disrespectfully. Unfortunately, there seems to be no willingness by many to bind those wounds and attempt to form a coherent mission outside of attacking conservatives. Let's see if I've got the gist of this stuff lately. Recent party rules violations by the Beaufort County Republican Party Chairman follow:
1. Calling for the resignation of a Republican elected official claiming she (the Chairperson) is the local GOP. There was no involvement of the Beaufort County Republican Party Executive Committee. That committee has the power to do what she did with the press, not her alone.
2. Publicly endorsing municipal candidates in non-partisan elections using the authority of the Republican Party with no input from the Republican Party Executive Committee. She does not have the absolute power of the Executive Committee.
3. Spending money on ads and materials without authorization from the Executive Committee. (The Treasurer is on shaky ground here too.)
4. Using media to attack private citizens - Not clear about the source of this funding.
Additional ethical issues:
1. Failing to call for executive committee meetings for several months in order to avoid any consequences for her actions. (The actual committee should call for a meeting to address this. They need to take some responsibility too.)
2. When finally calling for a meeting, attaching it to a Christmas Party event. Is this really going to be a meeting?
3. Changing the date of the meeting again in order to cause conflicts with the schedules of conservative members of the Executive Committee with the dual purpose of keeping them out and also encumbering them with an unexcused absence that will hopefully get them off the Executive Committee altogether.

This is a lot of mischief, but I wouldn't be surprised if I still missed something.

The Republican Executive Committee needs to call its own meeting and bring charges against their rogue chairperson. She is acting independently of the committee as a whole. She is unilaterally attacking individual Republicans, collective Republicans, and some citizens in general. Her war against conservative Republicans and others is well out of control, and she is speaking and acting with illegitimate powers of the entire committee. She should be removed. At the very least, she should be severely reprimanded and given a very, very short leash from here on out. Anything short of these measures will ensure that the Republican Party in Beaufort County is a catastrophic failure with no credibility left at all. What we have here is not leadership. It is sabotage. I don't know whether to recommend what's left of the people of good will to abandon this sinking ship or to urge the good people that have already left to come back and try to save it.

Commented: Tuesday, November 18th, 2025 @ 10:09 pm By: Van Zant

Stan: I agree. I think it is important to be as self-sufficient as possible. Dependent people are a step away from being desperate. Desperate people are easy to manipulate.

Commented: Monday, November 17th, 2025 @ 11:34 am By: Van Zant

I consider the closing of Snowden School to not only be a huge loss to Aurora, but also to all of Beaufort County. Community schools should be better appreciated. When they are gone, they are not easily replaced.

Commented: Monday, November 17th, 2025 @ 5:14 am By: Van Zant

JV: You're right. WEF influence runs deep and wide and should not be underestimated.

Commented: Sunday, November 16th, 2025 @ 11:09 am By: Van Zant

Here in Beaufort County, we have lots of questions about most of the things that are done. If this cadre of local GOP masterminds really care about Republican goals, then why are they doing the things that they do? There are plenty of examples.

The best examples lately are the School Board. Ms. Davis recently defeated a 40-year incumbent Democrat. The GOP masterminds are already demanding she resign and are plotting to defeat her in a future primary if she doesn't. Things were OK with them with a Democrat there for decades but not now?

Mr. Hickman, a couple of years ago defeated a 30-year incumbent Democrat in a district that no Republican ever ran in. The Beaufort County intelligentsia can't have that, so they find a primary opponent. Remember it was not a priority at all when a Democrat was there for decades.

Over the years some of the backstabbing local GOP people have been given a free pass, saying it is just some kind of personality conflicts. Recent events have proven it is a lot deeper and more diabolical than that.

Commented: Friday, November 14th, 2025 @ 3:29 pm By: Van Zant

Mr. Garrison's reasoning is rather faulty. He is working on his degrees. Mr. Hickman has his degrees. He's working on getting to know area people. Mr. Hickman was born and raised here. Mr. Hickman is already a professional teacher with certifications and experience. As a former service member myself with some intimate knowledge, I know and can appreciate that Mr. Hickman has worked on sensitive projects and information that most are not trusted with. Mr. Hickman has created and run his own successful business. Again, a lot of people have not done that either.

It seems like Mr. Garrison is just starting out. More power to him, but he does not have the qualifications and abilities of Mr. Hickman. Thinking he does is delusional.

Commented: Monday, November 10th, 2025 @ 6:46 pm By: Van Zant

Stan: Yeah, conservatives need to come out heavy in the primaries to support you and all proven conservatives. These RINO GOPers get way more excited about beating conservative Republicans than they do about defeating Democrats.

I've also about run out of patience with those that run as conservatives while working against conservatives. How can people working against me be for me? It does not compute. It's a diabolical self-serving game they are playing.

Commented: Sunday, November 9th, 2025 @ 5:36 pm By: Van Zant

You all's party chairman is still spending money and making public pronouncements in the party's name without authorization from the executive committee.

Commented: Friday, November 7th, 2025 @ 6:45 pm By: Van Zant

This seems to be the trend. We see it around the country. It's certainly happening in the North Carolina GOP. Same thing in local GOP.

Commented: Thursday, November 6th, 2025 @ 10:58 am By: Van Zant

I talk to a lot of people that wonder why the Beaufort County Republican Party seems to be so anti-conservative. It's not really a question. It's a fact backed by strong evidence. The party seems to be constantly at odds with long time conservative commissioners Deatherage and Richardson. At the same time, they give preferential treatment to former Democrats Waters and Walker. They're the ones that changed their registrations to run for office. Both of the former Democrats allied with the Democrats when they got on the board. The party didn't even mind when Waters continued to write checks to Democrat candidates.

Which leads me to Commissioner Dunn: The Party leaders tried to kick him of the executive committee for disloyalty. He was exonerated by higher powers, because he was guilty of nothing. The county Republican Party had no problem with members Waters, Cox, and Varcoe writing checks for and or publicly endorsing Democrats. The party also had no problem with that loose cannon Forest woman campaigning against Republicans and FOR Democrats at Republican Headquarters while serving as a Republican officer!

Lately, the Republican Chairwoman and a Republican officeholder have publicly attacked a conservative Republican school board member while acting as if they ARE the Beaufort County GOP!

I also hear that a shadowy kingmaker committee loosely attached to the county Republican executive committee is planning for "victory" against conservative Republicans in the upcoming Republican primaries.

There's a lot more to this. Stay tuned.

Commented: Tuesday, November 4th, 2025 @ 8:28 am By: Van Zant

Whatley is an insider elitist lobbyist that ran roughshod over the Republican PoO and Republican activists in his time as NCGOP chair. He got a free ride during those years. He does not deserve the free ride into the senate election that he thinks he is entitled to. Don Brown is the ONLY senate candidate that will get my vote.

Commented: Sunday, November 2nd, 2025 @ 7:43 am By: Van Zant

Why are 5 Board of Education members against having a local lead attorney?

Commented: Saturday, November 1st, 2025 @ 5:56 am By: Van Zant

Having done some research, I doubt there are many people around that know more about Title IX than Mr. Rader and Mr. Hickman. Glad the board followed their lead on this matter.

Commented: Thursday, October 23rd, 2025 @ 8:30 am By: Van Zant

Yes, the Beaufort County GOP coddles RINOs and ALSO viciously attacks conservative Republicans.

Commented: Sunday, October 19th, 2025 @ 9:54 am By: Van Zant

The Marxist Progressives of the last century immediately saw Christianity in the United States as a problem, so they infiltrated it from within. Here in the 21st Century is the result.

Commented: Sunday, October 19th, 2025 @ 7:58 am By: Van Zant

After doing just a bit of research on this I've concluded that it is the folks pretending to be the BC Republican Executive Committee that are the ones way out of line. Been calling some of the Repub. Exec. Committee members. None of them have addressed this or the School Board member stuff either. I have heard references to some sort of shadow committee that was created by the Executive Committee before the last Republican Convention. If you read the Republican PoO all of this is not legal according to their own rules. Even if this was a current committee, which they are not, they would still have to report to the committee at large.
It appears that the things these people are accusing Mr. O'Neal of are things they are guilty of themselves. Beaufort County has its own political mafia.

Commented: Wednesday, October 8th, 2025 @ 7:19 pm By: Van Zant