(The Center Square) – A Democratic state representative attacked by members of his party for voting to approve the state budget is firing back against the “outrageous and ridiculous” statement.
Guilford County Democratic Rep. Cecil Brockman told The Center Square a statement posted to X, the site formally known as Twitter, by Young Democrats of North Carolina demanded a response because “logically it makes zero sense.”
“I think it just made me so irate them bringing up racism … for me just doing my job,” Brockman told The Center Square. “The statement was just so outrageous sometimes you have to respond … and not have some of these things sit.”
The statement followed votes on North Carolina’s biennium budget last Thursday and Friday and called out Brockman and fellow Democratic Reps. Carla Cunningham of Mecklenburg County, Garland Pierce of Guilford County, Michael Wray of Northampton County, and Shelly Willingham of Edgecombe County for voting “aye” with the Republican majority.
Dorian Palmer, president of the Young Democrats of North Carolina, Kema Leonard, president of College Democrats of North Carolina, and Daniel Patterson, co-president of North Carolina Association of Teen Democrats, demanded those lawmakers “start acting like Democrats and stop helping NC Republicans pass some of the most brazenly anti-Black legislation we’ve seen in years in a direct affront to the communities you represent.”
The public letter came with an implied threat of opposition in the March primary, tied to grievances that center on accusations of racism.
“As the first Black men to lead all three of the NC Democratic Party’s youth organizations at the same time, we are particularly sad to see several of our Black elected officials engage in the back-slapping game of closed-door politics that’s been ignoring communities of color across NC for decades,” they wrote.
In Brockman’s response posted to social media on Sunday, he wrote: “I supported the budget because I fought hard for appropriations I thought would have a profound impact on my community. I represent a majority Black district that I was born and raised in.
“The majority of the more than 29 million dollar appropriations that were in this budget go directly towards helping the folks in my community. More than 25 nonprofits that directly help the folks in my community get the resources they need.”
Brockman, who has been attacked by members of his party in the past for voting with Republicans when it benefits his constituents, said last week’s letter from young Democrats “is a strategy I knew they will try to use … that somehow I’m anti-Black for doing my job.”
Brockman, Cunningham, Pierce, and Willingham are Black; Wray is white.
“I don’t know anybody who got 25 nonprofits in their district money,” Brockman said. “The majority of the money I got for my district is for poor Black people.”
“We are solving real issues,” he said.
Brockman noted the irony of young Black Democrats leveraging racism to attack Black legislators, while refraining from the same for Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper.
“Why is it racist when we go and do our job and when Governor Cooper does his job it’s not racist?” he questioned. “They let the white moderate make the deal for years.”
As a “very hard-working campaigner” who frequently discusses his approach with constituents, Brockman said he’s “not concerned” about the implied threat for next year’s primary and has “a great deal of confidence going into this race.”
“Twitter is not voters,” he said. “That’s not the everyday people who go to the polls.”
Emails sent by The Center Square to addresses listed on the Young Democrats of North Carolina website for Leonard and Patterson were returned undeliverable. An email to Patterson was not returned. Phone messages left with North Carolina Democratic Party Chair Anderson Clayton, and communications director Tommy Mattocks, were not returned.
Brockman acknowledged his votes could prevent him from rising in the Democratic Party, “but I’m not here for the Democratic Party, I’m here for the people in my district,” he said. “I put my district first.”
Brockman also suggested the attack does little to help his party in the future.
“We already lost a Democratic member this year,” he said, referring to Rep. Tricia Cotham, of Mecklenburg County, who switched to join Republicans. “We’re losing people left and right.”
When Brockman took office in 2015, there were roughly 2.7 million registered North Carolina Democrats. That number now stands at about 2.4 million, according to North Carolina State Board of Elections data.
