NC GOP bans sex offenders from holding party office in new committee report
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- NC GOP added rule barring sex offenders and certain violent felons from party office.
- Some Republicans have advocated for a similar clause for years with no avail.
- The report does not detail enforcement methods like background checks.
The North Carolina Republican Party recently added an eligibility requirement that bars those convicted of sexual abuse, violent felonies or child abuse from holding party office. Advocates for the new clause say adding the clause took years of convincing, despite calls on leadership to make changes.
The decision, which was finalized at the party’s state convention in mid-June, comes just months after long-time GOP leader and donor Harvey West, who was convicted of several sex offenses in 2000, resigned from his positions as 1st Congressional District chair and a Plan of Organization Committee member for in the state party.
Prior to the addition, anyone was eligible to hold party office as long as they were a United States citizen and a North Carolina resident registered as a Republican in the state.
This new requirement applies to people who have positions within the state’s Republican apparatus that are filled through elections or appointments from Republican Party members. It does not apply to publicly elected positions like governors, mayors, or representatives, for example, that are elected by North Carolina voters.
“While Democrats do not reference God or moral values in their plan, Republicans have made the decision to call for exceptional leaders within party offices,” NC GOP spokesperson Matt Mercer told The News & Observer in a statement. “This change has been a point of discussion for the past several years and is now official in the new Plan of Organization.”
How will enforcement work?
The Plan of Organization Committee Report does not detail how the requirement would be enforced. Jonathan Fletcher, the chair of the committee, said the committee avoided making specific enforcement requirements like background checks because it would be costly to implement in small counties.
“I think you’ve got some counties where they’re smaller, everybody knows everybody. If somebody has that past, it’s well known. You’re gonna know that,” Fletcher said.
“I think people can use their common sense,” he added later. “If you have someone who was convicted of tax fraud and they’re running to be treasurer of a county party, just don’t vote for them. You don’t have to have a clause in the plan that says they can’t serve. You just don’t elect them.”
Fletcher said that he and the committee have spent considerable time discussing the new clause to find middle ground between those who didn’t want the clause and those who wanted a sweeping version that would create a longer list of criminal charges that would bar individuals from holding office. The clause passed the committee but did not have unanimous support, Fletcher said.
Though he said he respects peoples’ ability to change, Fletcher realized that the clause was necessary to help protect the party.
“(I am) appreciative of their desire to help, but if their helping the party ends up hurting the party instead just because of their past, then that’s not really a good thing,” Fletcher said.
Years of advocacy, years of rejection
Michael Magnanti, a member of the Plan of Organization Committee, said that before joining the committee, he proposed a similar amendment at the 2022 state convention — a version less “watered down” than the current clause — after he was shocked to learn there wasn’t already an eligibility clause about criminal charges.
But the convention elected not to hear it, he said.
As a committee member, he said he still couldn’t gather support for his version of the clause.
Margaret Ackiss, a Republican activist from Cherokee County, said the clause was long overdue.
“I also believe background checks should be mandatory for executive committee members and candidates seeking party leadership positions,” Ackiss wrote in an emailed statement. “Situations in which significant criminal histories come to light only after public exposure can create unnecessary controversy and damage confidence in the organization.”
Michele Woodhouse, former chair of the party’s 11th Congressional District, said she has been fighting for a felony clause for about eight years.
“It has always been met with unbelievable resistance by, sadly, leadership at that time led by Michael Whatley the chair,” Woodhouse said.
Michael Whatley led the NC GOP in 2019 to 2024 and served as the Republican National Committee from 2024 to 2025. He resigned to launch his Senate campaign against former Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat. West confirmed to WRAL that Whatley appointed him to the Plan of Organization Committee.
“The NCGOP is a grassroots organization - always has been and always will be. Resolutions considered at conventions are put forth by the delegates, not by the central committee, staff, Chairman, or the National Committeeman or Committeewoman,” Mercer said on behalf of the NC GOP in a statement to The N&O.
Why was the felony clause finally passed?
Fletcher said that although he’s heard people push for a felony clause to be added for years, he doesn’t recall discussing it in committee meetings in years past.
Both Ackiss and Woodhouse said they suspect the clause was only able to pass this month because West resigned from his post on the Plan of Organization Committee. Neither of the women have served on the committee.
Fletcher said he does not believe West’s presence on the committee may have caused intimidation because committee members are often unafraid to bring up uncomfortable topics.
Woodhouse questioned why the party has connected itself with people with sexual abuse charges and allegations, citing West’s annual Down East Judicial Picnic fundraiser and another 2021 incident that involved the Wake County GOP holding a fundraiser near Garner at a farm whose owner faced felony secret peeping charges for hiding a camera in the women’s bathroom on the property.
The owner, Lin Honeycutt, pleaded guilty in 2024 to two counts of misdemeanor secret peeping and was sentenced to 45 days in jail and 24 months probation.
“We can’t be the party that says we stand with victims, we stand with protecting the bathrooms of North Carolina for men. We can’t say any of those things and then on the other side have party leadership celebrating and standing at an event at the home of a man who sexually assaulted ... girls,” Woodhouse said. “It’s hypocrisy.”
The party also has other clauses that immediately removes a party officer who is charged with a felony while serving.
This story was originally published June 23, 2026 at 9:33 AM.
