NC Democrat apologizes for HB2 vote after his now-viral campaign ad leads to scrutiny
North Carolina state Rep. Charles Graham, currently a candidate for Congress, apologized Tuesday for voting in favor of House Bill 2, the controversial measure lawmakers passed in 2016 that limited LGBTQ rights.
At the time of the bill’s passage in March 2016, Graham was one of 11 House Democrats to vote to approve it. On Tuesday, more than five years later, Graham said his vote was “a mistake” and that he failed to uphold his belief that “human dignity is a human right.”
“To the LGBTQ+ community, and specifically to the transgender community who suffered real pain from this bill and the rhetoric that surrounded it, I am sorry,” Graham said.
The apology came after a new ad from Graham’s campaign for North Carolina’s 9th Congressional District in the 2022 election drew attention on social media.
Graham, a six-term Democrat from Robeson County, announced his campaign for the U.S. House in February.
While new district lines have not been drawn, the current 9th district runs from Mecklenburg County to Robeson County along the South Carolina border and is represented by GOP Rep. Dan Bishop of Charlotte.
‘Forgotten history’ from Robeson County
In the nearly three-minute ad, Graham evokes “a piece of forgotten history” involving the Lumbee Tribe and the Ku Klux Klan.
The ad begins with Graham, himself a member of the Lumbee Tribe, describing the events leading up to the night of Jan. 18, 1958, when a chapter of the Klan was scheduled to hold a rally and cross-burning near the town of Maxton, “to terrorize the Blacks and Lumbee.”
According to Graham, the local police chief warned a Klan leader that the multiracial community, consisting mostly of farmers and sharecroppers, did not want their “trouble.”
“The Klansman called us mongrels, half-breeds, and told (the police chief) the Klan would show him how to handle people like us,” Graham says in the ad.
Around 50 Klansmen drove into town on the night of Jan. 18 with “their cars, their crosses and a single light bulb hooked up to a car battery,” Graham says.
Of the number of Klansmen who showed up, Graham says: “Not a bad turnout on a cold night.”
“Problem is, they were surrounded by 400 Lumbees,” he says.
Neil Lowery, a barber and one of the local residents who gathered in opposition to the Klan, shot the light bulb. The Klansmen scattered, and by the time sheriff’s deputies arrived, they were all gone, Graham says in the ad.
According to the North Carolina Department of Natural and Cultural Resources, Lumbee tribe members opened fire on the Klansmen. Four Klansmen were injured, though not seriously, and there were no fatalities. Klan members, who were previously active in Robeson County, stopped targeting the Lumbee tribe.
In July 2018, the state dedicated a historical highway marker at the intersection of Highway 130 and Hayes Pond Road in Maxton, to commemorate the incident, sometimes referred to as the “Battle of Hayes Pond.”
In the ad, Graham says the incident was an example of “hundreds of normal folks deciding to stand together against ignorance and hate.”
It’s “a piece of forgotten history worth remembering, especially today,” he says.
The ad then cuts to images of the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol. Graham observes that “In Washington, lies turn to violence.”
“And the biggest lie is that America is at war with itself,” Graham says. “That you can’t trust your neighbor, that they want something that’s yours, that you must live in fear of them.”
“But the people who stood up at Hayes Pond refused to be afraid,” he says. “I grew up with their story, and the lesson is: human dignity is a human right.”
Scrutiny of HB2 vote, and an apology
As of Tuesday morning, the ad had received at least 3.3 million views on Twitter, and among other prominent figures, had been shared by actresses Kerry Washington and Gabrielle Union, and Democratic political strategist Adam Parkhomenko.
The ad also brought Graham’s campaign Twitter account a large influx of followers, he announced Tuesday.
“Yesterday we had 78 followers, today we have 41k. I want to say thank you to everyone who believes in this campaign,” Graham said on Twitter. “My heart is full.”
The attention the ad brought to Graham’s campaign also brought scrutiny from social media users of his voting record, including his vote to approve HB2, which was passed in March 2016 and required transgender people in schools and government buildings to use public restrooms matching the gender on their birth certificate.
The law was later partially repealed through House Bill 142, in March 2017. Graham voted for the partial repeal.
Several social media users on Tuesday pointed out Graham’s vote in favor of HB2 in 2016 after the ad was shared on Twitter and other platforms. One of those individuals was U.S. Rep. Susan Wild, a Democrat from Pennsylvania and a potential colleague of Graham’s if he is elected.
In his apology Tuesday, Graham said the bill was written and voted on in less than 24 hours, and said the ongoing conversation at the time was “surrounding protecting children and women, but I should have done more research to completely understand the impact of the bill.”
After the vote, Graham said he spoke with legislative colleagues and transgender-rights activists “about the impacts of the bill.”
“I have always tried to do what is right, but I am not perfect,” Graham said in his apology. “I’m running for Congress to stand up against hatred and ignorance, and I expect to be held accountable when I fail to live up to my own principles.”
This story was originally published October 5, 2021 at 12:20 PM.
