HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, District 87
SPECIAL NOTE: NC Republican Legislators gerrymandered the maps to force Watauga’s Blue Ridge & Elk precincts into s separate House district (District 87). Therefore, there are two ballots for Watauga voters for this race: one for Blue Ridge & Elk only and the other for all other Watauga precincts. This ballot is for Blue Ridge and Elk voters only. All other Watauga voters can go HERE for their ballot choices in this race.
You may vote for one. Candidates are presented below in the order they appear on your ballot.
Reason for my Endorsement: I triple dog dare Destin Hall to run in a senate district he doesn’t draw for himself.
Destin Hall, Republican
https://www.facebook.com/destinhallnc/
Hall is a young whippersnapper, which makes him stand out in a party of old dinosaurs, so he’s risen rapidly in the Republican Caucus as an energetic operative in service to the power-grabbing habits of his elders. He was born and raised in Lenoir, graduated from AppState, and got his law degree from Wake Forest.
Hall graduated from Wake Forest School of Law and is therefore as a practicing attorney in the NC mechanisms of justice an “officer of the court,” “but he had this to say on Twitter about what 12 citizens in New York — seven men and five women — decided in the criminal trial of a famous defendant who needs no introduction but who apparently needs over-the-top groveling by a young lawyer in North Carolina, echoing the bloody-minded, low-information universe of adherents and useful idiot”s:
“The NY show trial is something one would expect in third world dictatorships, not the greatest legal system in the world. The charges were based on a bogus Frankenstein legal theory, were brought by a left wing prosecutor who campaigned on going after Trump, with a trial that was presided over by a left wing judge who issued grossly unconstitutional rulings.”
OK. I’ll confess I’m not a fan of Destin Hall, a young attorney from Lenoir and a very up-and-coming member of the GOP leadership in Raleigh, where he’s predicted by virtually everybody as the next Republican Speaker of the House, taking over from the ambitious grubbiness of Tim Moore (who’s headed to DeeCee after November). (Not a fan of him either.)
In January of 2022, Hall testified in a trial testing the constitutionality of his gerrymandering that he had indeed used “secret maps,” drawn by someone else, to guide his work and give Republicans an unfair advantage in what is statistically an equally split electorate between Republicans and Democrats. Hall’s statement, made under oath, appears to directly contradict what he told Democratic lawmakers at the legislature in November 2021, shortly before the Republican-led legislature passed those maps into law over Democrats’ objections.
Hall is in fact the chief House gerrymanderer who drew Watauga’s Blue Ridge precinct out of House Dist. 93 (Pickett’s seat) to make it much more difficult for a Democrat to prevail, and he’s responsible for all the other atrocious gerrymandering of House seats in the last few years. The Democratic tilt of Blue Ridge Precinct, added to Caldwell, is not nearly enough to give Hall any apparent cause for worry, since Caldwell is so relentlessly and predictably Republican.
Hall’s an authoritarian, favoring the forcing of NC sheriffs to cooperate with ICE, one of the most potentially ruthless agencies of Federal government. He’s also in favor of wanting to crack down on college campuses and the ability of students to protest. He proposed that former Prez Trump should be allowed to break the law with impunity because to prosecute him means the Department of Justice has been “weaponized.” He’s a CPAC Trumpist.
Hall’s campaign brought in $750,000 in the second half of 2023, which appears to be the highest amount ever raised in a non-election year by a lawmaker not at the helm of the House or Senate chambers.
Barbara Kirby (Democrat)
https://www.facebook.com/barbarakirbyforNChouse
Kirby grew up in Hudson and lives in the Oak Hill community of Caldwell County. After graduating from Pfeiffer College, Kirby worked as a reporter for the Hickory Daily Record. After earning a master’s degree from Appalachian State University, she worked as a school librarian for 34 years in Gaston, Catawba and Caldwell Counties. This is Kirby’s second run for this seat, and we should all be appreciative she jumped into the race.
Kirby has, over the years, served on the board of directors of the Western North Carolina Alliance and was recently appointed to the Caldwell County Arts Council. She is a reliable volunteer at a local food pantry and an active member in her Church.
Kirby outlines her beliefs and priorities as “long held, deeply passionate beliefs in the Democratic values of social justice, equal opportunity for all people, and conservation of the earth’s resources. Above all, I believe that elected officials must behave ethically, responsively and respectfully toward the people they represent.”
Kirby is strongly pro-choice, and environmentalist, and pro public schools:
“Since 2012, Republican politicians have sabotaged NC public education by cutting thousands of teachers and assistants, giving shameful, anemic raises, and consistently underfunding annual budgets by $500 million. Our students and teachers deserve better! As a former educator, I know first-hand that it’s hard for students to do well without a strong school to support them. In Raleigh, I’ll fight to make sure all Caldwell County and District 87 students have the resources they need to succeed.”