NC COMMISSIONER OF LABOR
NOTE: You may vote for one. Candidates are presented below in the order they appear on your ballot.
Reason for my Endorsement: Choose the anti-labor candidate or the labor activist candidate? Was certainly an easy-as-hell call for me!
Luke Farley (Republican)
https://www.facebook.com/LukeFarleyforNC
Farley describes himself s a Christian, husband, father, conservative, and patriot. He is from Onslow County and is a graduate of UNC-Chapel Hill and Wake Forest University School of Law.
Farley’s law practice has concentrated on “construction industry issues” and raises a red flag for me, because he has mainly defended clients against the regulators in Occupational Safety and Health Administration cases. “Seeing the success and struggles of the construction industry got me interested in the labor commissioner position,” he says. “You’ve got to protect workers in a way that doesn’t bankrupt businesses.”
In addition to what he calls “elevator accountability,” Farley says he wants to build partnerships between businesses, workers, and the state; will fight to keep North Carolina a right-to-work state; will stand up for medical freedom by enforcing the Retaliatory Employment Discrimination Act (REDA) against employers who discriminate against employees who refuse to get the COVID shot; and will fight “The Heat Injury and Illness Prevention in Outdoor and Indoor Work Settings” rule proposed by the Biden Administration.
It doesn’t do Farley any favors in my book that former Labor Commissioner Cherie Berry is very prominent in his social media as the endorser of his candidacy. Berry was in my view the most anti-labor commissioner that we’ve ever seen in North Carolina.
Whoah. WHAT SIDE ARE YOU ON?!
Like Michele Morrow’s winning her Republican primary race for Superintendent of Public Instruction against a professional educator, Farley’s victory in the March GOP primary over N.C. Rep. Jon Hardister surprised many, including the NC Chamber. He’s even a step too far for them.
In a note published just after the election, the NC Chamber termed Farley a “far-right candidate” whose main issues were banning vaccine requirements for employees and “making elevators great again.”
Braxton Winston II (Democrat)
https://www.facebook.com/votebraxton/
Winston was born in Camp Lejeune, is now 40 years old, and has served for the last six years on the Charlotte City Council, currently as mayor pro tem. He graduated from Davidson College with a bachelor’s degree in Anthropology and began work as a Union Stagehand and Grip.“I’m a guy who clocks in and clocks out.”
Winston sits on several boards and committees including My Brother’s Keeper Charlotte-Mecklenburg, the Board of Trustees of the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra, Smart Start of Mecklenburg County and Habitat for Humanity’s Charlotte Neighborhood Revitalization Committee.
He believes there is nothing more American than the ability to form unions–a collective effort to negotiate wages and safety, and says over the past 25 years, the Republican leadership has eroded labor rights. He is also a labor activist — a professional videographer but also, as a stagehand and grip, a union member in “our region’s robust sports television and entertainment production community.”
But the real measure of the man came in 2016 in Charlotte when Keith Scott was shot dead after police say he failed to drop a gun upon their order. The officer who shot him was not charged. On the evening of September 20, 2016, where Keith Scott had lived and where he was shot dead, a crowd gathered and grew angrier.
Winston was in that crowd and he live-streamed Keith Scott’s daughter pleading with the police:
“And it was just like, a chill came over me and everything changed. And I took the people’s side … you know, we gotta get these questions answered and when the police tried to get out of there, the people demanded the conversation to keep going and that turned into a protest. We were met with riot police and tear gas after that and, you know, the rest is kind of history.”
But what shows true character of Winston is the actual help he provided the police department to keep a lid on the protest that night to keep it from becoming violent. Winston found himself committed to the non-violence of running for public office, and his personal fame and reputation from that event led directly to his election to the Charlotte City Council in 2017.