SALISBURY — Former North Carolina Supreme Court Chief Justice and current U.S. Senate candidate Cheri Beasley will speak to Democrats Saturday during their monthly breakfast meeting.

Democrats will meet virtually via Zoom at 10 a.m. The meeting will open at 9:30 a.m. to those who are registered and the meeting will begin promptly at 10 a.m. No other attendees will be allowed into the meeting after 10 a.m. as Beasley will begin the meeting with her remarks.

To register, go to mobilize.us/rowandemocrats/event/449699/. Meeting information will then be sent via email, so members ask attendees to check their spam or promotion folders.

Beasley is one of more than 20 Senate candidates for the 2022 election and is the current Democrat frontrunner out of all 11 Democratic candidates.

The party posts its monthly breakfast gatherings on its Youtube channel titled Rowan County Democratic Party.

Rowan Democratic Party chair says opening of headquarters building to be determined

SALISBURY — Rowan County Democratic Party Chair Geoffrey Hoy said the party will continue to host events virtually until members feel safe enough to fully return to in-person gatherings.

However, Hoy said rent continues to be paid at the headquarters building located at 1504 W. Innes St. with the aid of donations. Democrats have used that space since September 2016.

Hoy said during the executive committee’s last meeting, members said they would leave the decision of an in-person return to him as the April executive committee meeting nears. But Hoy said utilizing social media and sending text and email alerts continues to be the safest strategy “for everyone’s health all around.”

Additionally, the party plans to become more active in the 2022 election following the primary election on May 17 as the party doesn’t endorse candidates in the primary. Hoy said voters can visit the party’s website at rowancodems.com/or its Facebook page to keep up with events and party activity or volunteering opportunities. Just as they did for elections held throughout the pandemic, Democrats will continue passing out information at the Board of Elections office at the West End Plaza during the elections.

NC’s Republican U.S. senators say they will vote against Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson’s SCOTUS appointment

WASHINGTON — As the U.S. Senate moved forward in the process of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson’s nomination to the Supreme Court Monday, North Carolina Republicans say they will vote against her nomination despite her qualifications.

Once a president submits a nominated candidate for a Supreme Court vacancy, nominations are approved only in the Senate. Sen. Thom Tillis, who’s a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said he has two criteria for reviewing the nomination, which includes their qualifications and commitment to “adhering to the Constitution’s original public meaning and federal law as written.” Tillis said while Jackson is qualified, he’s concerned with her voting record and won’t be voting in support of her nomination.

“There is no doubt that Judge Jackson is well qualified and her nomination as the first Black woman to the Supreme Court is historic,” Tillis said. “I was impressed with her knowledge, her composure and her character during more than 20 hours of questioning. However, based on her record, I still hold my initial concerns that she may legislate from the bench instead of consistently following the Constitution as written. I am also disappointed that she is reluctant to take a firm public stand against a liberal, dark money court-packing scheme that represents a fundamental threat to the independence of the federal judiciary, even though other justices like Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer have done so.”

Tillis said he expects she will be nominated nonetheless and wished her the best in “her continued public service to our great nation.”

Sen. Richard Burr, another Republican, said he met with Jackson to discuss the experience and judicial philosophy she would bring to the nation’s high court. His top concern was her position on “radical proposals” to pack the Supreme Court by expanding the number of justices.

“Court packing is a transparent power grab — one that would forever compromise the integrity, impartiality and independence of the Supreme Court,” Burr said. “Justice Ginsburg and Justice Breyer both rejected court packing and the next justice who joins the court should do the same. Unfortunately, Judge Jackson’s answers on the question, in both her confirmation hearing and our personal discussion, continue to be unsatisfactory. While she is undoubtedly highly qualified, knowledgeable and experienced, based on our discussion, I cannot support Judge Jackson’s nomination when it comes before the Senate.”

U.S. Rep. Ted Budd, a North Carolina Republican, posted to Twitter last week that Jackson has “a disturbing pattern of handing down soft-on-crime sentences, promoting (Critical Race Theory) and was unable to provide a simple definition of a woman.” Budd said she’d bring such beliefs to the Supreme Court.

Budd is one of the Republican frontrunners vying to fill the U.S. Senate seat that will be vacated by Burr later this year.

All NC’s lawmakers vote in support of Emmett Till Antilynching Act that’s now signed into law

WASHINGTON — North Carolina lawmakers in the U.S. House and Senate all voted in support of the Emmett Till Antilynching Act that formally makes lynching a federal hate crime punishable up to 30 years in prison.

The legislation, which has since been signed into law by President Joe Biden, is named for the 14-year-old Black boy who was brutally tortured and murdered in Mississippi in 1955, sparking the civil rights movement. It was introduced by Democratic Rep. Bobby L. Rush from Illinois in the House, along with Sens. Cory Booker, a Democrat from New Jersey, and Tim Scott, a Republican from South Carolina.

While the measure passed unanimously in the U.S. Senate, just three Republicans voted against the bill in the U.S. House. Those include Reps. Andrew Clyde from Georgia, Chip Roy from Texas and Thomas Massie from Kentucky.

A handful of North Carolina Democrats signed onto the legislation as co-sponsors, including Reps. G. K. Butterfield, David Price, Kathy Manning and Alma Adams.