Democrat Shelly Headen narrowly defeated a Republican incumbent in North Carolina after resurfaced posts revealed she had wished for an attack on American soil. Her comments prompted the state House Democratic Caucus to withdraw its support before the election. Headen nevertheless emerged ahead of Republican Rep. John Blust in the November 3rd contest, with unofficial results putting just 233 votes between them.
The race involved House District 62, which covers part of northwestern Guilford County. Blust campaigned on property taxes, energy costs and economic development, while Headen, an accountant, emphasized public education funding, healthcare access and fiscal responsibility. The district entered the election with a lean-Republican rating of R+2 in the John Locke Foundation’s 2026 Civitas Partisan Index.
The controversy erupted in September, when Headen’s past online comments attracted scrutiny during her campaign. One Facebook exchange concerned whether other countries should act against the United States. Headen identified two Southern states as preferred targets, writing: “I think our only hope is an attack on US Soil … preferably Alabama, Louisiana … where the stupid people live.”
As Carolina Journal reported on November 4th, unofficial results showed Headen receiving 21,367 votes, or 50.27%, against Blust’s 21,134 votes, or 49.73%. The margin placed the contest within the state’s 1% recount threshold for nonstatewide races. County certification was scheduled for November 13th, leaving the reported result subject to the remaining election procedures.
Carolina Journal’s earlier report on the posts documented additional comparisons involving Adolf Hitler, Nazi Germany and the Holocaust. Headen suggested that Trump’s damage was approaching Hitler’s and portrayed the MAGA movement as potentially worse than the Nazis. In another exchange, she contrasted Republicans she considered reasonable with Trump supporters and invoked the Holocaust to describe her alarm about the movement.
The Assembly reported that the House Democratic Caucus dropped its backing within hours of the outlet contacting party leaders. Caucus spokesman Sam Lozier said: “The North Carolina House Democratic Caucus condemns these comments without qualification and will not support Shelly Headen’s candidacy.” State Democratic Party Chair Anderson Clayton referred the outlet to the caucus when asked for comment.
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Headen told The Assembly that she remembered making anti-Trump posts but could not recall their exact wording. She also said she had paid a consulting firm $30,000 to review her social media accounts for potential problems. Defending her decision to continue campaigning, she compared her willingness to endure criticism with sacrifices by Jesus, Martin Luther King Jr. and Abraham Lincoln. By the time the caucus withdrew its support, the August 20th deadline for candidates to remove their names from the ballot had passed. Mail-in ballots had already begun going out to voters, preventing Democrats from replacing her on the ballot.
Republican Rep. Allen Chesser also condemned the attack comment, drawing on his military service after September 11th. Chesser served in the Army and Army National Guard and completed more than 100 combat missions during his deployment to Iraq. He described the families left without loved ones after attacks and argued that hoping for violence against Americans should disqualify a candidate from public office.
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video.