In this week's election, New Hanover County Republican candidates swept the Board of Education race, cemented a majority* on the Board of Commissioners, and held onto several key incumbencies — including the hard-fought, multi-million-dollar race for State Senate District 7.
County GOP Chair Will Knecht joins us on the podcast to talk about that win, some of the tensions that drove people to the polls, and what's next.
And just a note, while Knecht is our inaugural guest, he'll be far from our last — we hope to have many more voices on the podcast, with a diverse range of viewpoints. Interested? Let us know at bschachtman@whqr.org or michael.praats@wect.com.
Also, we lay out some of the back story for a major story coming from WECT, revealing never-before-public audio that led to the firing of three WPD officers who made staggeringly racist statements. We'll add a link to the story here when it goes live, but our conversation hopefully frames how and why the story is being released.
Related: Racist rants released of former WPD officers recorded on police cam
*Technically, Republicans gained a majority on the Board of Commissioners when Chair Julia Olson-Boseman changed parties to join the GOP after her loss in the primary made her a lame duck. The GOP's repudiation of her switch made the majority politically unpalatable — hardly something the party trumpeted.
