NC Democrats drop candidate over social posts but warn GOP incumbent falls short

AI-generated summary reviewed by our newsroom.

After North Carolina House Democrats pulled its support for a candidate over controversial social media posts, the caucus said it still has “serious concerns” about the Republican incumbent candidate in the race.

Democrat Shelly Headen, who is running for a seat in the state legislature, is facing backlash and diminishing support over 2025 social media posts that reference calls to violence. The Assembly first reported the controversy.

The NC House Democratic Caucus has released a statement calling Headen’s post “unacceptable” and said they no longer would support Headen’s candidacy.

Headen is challenging Rep. John Blust, a Guilford County Republican, in House District 62, which is in Guilford County.

Since the statement last week, Sam Lozier, the communications director for the House Democrats, told The News & Observer that Headen still remains a candidate and “any decision about continuing her campaign is hers to make.” County boards of elections began mailing absentee ballots out to voters on Sept. 4 and, p er state law, party nominees cannot withdraw their candidacy after that date.

“Our responsibility was to determine whether she should continue receiving caucus support, and we acted accordingly last week,” Lozier wrote in a statement.

Headen has also lost the support of the Guilford County Democratic Party, according to a social media post.

Headen did not respond to The N&O’s requests for comment by phone or email on Monday. She told The Assembly that she could not remember the exact wording of her social media posts, but she acknowledged that she has been outspoken against the Trump administration.

Lozier wrote that the decision to pull party support for Headen “does not erase our serious concerns about John Blust’s record or our belief that the voters of House District 62 deserve better representation.”

The NC Democratic Party House Caucus on social media called out Blust last year for saying that, regarding slavery, the “U.S. gets a bad rap.”

Blust told The N&O Monday that “both parties want to flip seats, any seats that they think they can,” but “I just think [the Democrats] got a problem here.”

Headen’s 2025 social media comments resurfaced Monday when the Official White House Rapid Response account shared them on X and wrote that Democrats “ARE SICK PEOPLE!”

In 2025, Headen commented on a Facebook post: “I think our only hope is an attack on US soil … preferably Alabama, Louisiana … where the stupid people live.” Breitbart News, a far-right news and commentary website, reported that Headen posted a photo of the Dachau Concentration Camp in Germany and said that the camp “is where Trump supporters belong.”

The Guilford County Democratic Party on social media said its members “unequivocally reject and condemn” Headen’s posts.

The county party also said it was “formally withdrawing all financial, operational, and organizational support” from Headen’s campaign.

“Language that references concentration camps, uses derogatory terms toward neurodivergent individuals, or invokes political violence is completely indefensible and unacceptable,” the post said. “These statements violate everything our party represents.”

Blust said he is aware of the social media comments, “but I can’t add anything because I don’t know anything other than what’s been reported.”

“They recruited a candidate and didn’t vet that candidate, so I’m not going to try to add anything to it or bail them out of their recruiting mistake,” he said. “But I don’t think some of the comments that have been reported are going to fly.”

Early voting for the 2026 general election starts Oct. 15 and ends at 3 p.m. on Oct. 31. Election Day is Nov. 3.

This story was originally published September 14, 2026 at 6:34 PM with the headline “NC Democrats drop candidate over social posts but warn GOP incumbent falls short.”