A moderate Democrat running for re-election is facing the wrath of her party for helping Republicans usher in more cooperation with federal immigration authorities.
State Rep. Carla Cunningham was the only member of her party to vote in favor of overriding Democrat Gov. Josh Stein’s veto of House Bill 318, legislation requiring sheriffs to hold criminal illegal migrants long enough for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents to assume custody of them. The legislator says she is now facing an unprecedented primary challenge and being battered with false accusations.
“I don’t think that people should be getting involved in a primary race,” Cunningham told the Daily Caller News Foundation, speaking in response to Stein’s public endorsement of a Democrat challenger against her. “I’m in my district, [my constituents] come first for me because they elect me, so they’re my priority when I’m making decisions on legislation.”
“I’ve been a Democrat a long time and given quite a bit to the Democrat Party,” she continued. “It used to be that no other Democrat would endorse in the primary, but that changed.”
A spokesperson for the governor did not respond to a request for comment from the DCNF.
North Carolina GOP leaders introduced HB 318 in early 2025, intending to build upon an anti-sanctuary law passed in the previous legislative session. The bill — which requires sheriffs to hold illegal migrants in their custody for at least 48 hours longer than they would have otherwise been released — sailed through the Republican-dominated state legislature.
Stein vetoed the bill in June, claiming it violated the Fourth Amendment. However, Republican lawmakers in the state worked quickly to force HB 318 over the finish line, enjoying a veto-proof majority in the Senate and needing only a single vote in the House to overcome the Democrat governor’s opposition.
As the override began to pick up steam, all eyes turned on Cunningham, who had already established an independent streak in her thirteen years at the North Carolina State Capitol. The Charlotte Democrat said she fielded a lot of calls in the run-up to the vote, but said one conversation with a local sheriff opposed to ICE cooperation crossed the line.
“As the conversation went on, he said he didn’t want to see me get hurt and I said, ‘Well, you know, I’m already under security,’ which I thought that he would have known because [the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department] knew, because the General Assembly police work with the local,” Cunningham said about her conversation with Mecklenburg County Sheriff Garry McFadden. “Then he said, ‘but you’re in my county.’”
Cunningham, believing those comments to be a not-so-veiled threat, said she immediately got off the phone and made calls to her family and located an attorney. The Mecklenburg sheriff is now facing several misconduct allegations, including accusations that he retaliated against employees, used county employees to unlawfully conduct work on his campaign website and instructed deputies to drive officials to strip clubs and bars.
The alleged threats did not faze Cunningham — she voted with Republicans in July to override Stein’s veto, paving the way for the bill to become law. However, the pushback from members in her party had only just begun.
Stein — after a number of his vetoes were rendered meaningless with the help of Cunningham — officially declared his support in January for Rodney Sadler, a reverend who is mounting a primary challenge against her. The liberal governor has taken particular umbrage with Cunningham’s floor speech during the override vote, in which she emphasized the need for cultural assimilation.
“All cultures are not equal,” Cunningham said before the override vote. “Some immigrants come and believe they can function in isolation, refusing to adapt. I suggest they must assimilate. Adapt to the culture they wish to live in.”
Stein, when explaining his support for Sadler, claimed Cunningham said “some people are better than other people.” The Charlotte Democrat ripped the governor for this accusation, calling him out for “misinforming” the media.
“Misinformation is miseducation, and that’s what it is,” Cunningham told the DCNF. “And see, I’m educating my constituency.”
The moderate lawmaker — who added that her constituents are happy with her voting record — emphasized that communities are safer when law enforcement agencies cooperate with each other.
“If we didn’t have laws, it’d be the Wild Wild West, which it looks like sometimes right now, but some structure in place and following the law is part of that,” Cunningham told the DCNF. “You know, we must follow the law.”
“I don’t even look at it from a party perspective,” she continued. “You must follow the law.”
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