2026: The Year of the Harvey

Democrats told us 1992 was *The Year of The Woman.*  In 2026 North Carolina, they’re trying to make sure we all know it’s *The Year of The Harvey.*

The Harvey we’re talking about is one Harvey West — who has been a fixture in NCGOP power circles for at least a couple of decades.

NCGOPe leaders and folks in the Mike Whatley campaign have been trying to gain some traction with a theme about Roy Cooper’s alleged softness on crime.  Then, along came Tom Fiedler with The Asheville Watchdog to tell the world about Harvey West. 

For those who may not remember Fiedler — he gained fame as a Miami Herald investigative reporter back in the 1980s.  He’s best known for sinking the presidential aspirations of then-Colorado senator Gary Hart.  Fiedler got the Pulitzer Prize too.

He’s retired to Asheville, but quickly got frustrated with what he saw as a real lack of competent local news reporting for people in the region.  Fiedler worked with some other retired scribblers to form The Watchdog.  And the rest is history.

As soon as his work on West hit cyberspace, this is how one particular NCGOPe-oriented website reacted:

The Democrats’ go-to-smear guy?  Really?  Did the Democrats appreciate him taking out their best hope against Reagan in 1984?

I had a chance to actually talk with Fiedler.  He sought me out in order to gain some understanding about the conservative anger over Thom Tillis.  After all, Fielder – at the time – was a relative newbie to North Carolina.

I thought that was very fair of him.  His views are to the left of me and my website but his work offers up some fairness you just don’t see in contemporary drive-by journalism.  Anyway, Fiedler’s latest on West was about the NCGOP’s efforts to ban convicted criminals from holding party positions:

You may think you already know the story of the charismatic and powerful man who lures young girls — even as young as 14 — into sex with liquor and pornography. When caught and convicted, he is sentenced to prison. 

Yet upon release, rather than spending the rest of his life in shame and public ostracism, he gains the backing of powerful politicians who cater to his money and charm. He becomes a political player in his own right, befriending others who nurture his influence and protect him from the few who, for several years, cry out futilely against him on behalf of the children he victimized.

Until suddenly and shockingly, a reckoning occurs. Reports of those long-ago crimes achieve a tipping point and the man is stripped of his influence and heaped with disgrace. His former protectors are left to explain what some see as the unexplainable. 

If you assumed I am rephrasing the Jeffrey Epstein case you are mistaken. This is the very true story of a North Carolinian named Harvey West Jr. who, until three months ago, held two high-level positions within the North Carolina Republican Party. 

West resigned from those posts after I wrote about him in The Watchdog, about his ties to Michael Whatley, the GOP nominee for U.S. Senate and former state Republican party chairman, and several prominent Republicans on the state Supreme Court and in the state Assembly.

Consider this column as Chapter Two in the saga of the sex offender and the North Carolina GOP. 

None of West’s enablers and financial beneficiaries responded to my previous requests for comment, including Supreme Court Justices Paul Newby, Philip Berger Jr., and Trey Allen, and GOP Supreme Court-candidate Sarah Stevens. They’ve remained silent in public. […]

Sarah Stevens, the Republican candidate in North Carolina’s 2026 Supreme Court race, said in a recent interview that she “didn’t even know” Harvey West, a convicted sex offender whose fundraising picnic she attended last year.

However, Stevens has documented ties to West and his wife, Kim, that range before and after the much-discussed fundraiser.

In the weeks leading up to the event, Stevens appeared alongside Kim on her podcast to promote the picnic. At the fundraiser — which was hosted at the Wests’ home in Plymouth — Stevens was a featured speaker, as was Harvey. She accepted campaign contributions from the event and, as of this week, Stevens remains friends with Harvey on her personal Facebook account.

“It’s all but impossible that Sarah Stevens didn’t know about Harvey West’s status as a convicted child predator,” Anderson Clayton, chair of the North Carolina Democratic Party, said in a statement to The News & Observer. “What Stevens knows is that voters find her association with Harvey West toxic, and now she’s lying to try to save her campaign from ruin — all while refusing to give up the money she raised from West.”

In a statement to The N&O, Stevens said she did not remember the podcast and that she “had not met either of the West family until that day.”

“I do not make a habit of conducting a criminal record check on all the individuals I meet on the campaign trail,” she continued.

As for her Facebook, she said she’s accepted many friends on the platform “and I don’t personally know them all.”

West connections dog NC GOP

Stevens, a nine-term lawmaker in the state House, resigned her seat last week, saying she needed to focus on her Supreme Court campaign.

Her most recent comments about West come from an interview with the North State Journal, in which she said “I had no idea he was on a sexual offender registry … or that he was put there 24 years ago.”

West, who has held multiple leadership roles within the NC GOP, pleaded guilty in 2000 to several charges of indecent liberties with a minor younger than 16 and served six years in prison. Upon his release, he was required to register as a sex offender. He has since been taken off the sex offender registry.

News circulated about West’s sex offender status in 2012, when he was selected to be an alternate delegate to the Republican National Convention. He resigned the position shortly after the news broke.

Speaking to the Associated Press at the time, West denied the crimes and said he pleaded guilty to get a lesser sentence.

“There’s no way you can defend yourself. This is who I am, and this is what happened to me,” he said. “I was given my right to vote back, and I have a right to the political process. When do I get to live my life?”

[…]

While top Republican leaders have spoken little about West’s influence publicly, the NC GOP approved a new rule at its convention earlier this month that appears motivated by his history.

The rule, which proponents say took years to get approved, bars anyone with sexual abuse, violent felonies or child abuse convictions from holding party office, the N&O reported.

Speaking to the Asheville Watchdog, West said the new requirement would not end the controversy over his involvement in the GOP.

“They’re too late. I’ve been involved for 20 years,” he said. “You can’t put that toothpaste back in the tube.” […]

And more from The N&O:

[…] The North Carolina Republican Party recently added an eligibility requirement that bars those convicted of sexual abuse, violent felonies or child abuse from holding party office. Advocates for the new clause say adding the clause took years of convincing, despite calls on leadership to make changes.

The decision, which was finalized at the party’s state convention in mid-June, comes just months after long-time GOP leader and donor Harvey West, who was convicted of several sex offenses in 2000, resigned from his positions as 1st Congressional District chair and a Plan of Organization Committee member for in the state party.

Prior to the addition, anyone was eligible to hold party office as long as they were a United States citizen and a North Carolina resident registered as a Republican in the state.

This new requirement applies to people who have positions within the state’s Republican apparatus that are filled through elections or appointments from Republican Party members. It does not apply to publicly elected positions like governors, mayors, or representatives, for example, that are elected by North Carolina voters.

“While Democrats do not reference God or moral values in their plan, Republicans have made the decision to call for exceptional leaders within party offices,” NC GOP spokesperson Matt Mercer told The News & Observer in a statement. “This change has been a point of discussion for the past several years and is now official in the new Plan of Organization.” […]

Michael Magnanti, a member of the Plan of Organization Committee, said that before joining the committee, he proposed a similar amendment at the 2022 state convention — a version less “watered down” than the current clause — after he was shocked to learn there wasn’t already an eligibility clause about criminal charges.

But the convention elected not to hear it, he said.

As a committee member, he said he still couldn’t gather support for his version of the clause.

Margaret Ackiss, a Republican activist from Cherokee County, said the clause was long overdue.

“I also believe background checks should be mandatory for executive committee members and candidates seeking party leadership positions,” Ackiss wrote in an emailed statement. “Situations in which significant criminal histories come to light only after public exposure can create unnecessary controversy and damage confidence in the organization.”

Michele Woodhouse, former chair of the party’s 11th Congressional District, said she has been fighting for a felony clause for about eight years.

“It has always been met with unbelievable resistance by, sadly, leadership at that time led by Michael Whatley the chair,” Woodhouse said.

Michael Whatley led the NC GOP in 2019 to 2024 and served as the Republican National Committee from 2024 to 2025. He resigned to launch his Senate campaign against former Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat. West confirmed to WRAL that Whatley appointed him to the Plan of Organization Committee.

“The NCGOP is a grassroots organization – always has been and always will be. Resolutions considered at conventions are put forth by the delegates, not by the central committee, staff, Chairman, or the National Committeeman or Committeewoman,” Mercer said on behalf of the NC GOP in a statement to The N&O. […]

Both Ackiss and Woodhouse said they suspect the clause was only able to pass this month because West resigned from his post on the Plan of Organization Committee. Neither of the women have served on the committee.

Fletcher said he does not believe West’s presence on the committee may have caused intimidation because committee members are often unafraid to bring up uncomfortable topics.

[…] “We can’t be the party that says we stand with victims, we stand with protecting the bathrooms of North Carolina for men. We can’t say any of those things and then on the other side have party leadership celebrating and standing at an event at the home of a man who sexually assaulted … girls,” Woodhouse said. “It’s hypocrisy.” […]