A blistering letter signed by four Democratic candidates for Congress in North Carolina’s 11th Congressional District is raising questions about party neutrality in primaries, calling the party’s decision to include only one congressional candidate — Jamie Ager — as the keynote speaker at the NC-11 Democratic gala “deeply unfair” and fundamentally at odds with core party values.
“We, the undersigned Democratic candidates for Congress in North Carolina, write to express our collective and unequivocal disgust,” the Aug. 1 letter begins, before taking aim at what the candidates view as a party-sanctioned attempt to tip the scales in favor of Ager, a Buncombe County farmer and political newcomer who announced his candidacy in late July.
Signatories to the letter, which was addressed to the North Carolina Democratic Party, the NC-11 Democratic Party and Buncombe County Democrats, include candidates Moe Davis, Zelda Briarwood, Chris Harjes and Paul Maddox…