Garson, all other NC Democratic officers reelected

Jonah Garson defeated a pair of challengers, overcoming a late effort to undercut his reelection bid. He and others won their reelection bids.

North Carolina Democratic Party First Vice Chair Jonah Garson is up for reelection on Saturday. He’s facing accusations of drug use at party leaders.

North Carolina Democrats on Saturday reelected Jonah Garson as the party’s second highest-ranking state officer.

Garson, an attorney, faced the toughest reelection bid of anyone in the state party, with a pair of challengers looking to take him out.

Three days before the election, an unsigned email sent to state party leaders claimed without evidence that Garson took illicit drugs at party events and inflated his record of achievement in fundraising for the party. The email also included a video of Garson getting kicked out of a Chapel Hill bar.

Garson categorically denied all accusations of wrongdoing leveled against him, calling them “false, defamatory, ugly [and] deeply upsetting.”

While Garson’s support dropped in recent days, he ultimately won on the first ballot, taking in 59% of the vote.

“For the past two years, I have given my all working alongside this amazing, reform-minded board... to build a Democratic Party capable of winning the toughest fights in the field, at the ballot box and in the courtroom,” Garson said.