Fact check: GOP sends ‘heroin and hookers’ mailers about Democratic NC House candidates
Voters in Mecklenburg County’s House Districts 105 and 98 received mailers this month warning that Democrat Beth Helfrich wants to legalize “heroin and hookers” and that Democrat Nicole Sidman wants to legalize prostitution and hard drugs.
It’s a claim Helfrich’s campaign calls an alarming mischaracterization. And one Helfrich’s Republican opponent says she wasn’t involved in.
The mailers paid for by the North Carolina Republican Party urged residents to vote for Melinda Bales, the former Huntersville mayor, over Helfrich in House District 98, and Rep. Tricia Cotham over Sidman in House District 105. One mailer says Bales will increase funding for law enforcement, while Helfrich supports legalizing heroin, prostitution and methamphetamine. Both mailers feature black-and-white images of the Democratic candidates with their smiles altered into grimaces.
“When someone takes the time to photoshop your face and think up alliterative scare-tactics, it gets people talking,” Helfrich said in a statement to The Charlotte Observer. “However, the facts of this issue are not amusing. Addiction and overdose have real and devastating impacts in our communities… Serious issues call for serious, holistic approaches, not absurd scare-tactics.”
The race for House District 98 has consistently produced close results in recent years. Republican John Bradford III, who currently holds the seat, won by less than 1,000 votes in the 2022 election, and by just over 2,000 votes in 2020. The district is 48% Democratic and 49.9% Republican according to the website Dave’s Redistricting, which uses a composite of election results from 2016 to 2022.
The House District 105 race is similarly competitive. The recently redrawn district favors Republicans slightly, with 51.3% of votes in 2016 to 2022 elections.
‘Heroin and hookers’ claim
The claims that Helfrich supports legalizing heroin and prostitution stem from an endorsement made by the Progressive Caucus of the North Carolina Democratic Party, according to a citation on the mailers. Helfrich won the endorsement in February, posting on Instagram a pledge to uphold the values of the caucus.
The caucus’ platform, posted online in 2020, states a goal of decriminalizing sex work and narcotics as well as legalizing and regulating all drugs.
“That’s where the claim about ‘heroin and hookers’ comes from, because they very plainly say they want both heroin and hookers to be legalized,” said Stephen Wiley, caucus director for the North Carolina House Republicans. “Bales is a better fit to be a state legislator for a multitude of reasons, but I think it is safe to say she isn’t going to be advocating for an organization that promotes prostitution or heroin.”
In order to receive an endorsement from the progressive caucus, candidates must apply and go through a multi-step process that includes answering a questionnaire.
The mailer about Sidman cites the North Carolina Democratic Party platform from 2022 and 2024 to support the idea she wants to “legalize prostitution and hard drugs like heroin and meth.” The adopted platform supports decriminalizing sex work and narcotic use in an effort to remove discriminatory practices.
Both mailers say they were not authorized by any candidate and paid for by the state’s Republican Party. Bales told the Observer she was not involved in creating or sending them. Cotham did not respond to requests for comment.
“It’s important voters know about the stark contrast between our campaigns. The difference is, what we’re saying is true,” Sidman wrote in a statement to the Observer. “(Cotham) betrayed her constituents, voted for the most restrictive abortion ban in North Carolina history, and lied about all of it in the process.”
Criminal justice reform
Helfrich’s race is one of several that Democrats are especially focused on winning. A spokesperson for her campaign called the mailer’s claims a distortion of her values and the platform of the state’s Democratic party.
“The platform advocates for a compassionate, evidence-based approach to public health and criminal justice reform… a desire for pragmatic solutions to complex societal problems, not an endorsement of the dangerous behavior the mailer suggests,” said Josh Artis, a spokesperson for the North Carolina Democratic House Caucus. “Helfrich believes in policies that keep our communities safe, support public health, and address systemic inequalities—not in reckless legalization of harmful activities.”
The party’s platform considers substance abuse disorders to be diseases and prioritizes rehabilitation over incarceration, Artis said. He said the approach is about reducing criminalization in order to help people recover, not legalizing dangerous substances. He also said the party supports decriminalizing sex work in order to reduce mass incarceration and protect sex workers from exploitation and abuse.
Stein’s endorsement
This isn’t the first time a North Carolina Democrat has been accused of having “radical” policies by Republicans based on an endorsement.
In July, the Republican Governors Association released an ad accusing gubernatorial candidate Josh Stein of touting an endorsement from a group run by a “defund-the-police radical” just days after a Charlotte shooting that left four law enforcement officers dead.
In Stein’s case, the ad accused him of being soft on crime and pointed to a 2020 Instagram post made by the group’s leader in support of defunding the police as evidence. A spokesperson for Stein’s campaign said he has never supported defunding police and is a staunch supporter of law enforcement.
Artis said the claims about Helfrich are unsurprising given the party’s prior moves.
“The NCGOP seems proficient at using these tactics, and this mailer is just another attempt to distort reality and mislead voters,” he said.
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