Onslow County school board member announces campaign for NC House

An Onslow County Board of Education member is running for a seat in the North Carolina General Assembly.

Eric Whitfield announced this week his campaign in District 14's race for the N.C. House.

Elected to the Onslow school board in 2020, Whitfield’s victory was met with public criticism and multiple petitions to remove him from the board due to allegations that he posted a racial remark on social media, according to Daily News reports.

Past coverage: Whitfield removal from school board by recall unlikely but not impossible

On Wednesday, the New Bern Sun Journal reported an Onslow County Schools employee filed criminal misdemeanor charges against Whitfield over allegations of harassment, cyberstalking and conveying threats.

Kelli Muse, who is also a Craven County School Board member, filed the charges against Whitfield and has court dates set for Dec. 13 for a “no contact” order and Jan. 11 for the charges, the Sun Journal reported. The report also said Whitfield confirmed the court dates but declined further comment.

Related: Onslow school board member charged with harassment, cyberstalking Craven school board member

While he plans to run, the state Supreme Court has halted March's primary elections while reviews are made of illegal gerrymandering.

Primary elections for a U.S. Senate seat, all 14 U.S. House and 170 General Assembly seats, along with judicial and other positions, are now delayed until May 17, according to the order.

On Monday, Whitfield did not comment on past remarks, but did speak about the issue that will be the major focus in his campaign for state office – county sales tax.

“(Incumbent) George Cleveland has always blocked the optional sales tax," Whitfield said. "That’s really going to be my platform that I am going to run on, if I am able to make it to the general election.”

A self-described "hard core Republican" who is running as a Democrat, Whitfield said he would vote for a sales tax increase in Onslow and that he supports a sales tax increase of a fraction of a penny because it is a “fairer type of tax” compared to property tax.

Rep. Cleveland, a Republican in his ninth term, said Tuesday he is “against any tax raises of any type.

“Governments should work within their means, and if they don't have the means to do it, they should not tax their citizens to do what they want to do,” Cleveland said.

In the 2020 election, Cleveland got 60% of votes and defeated Democrat Marcy Wofford. Seeking his tenth term in office, Cleveland said as long as his health allows, he will continue serving the district.

“I guess I am pleasing enough people because I’ve been allowed to stay in office, because the constituency has allowed me to,” Cleveland said.

Hoping to go head to head against Cleveland, Whitfield claimed if he is elected, sales tax will go up.

“There would be more revenue coming into the county,” Whitfield said. “It would make it easier for [county agencies] to balance their budgets, and the county commissioners could roll back the property taxes as a result of getting the sales tax option approved.”

In the 2020 school board election, Whitfield ran as a Republican and was one of four Republicans elected with more than 12% of votes in the eight-candidate race.

As of Wednesday morning, Whitfield and Cleveland are the only two candidates who have stated they will run in the race.

Related: School board candidate responds to requests that he withdraw from race

Reporter Calvin Shomaker can be reached at cshomaker@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on The Daily News: Onslow school board member to run for NC House seat