Libertarian running for Congress claims discrimination in debates
After being excluded from debates Sept. 4-5 that featured the Democratic and Republican party candidates who are vying for North Carolina’s 11th Congressional District seat, Libertarian candidate Tracey Nathaniel DeBruhl is weighing options on how to hold the debates’ sponsors accountable.
“By electing a Libertarian, we will exterminate the discrimination in our government,” DeBruhl said, adding that having a third-party candidate in Congress would send a clear message to the political establishment. “It bugs the crap out of me that we’re not getting a fair shot. Our citizens deserve a right to a fair election. They deserve the right to know who’s running.”
Over the course of two days during the first weekend of this month, candidates Madison Cawthorn and Moe Davis participated in political debates sponsored by Blue Ridge Public Radio (a member of the National Public Radio network), Smoky Mountain News and Mountain Xpress. The debates were held on Western Carolina University
campuses.
Cawthorn and Davis also participated in a debate held at Southwestern Community College on Sept. 9. Both schools live-streamed the debates, which are archived online. DeBruhl and Green Party candidate Tamara Zwinak did not participate in either event.
“You got public colleges and a public radio station that is supposed to be a nonprofit organization hosting debates and discriminating against who gets to be involved,” DeBruhl said. “That goes against laws governing nonprofit organizations and against state-funded college laws.”
The news director for BPR told the Cherokee Scout that DeBruhl and Zwinak failed to meet all of the criteria required for them to be included in the debates at Western. A spokesperson for Southwestern Community College said the school did not intentionally exclude anyone from their debate.
“Because we did not learn of the Libertarian and Green Party candidates until there was only one school day before the debate, we felt like the wisest course of action was to stick with the original format we had planned – for the sake of our students and everyone involved in planning the event,” said Tyler Goode, director of public relations for Southwestern.
“We have assured both Tracey DeBruhl and Tamara Zwinak that if we have any future debates, we will reach out to them.”
DeBruhl said he believes the political establishment played a role in keeping out third-party candidates.
“Do you realize who’s organizing all the debates?” DeBruhl said, implying that the Democratic and Republican parties are trying to keep voters from hearing alternative ideas. “I’m a U.S. Marine, and I go after the root of the source.”
DeBruhl, 40, is a resident of Asheville. He fulfilled a little more than two years of active duty service in the U.S. Marine Corps and has served more than that as a reservist. He ran for a seat on the Buncombe County Board of Commissioners in 2012 and also ran for sheriff there in 2018.
DeBruhl said he is running for Congress to “get this government on track.”
“One side or the other [of our government] is teaching discrimination,” he said. “I don’t know how people don’t see that. We got to get a third party in there.”
If elected, DeBruhl said he would strive to decrease the amount of money wasted by the federal government and work to implement an idea that could generate “billions of dollars in revenue.” He declined to share specifics about his ideas out of fear that his political opponents would claim them as theirs.
“I’m sitting in a ball field where every Democrat and Republican out there is looking for ideas,” DeBruhl said. “But I know where billions of dollars are being lost, and I know how to make something productive for our country.”
DeBruhl said he would also strive to help the homeless – not only in western North Carolina but across the nation – by providing food, vaccinations, housing and benefits.
“We have to help them get back on their feet to where they are not dependent [on street handouts] and have a resource they can always go to,” he said.
While school safety and immigration are also important issues to DeBruhl, he said his first term would include an effort to allow hemp to be used as a medical treatment for chronic pain relief as an alternative to opioids and other medications.
“We should research it and once and for all end the debate on what hemp and marijuana can be used for,” DeBruhl said. “We have a very childish high school mentality in running our government. I’m trying to grow us up.”
DeBruhl, who used to support the Black Lives Matter organization but later changed his mind due to apparent racist views toward other skin colors, said he believes the two-party system is responsible for stirring hate and division among the electorate.
“Since the 1990s, all of the hate and violence stirred up where people are killing each other over race-related stuff has been politically motivated,” DeBruhl said. “It’s going to keep coming back every election until we get a third party in the middle that the people can believe in.
“Jo Jorgensen is a schoolteacher running for president of the United States (as a Libertarian), yet we’re debating over an orange clown and a guy who can’t remember his name. We need a schoolteacher in government. We need a fireman in government. We need a Marine in government. We don’t need politics, period.”