Buckhout praised the new North Carolina state senator after National File published audio in which Tillett and his son were heard using racial slurs and discussing shooting a Black man.
The Farm Bureau Still Employs Tillett’s Son, who can also be heard screaming racial epithets.
Laurie Buckhout recently celebrated Republican Jerry Tillett’s installation to the North Carolina State Senate on facebook.
“Great to see North Carolina’s newest State Senator, Jerry Tillett,” Buckhout wrote on Facebook in a September 3rd post.
Tillett won the primary election and secured the Republican nomination in March with a paltry 37% of the vote, narrowly defeating Jay Lane, who finished in second place, a mere 1,400 votes behind Tillett.
Despite being the nominee, Tillett has struggled to garner broad support from Republicans and independents as he campaigns in the general election.
That’s primarily because in addition to all of his ethics problems, Jerry Tillett has been trying desperately to dodge accountability for audio published in which he and his son Jeremy Tillett, a Farm Bureau Insurance agent, can be heard clearly using the N-word, and discussing shooting a black man.
You can listen to that audio here.
National File first reported that audio in our report, here. The Assembly followed up our report, which you can read here.
Additionally, The Assembly recently published a partial record of Tillett’s long history of ethics problems and bullying, which you can read here.
All of this makes the fact that Republicans recommended Tillett for the job in the state senate even more baffling.
Then-Judge Tillett very publicly faced sanctions from the North Carolina State Bar.
Tillett’s behavior was so bad, one of his buddies in the state senate came to his rescue to write legislation to help him avoid further consequences.
That senator is State Senator Bill Cook (R-Beaufort, Camden, Currituck, Dare, Gates, Hyde, Pasquotank, Perquimans).
Ironically, Tillett’s narrow victory relied heavily on a coalition of independents and Democrats in Dare County, who were also working to elect a black man named Rodney Rawls as Dare County’s first black sheriff.
Buckhout is running to unseat Democrat incumbent Don Davis, of Pitt County.
Davis happens to be black.
Buckhout’s decision to continue to associate with Tillett amid his N-word scandal is not likely to help her with independents and undecided voters in North Carolina’s first congressional district, currently represented by Don Davis.
The first district is between thirty-eight and thirty-nine percent black.
Jerry’s son Jeremy works for the NC Farm Bureau as an insurance agent.
while Tillett’s father Jerry has served on the board of the Dare County Farm Bureau, and has also served as its president.
National File reached out to Farm Bureau Insurance to determine their position on their insurance agents screaming about killing black people and yelling the N-word.
We have not received any response from Farm Bureau at the time of publication.
Tillett was recently installed to fill the vacated seat in the 1st senate district after the GOP’s First Congressional District Committee voted in a tightly held, secret session to recommend to the Governor and Legislature that Tillett be appointed.
That recommendation was ultimately accepted, and Tillett was swiftly appointed to fill the seat Hanig vacated.
National File has reached out to Laurie Buckhout for comment on her association with Jerry Tillett.
Laurie hung up the phone after being asked whether she plans to continue associating with Tillett.
