Fundraising at a Predator’s Picnic
How a convicted child sex offender ascended the ranks of the North Carolina GOP
A top financial kingmaker in the North Carolina Republican Party is a convicted child sex offender. To make matters worse, it seems as if many GOP leaders not only knew, but disregarded the conviction in favor of big money fundraising picnics.
In 1999, Harvey West, Jr., a twenty eight year old police officer, was arrested and charged with the statutory rape of two fourteen-year-olds and one sixteen-year-old. He pled to up to sixteen counts of taking indecent liberties with a child. In 2000, West began his six-year prison sentence, and upon his release, he spent ten years on the NC Sex Offender Registry.
West didn’t wait for his sex offender registration to expire before entering politics. The disgraced former police officer stepped into the GOP spotlight in August 2012, when, having risen through local Beaufort County circles, he was named an alternate delegate for the RNC in Tampa, Florida. But this momentum was short-lived. The News & Observer of Raleigh released a report on his sex registry status and an hour later, he resigned from his seat. In an interview with the Associated Press after the scandal, West acknowledged the charges by saying “there’s no way you can defend yourself... This is who I am, and this is what happened to me.”
And yet, his career survived — and soon flourished. In 2016, Republicans in the NC legislature required that Court of Appeals candidates include party affiliations on the ballot, expanding to include the state’s Supreme Court two years later. With judicial races switching from nonpartisan to partisan, West saw his opening. These judicial candidates were unaccustomed to political campaigning, especially against entire parties instead of individuals. West immediately identified a “funding gap” and launched the annual Down East Judicial Picnic with his wife.
The “picnic” grew into the must-stop, “big $$” campaign spot for judicial candidates. West eagerly sold his own success as a bona fide GOP campaign asset: he bragged about creating a federal campaign account with over $15,000 to financially support GOP candidates across Northeast NC. This account was marketed as the party’s way of allocating more money to local candidates. He told the 2025 Tyrrell County GOP Convention that he successfully turned the first district from “a D-17 to a D-1, which is a true toss-over.”
Every Republican Supreme Court Justice currently serving in North Carolina — Phil Berger Jr., Paul Newby, Trey Allan, Tamara Barringer, and Richard Dietz — personally attended West’s fundraisers (see flyer above). 2026 NC Supreme Court nominee Sarah Stevens followed suit, as did Judge Jefferson Griffin, whose failed 2024 NC Supreme Court campaign attempted to purge over 60,000 votes and overturn the election results. North Carolina Democratic Party Chair Anderson Clayton called out these justices, stating that, “we can’t trust our Supreme Court justices to keep our children safe if they’re kissing the ring of a known child predator in exchange for campaign contributions.”
The rot went to the top of state-level party leadership. In 2019, Michael Whatley, NC’s current GOP nominee for U.S. Senate, became the NC GOP state chair and brought West fully back into the party fold. As the state chair he facilitated West’s successful bid for First District chair in 2019, a position West was re-elected to for four terms. He even appointed West to lead the Plan of Organization Committee, the body that drafts party rules.
A convicted sexual predator wrote the rules for the NC Republican Party.
West also moderated the Dare County GOP’s January 22 forum for Board of Education candidates, which was a bridge too far for some. Two Dare residents posted in the “OBX Locals” Facebook group about West’s crimes, with one woman writing that he “was an odd/unsettling choice” as moderator, “as pointed out by many, for a forum that would deal with school children - Mr. West is a convicted sex offender.”
One would be hard-pressed to argue that NC GOP’s top leadership — including Whatley — were unaware of West’s convictions and decade-long stint on the registry. With public documentation dating back to 1999 and the prominent outcry in 2012, anyone in the party could uncover this information with a simple Google Search or background check. Local GOP activist Michele Woodhouse claimed that Whatley killed her motion to bar hosting the party’s events at a “venue owned by a convicted felon,” which included West’s picnics.
West himself claims that he was “open” with Whatley and other leaders about his past from day one. West told The Daily Beast that: “I openly discussed what happened. I openly discussed my time in prison. I openly discussed the charges. And I would tell people, ‘If you want me around, I will work and be glad to do so. If you don’t want me, I’ll go on down the road.’”
West resigned as District Chair earlier this month, in response to a resurgent public rebuke of both his crimes and discomfort over the education board panels. His wife, Kim Cotton-West, tried to shore up support to replace him until the end of his term, but ultimately lost to Mary Helen Pelt Warren.
West was ousted almost immediately upon gaining a state-level position in 2012. Why, this time around, did it take seven years? And why now? The latter answer has maybe less to do with moderating one education forum than with the mounting national attention on North Carolina’s U.S. senate race. While NC’s 2024 election was scandalized by the gubernatorial race, Whatley’s match-up with former Governor Roy Cooper has occupied the limelight this year. Everyone is looking, making the NC GOP’s “worst kept secret” harder to hide.
Michael Whatley and his campaign continue to try. When asked about West by a Charlotte Observer reporter, a campaign spokesman circumvented the topic and instead criticized the Observer and former Gov. Roy Cooper, the Democratic Senate nominee. National GOP Senators Tillis and Budd, along with the NC GOP itself, did not respond to requests for comment.
Only a select few local representatives have broken rank to speak out. Mecklenburg County Republicans delegates recently passed a resolution to state that felony sex offenders have no place in party leadership. While Mecklenburg GOP Chairman Kyle Kirby clarified that the resolution doesn’t target West, who he “doesn’t know,” it could be a sneaky rebuke of the state-level leadership’s decision to permit predators within their ranks.
The North Carolina Republican Party’s elevation of Harvey West was a mercenary choice. Elected officials integrated a convicted child predator into the heart of their rulemaking and fundraising machine because he produced monetary results. Whatley and the GOP top brass’s choice to embrace a man who targeted teenage girls contaminated the highest court in the state.
It’s not too late to demand accountability. If these leaders deliberately refuse to protect their own party from a known predator, how can they ask for the trust of North Carolinians? Will the NC GOP break their silence to address the distress and anger of their constituents? Or will Whatley’s campaign coast on a poll high from before the scandal broke out?
North Carolinians can make those polls go down. As was done in 2012, the NC GOP must be held accountable for their embrace of a known child sex offender.
Ciera Stone is the editorial associate at The Contrarian. She received a master of arts at the University of Notre Dame, concentrating on international peace, global affairs, and justice.
Release the Epstein files.
Next GOP ad: Welcome sex offenders and pedophiles. Please join us.