Chairman of the Guilford County Board of Commissioners Skip Alston said that he and other black leaders are very upset over how the replacement was chosen for resigning state Rep. Cecil Brockman – and Alston is warning that a majority-Black House district could end up with long-term white representation because of party rules and political ego.

Brockman, a Democrat who had represented NC House District 60 since 2015, resigned on October 31 after he was arrested on multiple felony charges involving an alleged sexual relationship with a 15-year-old.

Under state law, local Democrats get to recommend his replacement, and the governor almost always goes along.

On Saturday Nov. 15, the Guilford County Democratic Party’s House District 60 executive committee, in a virtual meeting, picked High Point City Councilmember Amanda Cook to fill the rest of Brockman’s term, which runs through the end of 2026.

Cook is white. District 60 is a majority-minority district that includes heavily Black neighborhoods in High Point and part of Greensboro, and, in recent decades, it’s been represented in Raleigh by Black lawmakers – including Earl Jones, Marcus Brandon and Brockman.

A perturbed Alston told the Rhino Times just hours after Cook’s selection that the district was drawn years ago as a Black “opportunity” district, and, in his view, it has functioned that way politically ever since. He traced the history back to the days when the late Rep. Herman Gist of Greensboro was helping craft districts aimed at ensuring African-American representation in Guilford County.

Now, Alston said, “a Black seat” is being turned over to a white city councilmember even though three Black Democrats – Dr. Angie Williams-McMichael, former Guilford County Commissioner Bruce Davis and former county party chair Joe Alston (no relation) – all sought the job.

Sources say that they all plan to run for the seat in the 2026 Democratic primary.

According to Alston, the way the executive committee vote was conducted made that outcome almost inevitable.

Under Democratic Party rules, only “organized” precincts – those that have elected a chair and vice chair – get to participate in the weighted vote that decides who gets recommended to the governor. Those precinct officers cast votes weighted by how many ballots were cast for the Democratic candidate for governor in the last election in their precincts.

Alston said many predominantly Black precincts inside House District 60 haven’t been formally organized at the precinct level, while a higher share of predominantly white Democratic precincts are fully organized and therefore held an unfair weight in the process.

In Saturday’s vote, the three Black contenders together fell well short of Cook’s total.

“The white precincts were organized – the Black precincts weren’t,” Alston said, arguing that the internal party mechanics, not just candidate strength, drove the result.

Alston also pointed out that Cook is already holding elected office. She’s in her first term on the High Point City Council and still has several years left on that term. Under the law, she’ll have to resign that council seat to go to Raleigh, triggering another vacancy on that majority-Black city’s governing board.

Cook, a former public school teacher who founded an education-focused nonprofit, has been running a vigorous campaign for the House seat since Brockman’s legal troubles emerged. She has already been campaigning on issues such as reducing poverty, improving schools and expanding year-round economic development in High Point.

Alston acknowledged that Cook and her allies “did the work” of organizing precincts and lining up support long before the executive committee meeting – but he said that doesn’t erase the larger concern about representation.

District 60 is solidly Democratic, meaning the real contest is the Democratic primary, not the general election. Once Gov. Josh Stein formally appoints Cook – a virtual certainty – she’ll likely head to Raleigh with all the advantages of incumbency going into that primary.

Alston’s bigger fear is what happens next spring.

He backed Williams-McMichael, as did Commissioner Carlvena Foster and many other Black leaders in the High Point area, as the one Black candidate they believed had the best chance to win the seat.

 If three Black candidates stay in the primary against Cook, they’ll divide the Black vote and make it much more likely that the appointed white incumbent keeps the seat with a plurality.

Alston argued that having only one Black representative from Guilford County in the House out of several majority-minority districts amounts to a “dilution” of Black political power.

Right now, Guilford’s Democratic House delegation includes Rep. Amos Quick – who serves in House leadership – along with Reps. Pricey Harrison and Tracy Clark from nearby districts, and others on the Republican side representing more heavily white and conservative areas. With Brockman gone and Cook poised to replace him, Alston said, Quick may soon be the only Black Democrat in the House speaking for Guilford’s urban Black neighborhoods.

Alston added that he plans to publicly endorse Williams-McMichael in the Democratic primary and expects other prominent Black elected officials to do the same. He said he hopes community pressure will convince other Black candidates – particularly Davis and Alston – to step aside rather than risk splitting the vote.

If they don’t, he predicted voters in High Point’s Black neighborhoods will remember who stayed in the race and “let a white incumbent walk back into a seat that was drawn to ensure Black representation.”

For now, Cook’s name is headed to the governor’s office, and, barring a highly unusual decision from Raleigh, she’ll soon be sworn in as the next representative for House District 60.

The real fight, Alston said, is just beginning – and it will play out not in a courthouse or at the state legislature, but in a Democratic primary where turnout and unity in High Point’s Black community may determine who speaks for them for years to come.

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