On face value, our Cumberland County Senate District 19 democratic primary election between Senator Kirk deViere and challenger Val Applewhite is pretty boring minus a few misleading mailers and radio ads. Kirk and Val have similar campaign platforms just like most democrats running for State of NC senate seats. They both support increased teacher pay, Medicaid expansion, clean water, supporting military veterans, affordable housing, affordable wages and the list goes on.

The main differences I see between Kirk and Val for the upcoming democratic primary election are one is a man, one is a woman; one is white and one is black. One is a seasoned State Senator and the other is trying to become a State Senator.

I served with Kirk and Val on the Fayetteville City Council and consider them friends. Both are extremely intelligent, came prepared to every council meeting and truly cared about Fayetteville citizens. I am not personally endorsing either of them. Kirk and Val both have NC Senate campaign sites and I recommend you review them at www.kirkdeviere.com/ and www.valapplewhitencsenate.com/.

2B

I did find a few differences between Kirk and Val's voting records within archived city council meeting minutes. In 2012, Val voted four times against a voter bond referendum for Parks and Recreation projects.

2A From what I remember, Val was against the bond referendum because city staff was not forthcoming with the “all-in cost” for the bond referendum including interest costs for borrowing the money. This item reemerged in 2015, and Kirk voted yes to allow the voters of Fayetteville to decide if they want to fund General Obligation Bonds for additional parks and recreation facilities. Voters overwhelmingly approved borrowing the money in a vote of 21,323 in favor to 14,785 against.

Back in 2012 and 2013, Fayetteville was going through the Driving While Black discussions. Part of that discussion was to ask the NC General Assembly to authorize Fayetteville to form a Citizen Review Board. The first step was to adopt a formal resolution and prepare a city ordinance creating the CRB. Val voted against the creation of the CRB in November 2012 and January 2013.

The CRB came back to council’s attention in 2020 and 2021 from concerned citizens. City council reached out to our local delegation in Raleigh. Kirk introduced Senate Bills 291 and 682 to authorize cities to establish a CRB. Senate Bill 291 was only for Fayetteville while Senate Bill 682 was broader to include all cities in North Carolina.

These bills are still stuck in the Committee on Rules and Operations of the Senate. Senate Bill 291 can still come back this summer during our General Assembly’s short session should our city council be unanimous on this item and ask our local delegation to once again push for its passage.

Kirk and Val both ran for the Mayor of Fayetteville position twice and lost twice. Val lost her bids for Mayor in 2013 and 2015. Kirk lost his bids for Mayor in 2013 and 2017.

Kirk moved on and won the NC State Senate District 19 position in 2018 and 2020.

Both Kirk and Val are great citizens for putting their names on the 2022 democratic primary ballot. Both were successful members of the Fayetteville City Council and have voting records to examine.

Val voted to support our new multi-model center in downtown. Kirk voted to support our new baseball stadium.

Early voting begins April 28 and primary election day is May 17. Please get to know Kirk and Val before you vote if you’re voting in the democratic primary election.

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