This weekend, the Republican primary field headed to Mt. Airy for the “NC Faith & Freedom Salt and Light Conference,” where they stood alongside a bevvy of speakers that have embraced anti-vaxxers, promoted misinformation, and ignored science, including: 

• North Carolina Lieutenant Governor Mark ​​Robinson, who once said “any politician who encourages people to take a COVID vaccine should be voted out of office.”  
• Former Republican Arkansas Governor turned Fox News contributor Mike Huckabee, who blamed COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy on President Biden for “boring us to death” with science.
• North Carolina Congressman Madison Cawthorn, who has repeatedly spewed anti-mask and anti-vaccine rhetoric. Earlier this month, he led a protest at a Johnston County School Board meeting to try to get the board members to reverse their decision on requiring face masks in schools. Cawthorn has repeatedly called mask requirements “psychological child abuse.” (You may have caught it on The Daily Show…)

“While this GOP field is worried about their political future, fueling their base with anti-science rhetoric, the people of North Carolina need leaders who are focused on protecting  lives and livelihoods,” said NCDP spokesperson Kate Frauenfelder. “This reckless behavior may be prolonging the pandemic and impeding our economic recovery — it’s irresponsible and flat out dangerous.”  

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