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A Democrat running for the state legislature in battleground North Carolina remains on the ballot despite her party publicly abandoning her after inflammatory social media posts she made resurfaced.
The North Carolina House Democratic Caucus and a county party group both condemned posts by Shelly Headen in which the legislative candidate called for an attack on U.S. soil targeting red states, and compared President Donald Trump to Adolf Hitler.
But Headen remains a candidate because the filing deadline to drop out of the race was Aug. 20, and the general election ballots are finalized and were sent out to voters starting on Sept. 4.
Headen, who is challenging Republican state Rep. John Blust for the House District 62 seat in Greensboro-anchored Guilford County, posted a year ago, "I think our only hope is an attack on US Soil … preferably Alabama, Louisiana … where the stupid people live."
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In separate posts, she argued that the damage done by Trump was "getting close to surpassing Hitler," and claimed that the "MAGA cult may be more destructive and evil than the Nazis."
Breitbart reported that a Facebook post by Headen which pictured her at a memorial at the Nazis' Dachau concentration camp in Germany, where tens of thousands of people were murdered during World War II, with the words, "This is where Trump supporters belong."
Headen denied last week to the Greensboro News and Record that she posted the concentration camp image, and said she believed the image was edited to include the words over a real photo.
Her old comments grabbed new national attention earlier this week when the White House Rapid Response account that supports Trump shared them on X and charged that Democrats "ARE SICK PEOPLE!"
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North Carolina Republican Senate nominee Michael Whatley posted on social media a photo of Headen and former Gov. Roy Cooper, the Democratic Senate nominee, and argued, "Roy Cooper still stands with NC Dem who called for the genocide of Republicans. This is against everything America stands for."
Cooper's campaign emphasized in a statement, "These remarks are reprehensible – Roy strongly condemns them and all forms of political violence and he believes it’s up to all of us to speak responsibly."
Headen, a certified public accountant and small business owner, told WFDD, a public radio station in North Carolina, that she didn't remember making the posts but apologized to those hurt by them. And she added that she understood the party’s decision to drop support for her.
But in an interview with The Assembly, a digital-first news operation in North Carolina, Headen defended her posts, describing them as "a few angry moments."
"I’ve sacrificed myself just like Jesus sacrificed Himself on the cross, and Martin Luther King and Abraham Lincoln and all the people that put themselves out there to sacrifice for our country," Headen also told The Assembly. "If a few angry moments on social media are the end, then so be it. MAGA will keep winning if we continue with not standing up for what’s right."
The Assembly's reporting preceded the move by Democrats to drop support.
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"Shelly Headen’s posts are unacceptable and do not reflect the values we expect of our candidates," the North Carolina House Democratic Caucus said in a statement. The caucus added that it "condemns these comments without qualification and will not support Shelly Headen’s candidacy."
The Guilford County Democratic Party said in a statement, "We unequivocally reject and condemn the social media posts by Shelly Headen. These statements violate everything our party represents. Effective immediately, the county Democratic Party is formally withdrawing all financial, operational and organizational support for Shelley Headen’s campaign."
Headen earlier this week told Fox News Digital that she's received death threats in recent days, but declined to give any further responses regarding her posts.
In an article published Thursday in the Rhino Times, Headen reiterated, "I’ve been getting death threats and now all I want to do is protect myself and my family."
"My whole world has been collapsing," she added.
And she acknowledged that she took down her social media pages, saying, "I don’t have access to any of my accounts anymore."
Republicans have spotlighted the controversy.
North Carolina House Speaker Destin Hall called Headen's comments "Absolutely disgusting."
And the North Carolina House Republicans wrote on X, "Democrat Shelly Headen who is "Running to Restore Human Decency" just posted that she wants an attack on US soil. It is unclear whether Shelly would prefer ISIS or China to attack the United States, but it’s clear she wants an attack."
Meanwhile, the popular conservative X account Libs of TikTok argued that Headen "should drop out immediately. She doesn’t belong anywhere public office."
The attention over the resurfaced comments comes a week after Headen faced a separate controversy following a move by State House Republicans to release two 2024 Guilford County Sheriff's Office incident reports involving her and her husband, Gregory Thomas Headen.
The reports, which identify the alleged domestic offense as physical assault, list Headen as the suspect and her husband as the potential victim.
In a statement she released earlier this month, Headen said that during a stressful time in their marriage, she and her husband had "a couple of arguments that escalated." She said that during one argument, her husband grabbed her, causing her to fall backward and hit her head, and that she then called 911.
Headen, in her statement, described herself as having experienced abuse. And she argued that Republicans were using a private family matter for political gain.
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