A Durham-area Republican candidate for the state legislature has garnered national attention for her lengthy Democratic voting record and positions that some say do not align with GOP values.

But experts say there is little to be done about it given the state’s commitment to holding open primaries.

Lakeshia Alston, the sole Republican running for the state Senate’s District 22, went viral in December after social-media posts highlighted what critics said were her dubious conservative credentials.

Alston, who has been registered in Durham since 2004, voted Democrat in three previous primary elections before switching to Republican to vote in Durham’s municipal primary races last October.

According to Andy Jackson, director of the Civitas Center for Public Integrity, it isn’t uncommon to have candidates whose values misalign with those of the party during open primaries, and it is generally up to voters to sort out the wheat from the chaff.

“Having ‘unwelcome guests’ as candidates is a natural consequence of having a primary system (as opposed to nominating conventions),” Jackson told Carolina Journal. “It is exacerbated by North Carolina’s open primaries, which are now mandated by law.”

Still, some say the opposition has grown increasingly brazen in its effort to meddle in the process itself rather than focus on robust debate over the issues.

“[W]e are very aware of the far left playing games during candidate filing,” said Matt Mercer, director of communications for the North Carolina Republican Party.

In an interview published Friday at the Daily Caller News Foundation, Alston doubled down on her party identification, insisting that Republicans best aligned with her own values.

“I know that I have been seeing a lot of people with hesitation about the party that I choose to represent just because, you know, growing up, you pretty much do what your family does, what their beliefs are as far as your party,” she said. “But, like I said, I am matured in my own revelation of what the Republican Party represents, and it looks like me.”

When pressed, Alston suggested that any incredulity might be racist.

“Are we going back to segregation time?” she said. “Because, I’m a Republican, and I don’t really understand the aims and the values of what that party represents? So I’m just going to be taken back at what somebody looks like, because we’re used to the Democrats pussy-footin’ around.”

Alston, who said her father was an Army veteran who fought in the Vietnam War, did elaborate on some of her stances in support of the Trump administration — including its tariff policies, which have bucked traditional Republican support for free-market trade.

Alston caused some controversy by wearing a full niqab face covering in her photo for the Durham County Board of Elections. She explained her Muslim-friendly attire as part of an effort to focus on substance over style.

“I didn’t want it to go in for the looks,” she told the DCNF. “I wanted it to be about who is the most qualified.”

Durham Republicans remain skeptical. Alston reportedly failed to identify any planks of the GOP platform with which she was aligned during a November party meeting.

“We did our best to vet her as the candidate that came forward,” Durham GOP chair Christina Crosby told the Carolina Journal. “She was unable to articulate her positions as they relate to the Republican platform and didn’t have much to say about anything that she believed in.”

Crosby said Alston initially planned to challenge state Rep. Vernetta Alston, no relation, who is an incumbent Democrat, but instead she filed for the state Senate race.

Because the Dec. 19 filing deadline for the primary has lapsed, she will be the only GOP candidate on the ballot for the District 22 race.

However, Durham Republicans hoped to file a petition to field an alternative for the November election.

“[W]hat we plan to do is collect 250 signatures to request a write-in option on the November ballot and will find somebody to put down,” Crosby said.

Regardless, it may be a moot point in deep blue Durham, where Democrats enjoy a +31 electoral advantage.

“They will likely both lose to the Democrat challenger, which is whoever passes that primary on the Democrat side,” Crosby said.

NC Educators on the Ballot

While Alston’s run may prove to be little more than a political spectacle, several competitive races feature GOP candidates whose voting records may warrant extra scrutiny.

Mercer said the NCGOP was not at liberty to discuss specific candidates during the primaries but flagged concerns over NC Educators on the Ballot, a group “led by a registered Democrat.”

The self-declared “grassroots campaign,” founded by retired educator Patricia Saylor, is encouraging teachers to run as a way to force reforms to the state’s education funding.

Its website lists six active candidates seeking House seats in the General Assembly, although Alston is not one of them.

“Because for so many seats, the only path to Raleigh is through the Republican primaries, that’s where we needed to go,” Saylor said at a rally in September.

Jackson said other high-profile examples of alleged primary meddling included the “Fire Madison” campaign to oust former US Rep. Madison Cawthorn, a staunch ally of President Donald Trump, in the 2024 race.

Political attacks on Cawthorn ultimately may have succeeded in weakening his appeal, although Republican voters broke for a more established Republican, current US Rep. Chuck Edwards, over the progressive alternative, Wendy Nevarez.

According to Jackson, the solution is simple: “The Republican Party should do a better job of candidate recruitment,” he said.

He conceded that the situation was different in deep-blue districts like Alston’s, where election may be statistically improbable, if not impossible. Nonetheless, he said it was unlikely to help the GOP.

“I do not see much of an upside for Republicans, although a warm body is better than nothing,” Jackson said.

Meanwhile, for opponents who use the primaries to push so-called fake Republicans in competitive races, the upside is clear. “While they will not win, it could make those incumbents use resources that they would otherwise use to prepare for the general election,” Jackson said.

According to Monroe Mayor Robert Burns, Alston’s case should be a wake-up call to North Carolina Republicans that the system itself needs to be reformed.

Burns called on the General Assembly to close loopholes by requiring primary voters to identify by party and putting time limits on the window for voters to change parties.

But like Jackson, he said the obligation ultimately rests with party leadership to ensure candidates align with voters’ values — and to get the word out on those who do not.

Correction: An earlier version of this story identified Lakeshia and Vernetta Alston as cousins, as conveyed by the Durham GOP’s Christina Crosby, but the NC House Democrats reached out to Carolina Journal and said the two are unrelated.

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