Haters gonna hate...in which I explain why I'm a Dem running around with an Independent on the campaign trail

This whole “running for Congress” thing is just wild.

After 14 years in medicine and as the offspring of a MAGA father who (like most of them) can’t be reasoned with, I thought I had already experienced the height of feigned outrage and general irrationality on a number of topics.

And then I decided to start campaigning with a candidate running as an Independent in a neighboring district….while I continue to run as a Democrat in mine, NC-10.

Whilst promoting a recent campaign event online - an event for my campaign, which I invited David Clayton of NC-5 (@officialempathytour) to participate in, I became the target of vitriol from Democrats. The friendly fire from my own side wasn’t new (watch for another post on that), but the content was.

“Why is Ashley Bell promoting a candidate running as an independent instead of the Democratic candidate?”

“Does he even live here?”

“Is he even registered to vote?”

“Why do you have the same treasurer?” (we actually didn’t even know this until this was pointed out…..total coincidence)

“If I were him I’d stop wasting people’s money.”

“He’s gonna split Chuck’s vote.”

“You need to get in line and support the Democratic candidate.”

Instead of attending the event, having their questions answered, and doing what they claim to want to do - support a Democratic candidate (me) - they thought it was more productive to complain about whom I was doing the event alongside.

So, to those people…..I hate to burst y’all’s bubble….but you need someone to tell you the truth, rather than blowing overly optimistic smoke up your butts.

With just Meemaw Virginia Foxx and Chuck Hubbard in the race for the US House in NC-5, Meemaw is gonna run away with yet another win in 2026. It doesn’t matter how hard the Dems fight, or how much money is raised. The cheating Republicans have massively gerrymandered NC-5 in their favor (and NC-10 for that matter).

Barack frickin Obama could run in this district and he would still get spanked by Meemaw. Chuck lost to Meemaw by 19 points in 2024. It doesn’t mean I think Chuck Hubbard isn’t a good guy or isn’t a good candidate. He is both. It means that I know the reality of the situation we’re in, and that I recognize the system is heavily rigged against Dems in this area. And to be honest, while the national outlook is different, I don’t see much that’s different about the approach to his campaign this time.

In order to have a chance in NC-5, there needs to be an unusually aggressive, energetic, creative candidate. And in my estimation, that’s David Clayton, who just so happens to be running as an Independent who isn’t beholden to the Democratic party norms or expectations or failed messaging (and to be honest I am pretty jealous of all of that).

If you watched our town hall, you have heard both mine and David’s reasonings for running as we are, but I’ll give you the short version:

I’m running as a Dem because I believe in Dem values and I’ve seen firsthand, in 4 short months of my campaign, how much corruption there is on the Dem side - seriously, it rivals the corruption on the Republican side. In order to fix the Dem party, we need people to call out corruption. And that is my specialty and one of my greatest joys in life, so I’m staying put.

And, David (who, by the way, is a lifelong Democrat) is running as an Independent because he has done the analysis in NC-5 and he believes that a Dem cannot win in that district. And he’s right. Watch the town hall for further explanation on this.

Kind of interesting how AOC and Bernie are running around the country together, and people love it….but David and I try to do something similar and it’s a scandal.

It’s not about falling in line and blindly promoting a single party. It’s about promoting the person who’s the best for the job and has the best chance at winning. A traditional, vanilla, “nice” campaign has zero chance in NC-5 or NC-10. It just so happens that David and I agree on most issues. We are also both big on calling out bullshit - regardless of what party it comes from - and will put up a fight for what our constituents need, which is sorely needed, yet lacking from current leadership. When you have a candidate to campaign with that matches your energy and ideals, it makes the whole experience a lot more tolerable.

So, I’m sorry if some of you Dems don’t agree with my choice to support an Independent candidate, but I’m going with my gut - and I’m doing what most of you say you want: choosing to fight, rather than rolling over and settling for the status quo.

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