Source: Editorial Board
Ken Fontenot is not a household name in North Carolina. Still, for the people who live in House District 24 – which covers all of Wilson County, plus a small section of Nash County – it’s a name they should familiarize themselves with.
Fontenot is a Republican member of the North Carolina House of Representatives who will be on the ballot this November looking to win a second term. He ran as an unaffiliated candidate in 2018 (with the support of the state Republican Party) and lost, but ran as a Republican in 2022 and won by fewer than 3,000 votes. This fall he will be taking on Democratic candidate Dante Pittman, a Wilson native, UNC-Chapel Hill graduate and U.S. Army National Guard member since 2016.
Fontenot, a Chicago, Illinois native, also has a military background. He left the Marine Corps in 2014 to move to Wilson where he became a pastoral candidate at a church there, taught middle school for four years and currently works as an insurance sales agent in the area.
During his 2018 campaign, Fontenot described himself as a “Ronald Reagan conservative” and said that he left the Democratic Party in 2004 when he became a Christian (although voter registration data tells a different story). He also said he has “strong…conservative values.”
While he may have previously been a Democrat, Fontenot has fully embraced the extreme views of the current North Carolina Republican Party, which is led by Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, a man who is no stranger to hateful and violent rhetoric.
When it comes to abortion, he is as extreme as they come. During his 2018 campaign, he made a video on the “genocide of Black babies,” calling himself “a zealous defender of the family” and asked voters to “Help him stand against abortion” by “supporting and promoting family values.” He also responded to an NC Family Voter questionnaire saying that he supports banning abortion “once a fetal heartbeat is detected.”
In 2022 he attended the March for Life in Washington, D.C. In a Facebook post, he called the gathering “Epic!,” and used hashtags including #stopblackgenocide, #protectbabies and #overturnroevwade. Echoing the message of the March for Life, he recently posted a picture of himself working out at home with a sign behind him that says “The future is anti-abortion.”
He voted for Senate Bill 20, which banned abortion in North Carolina at 12 weeks, and then voted to override Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto of the bill.
The bill also awarded $160 million to anti-abortion “pregnancy crisis centers,” which lie to women about available reproductive care – such as abortion or contraceptives – and try to convince women to have a child regardless of their mental, physical or financial state. Much like Robinson, Fontenot is a proud supporter of these clinics.
Fontenot has not been shy about his extreme beliefs. Recently, he has started posting videos on TikTok where he provides hot takes on culture war issues, such as one video where he (without providing any evidence) claims that President Joe Biden and his administration are responsible for a nationwide crime wave – despite FBI data showing violent crime dropped by 49% from 1993 to 2022 and property crime plummeted 59% in that same period. Bureau of Justice Statistics shows a 71% drop in both types of crime from 1993 to 2022.
While on the topic of race, Fontenot claimed in a 2019 Facebook video that Donald Trump was being impeached because “The Democrats are losing African Americans through their oppression and slavery. They’re losing them flat out. Donald Trump is helping liberate them.” He continued, saying Democrats, “will do anything it takes to continue to oppress African Americans, including impeach the President that is helping them.” Fontenot has also pushed untrue racist tropes such as saying that Black people “have been largely” responsible for the last five years of Asian hate crimes. Like Robinson, Fontenot has a habit of minimizing the difficulties many Black Americans face.
Fontenot’s views on gun control are also a cause for concern. He voted to eliminate background checks for domestic abusers who want to buy handguns, voted to repeal the pistol permit requirement (which has already had deadly consequences), said that gun control creates more violent communities and voted to allow concealed carry in churches that use school property for services.
While Fontenot thinks school property is an appropriate place for people to carry handguns, he doesn’t think classrooms are where students should be learning about America’s true history, including the role racism has played in our country’s founding through the issues we still see today. He co-sponsored and voted in favor of HB187, which outlawed the teaching of Critical Race Theory (CRT) in public schools even though CRT was not and is not something found or being taught in our schools.
Even more damaging to our public schools and the education of our children, Fontenot co-sponsored, voted for, and proudly spoke out in favor of HB823, which expanded the private school voucher scheme through funding cuts to North Carolina’s public schools. Under the expanded program, millionaires can now receive taxpayer-funded vouchers to send their children to private schools that are not subject to oversight and are not held accountable to the public. These private schools can choose who they allow to attend based on race, religion, gender, or anything else.
Ken Fontenot’s beliefs and policy preferences are no different than the dangerous ones espoused by Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson. The citizens of NC House District 24 must ensure that they are not fooled by the smiling face Fontenot uses to hide his hateful views.
