The Left’s Smear Campaign on Dan Forest 2020 Has Begun

RALEIGH – How do you know if, let’s say, a probable candidate for governor is worth his salt? Well, if the Left is constantly trying to smear the candidate for being an ‘extreme right-winger’ there’s a pretty good chance he or she is a solid, small government conservative that deserves your vote.

Exhibit A: Dan Forest.

The lieutenant governor has been assumed a 2020 candidate for governor since his re-election to the number two spot in fall 2016. Forest is a consummate conservative that hasn’t been afraid to take stands that more moderate Republicans usually shrink from.

Whether it has been fighting common core (mis)education, championing free speech on college campuses, or courageously rebutting the mischaracterizations about the notorious House Bill 2, Forest has proven himself to be unafraid to practice his conservative, liberty-loving principles.

Because of that, the Left is already in full tilt Forest smear mode, lest the successful architect turned politician expose their beloved Roy Cooper for the Big Government shill that he is.

Just last week, the Raleigh News & Observer, the hopelessly transparent media mouthpiece of the Left, attempted to smear Forest for a questionable character that attended a fundraiser in North Carolina.

“A photo provided to The News & Observer shows Republican Lt. Gov. Dan Forest at a fundraiser with a leader of a western North Carolina church that’s being sued by a former member who says church leaders tried to beat the “homosexual demons” out of him.

Forest, who was elected to a second term last year, is a socially conservative Republican who’s expected to run for governor in 2020.”

See how this works? Right off the bat, the paper pushes the photo as a pretext to attack Forest, using his ‘social conservative’ label to equate him with crazies that allegedly beat homosexuals to exorcise their ‘demons.’

The majority of the article goes on to describe the church’s legal troubles and alleged abhorrent practices, inexorably connecting Forest with said practices in the mind of unsuspecting readers. Forest must have invited him! Forest must beat homosexuals too! Forest is a bigot!

But Forest likely had no idea who would attend this July fundraising event. They are organized locally by local sponsors who cast a wide net in order to, well, raise as much funds as possible.

Forest’s chief of staff Hal Weatherman answered questions on the fundraiser in such a way that any reasonable person would understand just how little Dan Forest has to do with this shady character that attended his fundraiser.

“Invites were issued via the host of the event, to our campaign email list, and via our campaign Facebook page. With over 80,000 people on our Facebook distribution alone, not to mention multiple thousands of people on our email list any number of Dan Forest supporters were ‘invited’ to this event.”

“With regards to who attended the event, that information would be publicly disclosed if they ‘paid’ at the event on our financial disclosure forms kept on file as prescribed by law with the State Board of Elections,” Weatherman continued. “Our next report is due in early 2018.”

So tens of thousands of people could have elected to attend this event, and because one person with a sketchy history did attend, the Leftist rag wants the reader to assume Forest’s tacit approval of him.

Surely the Democrats don’t want to start comparing donor lists with the assumption that shared funds mean shared qualities.

After all, alleged serial raper Harvey Weinstein donated thousands to a Leftist PAC that helped get Roy Cooper elected. Are we to assume that Cooper also likes to force himself onto unsuspecting women and girls? No. Of course not, because it doesn’t stand up to reason and Cooper has far too many legitimate shortfalls to shed light on.

As this year slips into next, and the 2020 campaign season breaches the horizon, expect more and more smear attempts like this one to fall at Dan Forest’s feet. Luckily, the well spoken and unashamed conservative can step right over them while he keeps walking the walk of a true conservative.

And that’s what the Left is really afraid of.

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