Two Mecklenburg Democrats show their constituents what it means to be a sore loser | Opinion
Two North Carolina lawmakers who lost their primaries last month are showing their constituents what it means to be a sore loser.
Carla Cunningham and Nasif Majeed, both of whom represent Mecklenburg County, recently announced that they would leave the Democratic Party and switch their voter registrations to unaffiliated. Voters ousted Cunningham and Majeed last month for siding with Republicans on controversial legislation affecting immigrants and the LGBTQ+ community.
Changing your party registration because you lost an election is bad enough, but it’s made worse by Cunningham and Majeed’s insistence that this decision is about better serving their constituents. In separate statements announcing their decisions, both Cunningham and Majeed said they want to represent the people, not a party.
“Our community deserves leadership that is honest, accountable, and respectful of the democratic process,” Majeed said in his statement.
That’s an interesting way to put it, considering that the people told them in no uncertain terms how they want to be represented, and it isn’t like this. Choosing people over party is the right thing to do when the party has different views than the people. But in this case, the people and the party align, and Cunningham and Majeed aren’t choosing either. They’re only choosing themselves, and the fact that both Cunningham and Majeed say they haven’t decided which party they’ll caucus with moving forward only solidifies this. Majeed, for example, represents the fourth-bluest House district in the entire state, and Cunningham’s district is also bluer than most. It would be a slap in the face to their districts to join the Republican side.
No matter how tempting it may be to stick it to their now-former party for not supporting them in the primary, it’s dishonest and a disservice to their constituents. If Cunningham and Majeed were considering leaving the party, or felt like “Democrat” was no longer a label that defined them, that’s something that they should have mentioned to voters on the campaign trail. They were perfectly happy to run as Democrats if it got them reelected, but now that they no longer have to answer to voters in the next election, they appear to be treating their loss as an invitation to stop pretending, knowing that they’ll be leaving at the end of the year anyway. That’s as selfish as it is wrong.
Meanwhile, Republicans have rejoiced in this new development, praising Cunningham and Majeed for their courage and inviting them to join the GOP side. House Speaker Destin Hall slammed Democrats for “bullying” people out of their party, although when someone loses their primary by more than 40 points, the better way to describe it is “democracy.” Republicans should consider how they might feel if the circumstances were reversed, because it’s unlikely they’d be celebrating.
To be clear: people are allowed to change their minds. The problem isn’t that Cunningham and Majeed are leaving the Democratic Party, it’s that they’re doing it in the middle of their term, after voters already rebuked them for straying. As long as they remain in office, their job is to represent their constituents, not themselves.
Cunningham and Majeed may be right about one thing: today’s environment of polarized, hyperpartisan politics doesn’t leave a lot of room for independent thinkers. That’s true on both sides. But this isn’t the way to have that conversation, nor is it particularly relevant to their situation. Their constituents have already expressed that an independent thinker isn’t what they want, at least not when it means departing from progressive values. Cunningham and Majeed shouldn’t have chosen otherwise.
Deputy Opinion Editor Paige Masten is covering politics and the 2026 elections for The Charlotte Observer and The News & Observer.
