Registered sex offender led prayer at event featuring Senate nominee Michael Whatley
Whatley’s campaign said it did not organize the New Bern event, invite its guests or know about the pastor’s criminal history.
A registered sex offender with two convictions involving minors delivered the opening prayer at a recent campaign event featuring North Carolina Republican U.S. Senate nominee Michael Whatley, according to state records and an investigation published by The Associated Press.
Pastor Daimon L. King participated in the Aug. 28 event at the Craven County Republican Party headquarters in New Bern. The gathering featured Whatley and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Mehmet Oz.
King also appeared behind Whatley and Oz in a video subsequently posted by Whatley’s campaign.
Whatley campaign spokesman DJ Griffin told the AP that Whatley did not know King. Griffin said the campaign neither organized the event nor invited its guests, attributing those responsibilities to the Craven County Republican Party.
County party officials did not respond to the AP’s requests for comment.
North Carolina correction records reviewed by the AP show that King was convicted in 1998 following charges involving a 15-year-old student. He served nearly five years in prison. In 2010, King pleaded guilty in a separate case involving an underage female relative and served nearly three additional years.
King, 60, is required to remain on North Carolina’s sex-offender registry for life, according to the AP’s review of state records. He did not respond to the news organization’s requests for comment.
The incident has statewide political significance because Whatley is competing with Democratic nominee Roy Cooper for North Carolina’s open U.S. Senate seat. The race is expected to help determine partisan control of the Senate.
Whatley has made criticism of Cooper’s record on crime part of his campaign. Democrats, meanwhile, have attacked Whatley over his past association with Harvey West, a former North Carolina Republican Party official who was also convicted of offenses involving a child.
The state Republican Party has since adopted a prohibition against convicted sex offenders holding party office.
The available evidence does not indicate that Whatley selected King to give the prayer or knew about his convictions before the event. The accountability question centers on how the host organization selected participants and what vetting, if any, occurred before a statewide nominee and federal official appeared with them.
Editor’s note:
This article was drafted with the assistance of artificial intelligence and was reviewed and fact-checked by a member of the NC Political News editorial team before publication.
