A 21-year-old North Carolina student is heading to the November general election after unseating a Republican state lawmaker who served in the state House for 20 years.
Wyatt Gable won the Republican primary against 10-term incumbent George Cleveland in a race for the 14 seats in the North Carolina House District by 95 votes.
The junior at East Carolina University will now face Democratic candidate Carmen Spicer in November.
Gable said he decided to pursue his experience during the coronavirus pandemic.
“The biggest thing for me was not getting vaccinated against COVID my first year at ECU, which I didn’t do, you had to get tested every week, and if you didn’t get tested they turned off your ID,” he said in an interview with WNCT.
Gable decided to run for office because of his experience during the coronavirus pandemic. He said he contacted his state representative and never heard back. That representative was the opponent he ousted in the primaries
“I couldn’t get food in the dining hall, things like that, and the real big ones like, you know, you have to wear your mask on the bus, in class, wherever you go, but then you can go to the basketball a game with four thousand people and you don’t have to wear one,” Gable claimed.
Gable defeated state Rep. George Cleveland by 95 votes in the Republican Party primary. Cleveland served 10 terms in the General Assembly
Gable, who graduated from high school in 2021, even reached out to Cleveland, but he never received a response to his email.
“I just remember what it felt like and I didn’t want anyone to feel the same way I did, you know…being left out, so that’s where I got the idea, and here we are now,” he told Fox News. .
Gable is studying business management with a minor in political science.
He said he would like to focus on preparing students for the real world, such as home economics, shopping, car repair and carpentry in the school system.
“Because you know a lot of people these days say if I don’t go to college I won’t accomplish anything, which isn’t true,” Gable said. ‘I want to be able to give students the tools so that they can be as successful in life.’
He told Fox News that he wants to use the threatened domain to buy back land owned by the Chinese Communist Party in his state.
Gable said he wants to focus on education, using threatened domain to regain NC land owned by the Chinese Communist Party and rein in spending.
Gable, president of the conservative youth organization Turning Point USA, also said the state needs to rein in spending so they can cut taxes.
His website also touts the protection of monuments and statues, and he says he plans to introduce legislation to “protect all forms of our American history.”
During the race, he said he thinks people are ready for a new face, and that he was able to win through “a lot of hard work,” knocking on doors and making phone calls.
Now he’s trying to get more young people involved in the Republican Party.
“I feel like if people my age, and in that age range, can see me, someone 21 and under, as part of the Republican Party and the Republican Party, maybe I can help them feel the same way… hopefully can join the Republican Party and the conservative side,” he told Fox News.
The North Carolina House District 14, which includes Jacksonville, is quite conservative.
Gable said he has “a lot of confidence” when it comes to the November elections, but that they will “do the work” just as he did during the primaries.