A pastor lead off a recent campaign stop for Michael Whatley, the North Carolina Republican nominee for Senate, with a prayer that asked God to bestow "integrity and honesty" upon the event and to right wrongs "hammered down on the conservative movement." The prayer was hardly unusual by North Carolina political standards. What was surprising was the man who delivered it: Pastor Daimon L. King is a registered sex offender, twice sentenced to prison for convictions involving children, according to state and court records, the AP reports. Dr. Mehmet Oz, a member of President Trump's Cabinet, also participated in the rally.
In a statement, a campaign spokesman said that Whatley did not know King and that the Aug. 28 event "was NOT planned nor organized by the Whatley campaign nor did the campaign invite any of the guests." Neither responded to requests for comment. The episode risks undermining one of Whatley's central campaign arguments—that his Democratic opponent, former Gov. Roy Cooper, is soft on crime. And it could feed into an advertising blitz by Democrats that has targeted the Republican candidate's association with another convicted sex offender, a former GOP official.
Some 30 years ago, King was a marching band assistant at a high school outside Raleigh when he was charged with statutory rape and indecent liberties with a 15-year-old student, the News & Observer reported at the time. King, then 31, was convicted in 1998 and served nearly five years in prison before being paroled, according to state corrections records. In 2010, he pleaded guilty to having sex with an underage female relative and served close to three years in prison, state records show. King is required under North Carolina law to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life.
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