Top NC Democrats and Republicans call on state Rep. Cecil Brockman to immediately resign

RALEIGH, N.C. — Top North Carolina Democrats and Republicans called on Rep. Cecil Brockman, a Democrat, to immediately resign after he was arrested and charged Wednesday with taking indecent liberties with a child and statutory rape.

Gov. Josh Stein said in a statement that the charges against Brockman “are extremely serious and deeply troubling.”

“While the legal process has yet to play out, it’s clear he cannot effectively serve his constituents and should resign immediately,” Stein said Thursday morning.

North Carolina Democratic Party Chair Anderson Clayton said in a social media post Thursday morning that Brockman should “resign effective immediately.”

“The profound seriousness of these criminal charges makes it impossible to represent his community,” Clayton said.

House Speaker Destin Hall said that the charges against Brockman “are shocking and extremely serious.”

“Given the evidence that’s publicly known, he should resign immediately so these charges do not distract from the work of the North Carolina House,” Hall said in a statement.

Another top Republican, House Majority Leader Brenden Jones, also called for Brockman to resign immediately and said on social media that Brockman’s alleged behavior “is appalling and has no place in society.”

House Minority Leader Robert Reives, the top Democrat in the lower chamber, issued the first statement by a lawmaker on Thursday saying that the allegations against Brockman “are serious and, if true, would disqualify him from public office.” He added that “this is a developing situation and it is important to let the legal process unfold.”

Later on Thursday, Reives said that in light of new information about the allegations, “it has become clear that he is unable to continue serving in the House of Representatives. Rep. Brockman must resign immediately.”

Another House Democrat, Rep. Bryan Cohn, also called on Brockman to resign.

“These allegations are unconscionable and incompatible with public service,” Cohn said in a social media post. “He should resign immediately. No one is above the law.”

Other calls for resignation came in from Senate Minority Leader Sydney Batch, Attorney General Jeff Jackson, former Gov. Roy Cooper, and the N.C. Progressive House Caucus.

Brockman was charged with two counts each of taking indecent liberties with a child and statutory rape of a minor who is 15 years old or younger.

The offenses allegedly took place on Aug. 15 of this year.

He is being held at the county jail in High Point and was expected to make his first appearance in court Thursday afternoon.

A sheriff’s deputy later announced in the courtroom on Thursday that Brockman was at a local hospital for a medical emergency. He was at the hospital on Wednesday, according to court records. His first appearance has been rescheduled for Friday at 2 p.m.

A magistrate denied Brockman pre-trial release on Thursday, saying that he has “access to abundant resources to aid in his flight from prosecution.”

The magistrate also said in an order that Brockman “has made attempts to contact the victim in this case and has gone as far as attempting to locate the juvenile in the hospital and attempting to use his status to gain information on the whereabouts of the victim.”

Brockman has represented High Point and surrounding areas in the N.C. House of Representatives since 2015. He has frequently been at odds with much of the party, including leadership, over his willingness to vote for Republican budgets and other major legislation.

In the General Assembly, Brockman is known as one of a few Democrats who votes more frequently with the Republican majority than the rest of his party.

Brockman faced repeated scrutiny and criticism from other Democrats and party activists after his votes in favor of GOP budget bills in 2023 and 2024.

He was one of multiple House and Senate Democrats who faced primary challengers in 2024 over their support for Republican legislation.

The Young Democrats of North Carolina, the state party’s official youth arm, endorsed challengers against him and another House Democrat, Rep. Michael Wray. Brockman ended up narrowly surviving his primary challenge, while Wray lost by a razor-thin margin. (Wray has since announced he will seek another term from his old seat in 2026.)

Brockman drew attention in recent years for his vocal and public pushback against criticism from his party.

After YDNC and other party youth organizations criticized him and other Democrats for voting for the House and Senate GOP’s two-year budget in September 2023, Brockman said the youth leaders should “grow up.”

He defended his support for the budget, saying it provided his district with $29 million in important funding for local organizations.

“When you’re an adult you have to work with people you may have disagreements with and even may not like,” Brockman said at the time. “But you get up every day and you do your job.”

Brockman also criticized his party following the departure of Rep. Tricia Cotham, who switched parties and joined the House Republican Caucus in April 2023.

He said then that he knew how Cotham felt, after they both faced criticism for missing a vote that enabled Republicans to override a veto of gun rights legislation, and didn’t blame her “one bit” for her decision.

“I think she just wanted to do what’s best for her district and when you’re constantly talked about and trashed — especially the way that we have been over the past few weeks — I think this is what happens,” Brockman said.

More recently, in December, Brockman said his party was treating him the same way it treated Cotham, after he faced criticism from fellow Democrats for missing an override vote on major GOP legislation that took away power from Stein and other incoming Democratic elected officials.

Asked if he planned to stay in the party, Brockman told The News & Observer at the time that he had been a “lifelong Democrat,” and that instead of “fighting other Democrats, I would rather see our party focus on doing things a successful one does to win back the majority.”

When asked if he had ruled out switching parties entirely, Brockman responded: “I would just say that this is the exact same behavior that pushed Tricia Cotham out of our party. Everyone has their limits.” He had previously ruled out switching parties in 2023.

Responding to criticism over missed votes during the 2023-24 legislative session, Brockman told The N&O in April 2024 that he had struggled with his mental health, and suffered a mental breakdown the year prior.

Defending his record, Brockman said that despite his absences, he had “gotten more done for my poor Black community by prioritizing them, my constituency, over divisive party politics.”