Facing primary, Charlotte’s Carla Cunningham apologizes for 2025 ICE bill comments
Charlotte state Rep. Carla Cunningham is apologizing for her controversial July comments on immigration as her reelection campaign heats up.
The seven-term Democrat broke party ranks over the summer to vote with Republicans to override Gov. Josh Stein’s veto of a bill requiring sheriffs to more closely cooperate with federal immigration officials.
In a floor speech following that vote, Cunningham said she’d “been degraded” for her votes in favor of stronger immigration enforcement and that the U.S. has been “exploited and abused by the different tactics to gain citizenship in America.”
“First, as a people, we need to recognize that it’s not just the numbers that matter, but also where the immigrants come from and the culture they bring with them to another country,” Cunningham said in her speech. “As the social scientists report, all cultures are not equal.”
The Young Democrats of North Carolina, Senate Democratic Leader Sydney Batch, Charlotte-area state Sen. Caleb Theodros and former Charlotte Mayor Pro Tem Braxton Winston were among those who called her comments divisive. The speech also helped spark primary challenges against the incumbent, whose district covers parts of north Charlotte and Mecklenburg County.
In a video posted to her campaign website late Sunday, Cunningham says “in the days and the hours leading up to” her speech, she “received several threats from elected officials and community leaders.”
“This intimidation and bullying included a high-level danger that prompted the House speaker to provide me with law enforcement protection,” she says in the video. “I was shaken to my core.”
Cunningham goes on to say the experience influenced her comments on the House floor.
“In this state, I said things that offended members of the community, and I take full accountability for my words and my actions. And I sincerely apologize,” she said. Cunningham does not say in the video she would change her vote on the ICE bills.
The latest video marks a further shift in Cunningham’s response to her floor speech and the public reaction to it. Questioned about her vote and comments at an August town hall, Cunningham said she “wouldn’t change a thing,” WFAE reported at the time.
In later statements after U.S. Border Patrol’s controversial November operation in the Charlotte area led to hundreds of arrests and protests, Cunningham said her immigration votes were about public safety.
“My focus, and my vote, is regarding serious offenders and the importance of taking custody of those criminals in our jails, rather than out in our communities where others can be harmed,” Cunningham said in a December statement announcing she’d filed for reelection. “I do not support any practices that intimidate law-abiding immigrant families. Community safety and community trust must coexist, and I will always stand up for both.”
A pair of challengers filed to run against Cunningham in the March Democratic primary: Rev. Rodney Sadler, a prominent activist, and Vermanno Bowman, who Cunningham beat in the 2024 primaries.
Sadler’s campaign announced Monday an endorsement from Gov. Josh Stein.
This story was originally published January 5, 2026 at 10:25 AM with the headline "Facing primary, Charlotte’s Carla Cunningham apologizes for 2025 ICE bill comments."
