Bought and Drawn: The Fraud That Calls Himself Congressman
Brad Knott didn’t win District 13—he was carved into it. Backed by extremists, funded by outsiders, and hidden behind closed doors, he’s not here to serve. He’s here to audition.
Brad Knott Was Supposed to Represent Us. He Doesn’t Even Show Up.
When folks in North Carolina’s 13th District voted in 2024, they were hoping for a fighter. Not a poser. They wanted someone who’d bring the heat to Washington and bring results back home. Brad Knott is a first-term Republican congressman representing North Carolina’s 13th Congressional District, a gerrymandered seat stretching from Johnston County into rural red enclaves and corporate suburbs, drawn to guarantee GOP control no matter who’s on the ballot. What we got instead was a guy obsessed with soundbites and right-wing applause. The mostly rural District 13 didn’t need another Republican political news pundit. We needed a leader.
Since the day he took office, Knott has ducked real accountability. He has not held a single in person town hall. Not one. He staged two phony telephone calls where every question was screened in advance and any hint of dissent was snuffed out. That's not public service. That’s political theater.
Knott has written two bills. Both were aimed at immigrants. Neither had anything to do with the everyday struggles in this district. Not our crumbling roads. Not our dying main streets. Not the kids going without teachers or the families getting torn apart by fentanyl. The issues tearing this place apart aren't even on his fucking radar. He has never experienced any of the things his poor and working class constituents have went through.
When he does make an appearance, it’s in controlled Republican echo chambers. Rooms full of donors and political yes men. Not a single stop in the communities that put him there. Not at the schools falling apart. Not with the rural farmers being choked out by rising costs. Not with the families who can’t afford another damn winter without heat.
I watched his predecessor, Wiley Nickel, stand in rooms full of people who didn’t vote for him and still listen. He brought home money for infrastructure and public schools. He didn't hide behind party lines. He did his damn job.
Knott doesn’t do the job. He reads the script. He kisses the ring. He votes how he's told and hopes that one more viral moment will land him a gig on Newsmax someday. This is a man auditioning for power, not using it.
This is bigger than one seat. It is a case study in what happens when district lines are drawn to protect politicians instead of people. It is what happens when big checks from outside donors drown out local voices. It is what happens when a man’s ambition is mistaken for leadership, and no one calls it what it is, and that is a fucking fraud. So I will. I am going to name names, follow the money, and lay out exactly how Brad Knott is selling out the people of Johnston County and District 13.
What happened here isn’t complicated. Draw the lines crooked enough, pour in enough PAC cash, and you can turn any nobody into a congressman. This district didn’t vote for Brad Knott. We got stuck with his ass, like a damn sticker bush on a tractor tire. Just like a sticker bush, you don’t reason with it, you stop the damn tractor, dig it out at the root, and scorch what’s left so it doesn’t have a chance to come back.
A Tale of Two Maps: How Gerrymandering Killed Accountability
Before we can talk about Brad Knott, we’ve got to talk about the map. Because the truth is, this whole mess starts with lines on a page, lines that were redrawn not to represent us, but to make us shut the hell up.
Back in 2022, we had a shot. For the first time in years, North Carolina’s 13th Congressional District wasn’t rigged to serve a political party, it was drawn fairly, by a court, not politicians. Thanks to hard work and a real grass roots effort, we elected Wiley Nickel, a Democrat in a toss up district, by just a few points. He didn’t win by hiding, he won by showing up. He met with folks across party lines, held open town halls, and brought actual funding back to our communities. He wasn’t perfect, but he was present. He understood the job he was elected to do, and that was to represent the district, not just the party. However, that brief moment of democratic balance didn’t last.
Then came 2023, and Republicans in the General Assembly couldn’t stomach the thought of a Democrat holding a seat in what they saw as GOP territory. So they did what they do best, cheated. On October 25, 2023, Republicans in the North Carolina General Assembly took a scalpel to the map and carved up the 13th like it was a hog on election day.
They took what had been one of the most competitive districts in the entire state, R+1 on the Cook Index and rigged it into a blood red stronghold at R+11. It wasn’t about representation. It was about domination. They didn’t even hide it. This wasn’t redistricting. This was a hostile takeover, one of the most blatant gerrymanders in the state, drawn not to serve voters, but to silence them and it worked like a damn charm.
I mean, c’mon, look at this bullshit.
NC‑13 now slashes through Johnston County, rips across Harnett, slices Wayne, hijacks Sampson, and grips a crooked chunk of southern Wake like a vulture clawing meat off a bone. Then it stretches awkwardly north, yanking in parts of Granville and Person counties, places like Butner, Oxford, and Roxboro, just to bulk up its voter profile with more rural red. What used to be a district where voters could choose their representative is now a district where the representative chooses their voters.
It damn sure wasn’t designed to reflect shared economies, school systems, or rural infrastructure needs. It was designed to break up Democratic coalitions, dilute Black and working-class votes, and sew up the outcome before the first ballot is cast.
This is what modern voter suppression looks like. It doesn’t show up at the ballot box. It happens before you even get there. Wiley Nickel didn’t even run again. Why bother when the map says the game’s already over?
That’s how Brad Knott landed in Congress, not because he earned the district’s trust, but because the map was rigged in his favor. He didn’t have to convince anyone. He didn’t have to meet us. He didn’t even really have to campaign. He just had to be the chosen name on the ballot in a district designed to elect his party no matter what.
That’s what the national GOP machine kicked in to anoint him. Knott, a political unknown and first time candidate, had already been backed by over $500,000 in TV ads from the American Foundations Committee, run by prominent GOP operatives with ties to Ted Budd, who had previously helped secure Budd’s own Trump endorsement. The ads portrayed Knott as a "solid, strong conservative," focusing on his background as a prosecutor targeting illegal immigrants and gangs. In the 2024 Republican primary for NC-13, Johnston County’s own Kelly Daughtry led the crowded field with 27.4% of the vote, ahead of Brad Knott’s 18.7%. But because no one cleared the 30% threshold, a runoff was triggered.
Soon after, Donald Trump formally endorsed Knott, a move almost certainly facilitated by Budd and his affiliated PAC, Building Up Democracy’s Dream, which also donated heavily to Knott’s campaign. Facing that tidal wave of national attention, money, and MAGA momentum, Daughtry dropped out of the runoff. In the general election, Democrat Frank Pierce challenged Knott but stood little chance in the newly gerrymandered, heavily Republican district. Knott cruised to Congress, not by grassroots support, but by Super PAC firepower and a Trump nod.
So when people talk about how Brad Knott refuses to hold town halls, or why he’s more interested in writing op-eds for Breitbart than visiting with his constituents, this is where it starts. Because gerrymandering doesn’t just rig elections, it erases accountability.
It creates a Congress where politicians don’t have to earn your vote, they just inherit it. Now we’ve got a congressman who’s not here to represent us. He’s here to audition for something bigger in Washington and national politics. The truth is District 13 and Johnston County doesn’t need a congressman with ambition, we need one with roots. Brad Knott wasn’t sent by the people. He was drawn in by a damn map.
Legislation Without Representation: Knott’s Real Record
For all the money that flooded into Brad Knott’s campaign, for all the national backing and partisan hype, his legislative output amounts to two bills. That’s right, two. Neither of them addresses education, healthcare, broadband, infrastructure, or agriculture. Not roads. Not schools. Not small business. Not veterans. Not opioid recovery. Not rural hospitals. Instead, both bills are pure political theater. Not two game changers. Not two bold proposals for Johnston County and his district. Just two symbolic, fear driven nods to the MAGA base and that’s being generous.
The first is the Tren de Aragua Border Security Threat Assessment Act, a bill that directs the Department of Homeland Security to assess the threat posed by a Venezuelan gang called Tren de Aragua. It doesn’t provide funding for local law enforcement, doesn’t enhance border security in any meaningful way, and crucially has no fucking relevance whatsoever to Johnston County or District 13, where there is zero evidence of TdA activity. This bill is pure optics. It’s the kind of proposal you draft when you're more concerned with getting booked on a Bannon podcast than solving any of the problems poor and working class folks face in his district.
The second, the Punishing Illegal Immigrant Felons Act, proposes mandatory five-year federal prison terms for certain undocumented immigrants involved in criminal activity. According to GOVTRACK.us It has a 1% chance of passage, no Democratic support, and again, does nothing to address the actual issues facing his constituents. Not our schools. Not our farms. Not our hospitals. Not our roads.
While he’s chasing headlines with that garbage, he’s voting against bipartisan bills that actually help people when they come up for a vote. He doesn’t just shrug, he votes “hell no” and gets back to chasing headlines.
Here’s what this asshole said no to:
SUPPORT for Patients and Communities Act (June 2025) – Passed 366–57, this would’ve brought opioid treatment funding, recovery centers, and outreach to rural counties like Johnston. Knott said nope. Let ‘em suffer.
Youth Poisoning Protection Act – Designed to keep kids from accidentally dying after getting into unsafe packaging. Too sensible, apparently. Knott voted no.
DOE and USDA Interagency Research Act – Would have backed ag innovation and energy efficiency for rural economies. But the farmers in District 13 didn’t write big enough checks, so screw ‘em.
H.R. 2483 – Reauthorized community health center funding and addiction treatment. Another no.
H.R. 973 – Set federal safety standards for lithium-ion batteries (those overheating e-bikes and exploding power banks? Yeah, that one). Knott opposed it.
H.R. 1326 – Would’ve finally allowed interagency collaboration between agriculture and energy departments to modernize rural economies. Knott voted no, again.
H.R. 776 – Targeted nutria, an invasive rodent destroying North Carolina farmland and wetlands. Not flashy enough for him, I guess.
H.R. 36 – The MEGOBARI Act – A rare bipartisan foreign aid bill to counter Russia and China’s influence. He voted no, because even protecting national security is too mainstream for the guy who wants Breitbart airtime.
What did all of these have in common? They were bipartisan, practical, and would have actually helped people. Every one of these bills had practical, community-level impacts. Every one could have helped his constituents. He voted no. Not once or twice. Every. Single. Fucking. Time.
So what kind of legislation does Brad Knott actually support? In a June 27, 2025 letter to a constituent, he proudly bragged about voting for H.R. 1, absurdly titled the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act.” The name alone should’ve been a red flag—Trumpian branding on a Trojan horse bill. But the content? Worse. Knott praised the bill for locking in the Trump-era 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which handed billions to corporations and the wealthiest Americans while starving public services. He called it “necessary tax relief,” but what it really does is make the Trump tax scam permanent, ensuring the rich get richer while working families in places like Selma and Oxford get crumbs and budget cuts.
Knott also celebrated that the bill dumps $144 billion into military spending and another $140 billion into border militarization, including funding 10,000 new ICE agents. That’s not a typo—ten thousand. He touted work requirements for Medicaid recipients, a cruel attack on the poor that does nothing to improve health outcomes and everything to punish people already struggling. Meanwhile, not a dime in that bill goes to rural broadband, teacher pay, public transit, or healthcare expansion in NC‑13. No infrastructure investment. No opioid crisis relief. No small business support. Knott voted against all of that—but when it comes to fortifying the rich and militarizing the border? He’s all in. Then he wrote a goddamn thank-you letter about it.
Brad Knott’s congressional record isn’t just thin, it’s hostile to the needs of the district he’s supposed to represent. He has not introduced a single piece of legislation focused on public education, rural broadband, small business support, or infrastructure improvement. He has taken no steps to secure federal grants or investments for Johnston County. He has not advocated for teacher pay, Medicaid expansion, despite these being critical concerns here.
Instead, he’s given us culture war theatrics, immigration panic, and a lot of empty airtime.
In the end, Knott’s legislative behavior isn’t just a failure to deliver, it's a choice. A choice to prioritize national ideological bullshit agendas over the tangible needs of the people who live in this district. He’s not representing his district in Washington. He’s representing Washington’s worst political instincts in District 13.
Who Really Owns Brad Knott? Follow the Damn Money.
Brad Knott didn't run a grassroots campaign. He ran a cash funnel. Less than five cents of every dollar he raised came from people who live in District 13. That’s right, less than a nickel from folks in Johnston County, Selma, Whitley Mill, or anywhere else he’s supposed to represent.
Over 90% of his campaign money came from people who don’t live here. Corporate PACs. Beltway elites. Out-of-state donors. Strangers. That kind of imbalance isn’t just disrespectful, it’s disqualifying. If your campaign is funded by folks who’ve never driven through Pine Level or walked a tobacco field, you damn sure aren’t working for us.
Want to see who owns Brad Knott? Here’s the breakdown:
In-District: 4.6%
Out-of-District: 90.7%
No District Listed: 4.7%
That’s $60,750 from actual voters in his district and over $1.2 million from people who wouldn’t know where Benson is on a map. That’s a campaign funded by strangers, not neighbors.
Nine out of ten dollars Knott raised came from folks who don’t live here, don’t work here, and damn sure won’t have to live with the consequences of his votes.
Let’s talk about PACs. Knott pulled $15,000 from Ted Budd’s hard-right Super PAC. Another $5,000 from Huck PAC, backed by evangelical conservative circles. Then there’s E-PAC (Elise Stefanik), Freedom First PAC (Mark Meadows), and the border-obsessed Eye of the Tiger PAC. Every single one of these is designed to push national extremism, not solve local problems. This isn’t supporting District 13. These PACs are national ideological machines, not local supporter groups. They back candidates for culture war reasons, not community service.
These leadership and ideological PACs poured a lot of dollars into his campaign:
Building Up Democracy's Dream (Budd-aligned): $15,000
Huck PAC (Mike Huckabee): $5,000
Freedom First PAC (Mark Meadows): $2,000
E-PAC (Elise Stefanik): $2,500
Eye of the Tiger PAC: $5,000
First in Freedom PAC (NC hard-right): $5,000
Look at the industries backing Knott. The top donors? Retired rich folks, big city real estate developers, corporate PACs, Wall Street investors, and private healthcare players. Not teachers. Not farmers. Not small business owners. Not nurses. Not even close.
Over a quarter of his donor dollars came from retired individuals, many far from here. Real estate money poured in, developers more interested in luxury condos than affordable homes. Securities and investments filled the coffers, but Knott voted against community bank reforms and loan protections. Even healthcare professionals donated, though he voted against rural health investments. Again, who the hell is he working for?
Then there’s the gender breakdown. The higher the check, the fewer women signed it. At the top donor tier, nearly 80% of Knott’s money came from men. The louder voices in his ear aren’t moms or nurses or teachers, they’re wealthy men with deep pockets and zero connection to the everyday chaos most families are surviving.
Let’s name some big corporate donors. Kane Realty gave $26,406—big-time Raleigh developer. Anderson Automotive Group chipped in $21,800. Cisco Systems? $20,300. Udacity, the tech bootcamp? $19,800. Not one of these corporations has a damn thing to do with the day-to-day lives of folks in District 13. You think any of these folks give two shits about our local schools or broadband access? You think they're worried about opioid clinics?
These aren’t donors. They’re investors and what they expect in return ain’t community uplift. It’s influence. Deregulation. Tax breaks. Silence on monopoly power.
When Kane Realty writes a check, they aren’t thinking about your kid’s bus route. When Cisco shows up, they’re not worried about clean water in the Neuse River. This is empire money, not help your neighbor money.
So here’s what all this means:
Brad Knott doesn't need your money or your voice. He’s paid for. By outsiders. By extremists. By people who want another talking head, not a working rep. His campaign was funded by the same kind of people who fund disinformation campaigns and union busting. Not school lunches. Not internet expansion. Not public health.
He’s not accountable to us. He’s accountable to them. We don’t have a congressman. We have a damn spokesperson for national grift operations. When your seat is safe, when your donors are national, and when your next job is more important than your current one, you don’t need to represent anyone, you just need to act the part.
The Johnston County Shadow Campaign
My mama always told me, watch who folks eat with, and you’ll learn what they really care about. You can say whatever you want on a stage or in a press release, but if you’re breaking bread with the same old power brokers, it doesn't matter how new your face is. That’s who owns your time. That’s who owns your vote. So let’s talk about who Brad Knott eats with.
Picture this: A sticky June afternoon back in 2024, right here in Clayton, North Carolina, where the politics are just as thick as the humidity. Inside Brick & Mortar, the table is set, not for constituents, but for donors. The event? A $2,500-a-couple luncheon "in support of Brad Knott," candidate for Congress in NC-13. The event hosts reads like a country club registry. Michelle and Tom Antoine headline the host list. Right next to them: Bethany and Dale (Max) Lands, and Fred Smith Jr., a who’s who of Johnston County’s entrenched corrupt conservative power structure. This wasn’t just lunch, It was a transaction.
Start with Michelle Antoine, a school board member who just two years ago listed “homemaker” as her occupation. Fast-forward to 2024, and she’s slinging money like she’s trying to buy a Senate seat: $2,500 in June, $1,650 in April, and another $250 in September—$4,400 total. Her husband, Tom Antoine, matched that $1,650 on the same April day. And just in case that wasn’t enough? Their business, Commercial Installations Inc., dropped $15,000 into CAAG PAC on October 14, 2024.
It didn’t stop there. Before we get deeper into it, I want to note, much of the financial data and image documentation in this section comes from the meticulous, watchdog level research of Real Talk with Christine Weber Livingston. She has been been following the money while others were busy kissing the ring.
The Johnston County Republican Men’s Organization, where Tom Antoine serves as legal counsel, followed with a $6,000 donation to CAAG three days later. These weren’t civic gestures, they were deposits into the machine. CAAG PAC—Citizen Advocates for Accountable Government, blew thousands to help Brad Knott’s campaign and they didn’t even support him in the primary. They spent $16,179.56 on “voter guides” in the primary, and then another $7,159.25 on texts, poll workers, and materials during the runoff even when it was an obvious one person race. You call that civic engagement?
That’s pay-to-play. That’s hush money for a golden ticket.
If this is your first time reading anything I have written, you may be asking, well, who runs CAAG? None other than Max Delano Lands Jr., a convicted drug felon and local political bottom-feeder. He and his family have dumped thousands into this PAC. He pops up at GOP events next to Knott like they’re frat brothers, not a candidate and a criminal. Knott didn’t just tolerate Lands’ help, he embraced it. Open arms. Open wallet.
Then comes John B. Knott. Listed as an “Investor” on CAAG’s filings. He gave $6,000 to the PAC on November 4, 2024, just days before the general election. Guess who that is?
Brad Knott himself. The candidate.
Donating to a Super PAC that’s boosting his own race. Go ahead and ask how that’s legal. The answer? It’s not illegal if you jump through the right hoops. Let’s call it what it is because it damn sure is not democracy in action. That's not a campaign, it's a cartel. The only thing missing is a goddamn money laundering sign out front. Money goes in dirty, comes out wrapped in glossy mailers and robocalls. You want accountability? Start by asking why a man with a 30 year long rap sheet is writing the strategy for your next congressman.
And it goes deeper…
Enter Joe Knott, Brad’s father. Long before his son’s campaign even launched, Joe was listed as the treasurer and custodian of records for another Super PAC, the American Foundations Committee . His name stayed on the books until May 2022. Then, just months before Brad’s campaign kicked off, the PAC switched treasurers, handing the keys to Louisburg attorney Boyd Sturges. Suddenly, the money started moving: $16,500 for polling. $36,871.80 for mailers. All independent, of course, no collusion at all, but of course they were pushing Knott’s name.
This isn’t some grassroots uprising. Brad Knott went to a $20,000 a year private school in Raleigh, he has never given a shit about the working class people in Johnston County or District 13. It has been a rigged pipeline from the beginning. On one end: Johnston County insiders like the Antoine’s and the Lands clan. In the middle: PACs like CAAG and AFC, built to rinse dirty cash through corporate veils. On the other end? Brad Knott, smiling for the cameras, cashing the checks, and pretending he doesn’t know who’s holding the bag.
But the receipts don’t lie.
October 21: AFC hands $10,000 to CAAG. October 14: Commercial Installations Inc. dumps $15,000. October 17: the Johnston County Republican Men’s Org throws in another $6,000. Within weeks, CAAG was spending like a drunken lobbyist. The trail isn’t hidden, it’s paved. From donors, to PACs, to campaign materials, and right back into the hands of Knott’s handlers.
All the while, Michelle Antoine sits on the school board, voting on budgets while allegedly leaking documents, and bidding for contracts. Yet she’s still hosting campaign events, still writing five-figure checks, and still being treated like a goddamn pillar of the community.
This is corruption in real time. Family businesses acting as political slush funds. Felons whispering in campaign ears. Candidates bankrolling their own Super PACs and pretending it’s all above board. They wrap it all up in family value and community trust, but what they’re selling is fraud. Legal fraud. Institutional fraud. Patriotic fraud.
Next time someone tells you Brad Knott has grassroots support, ask them this, who’s writing the checks? Who’s behind the robocalls? Who’s at the table when the deals get made?
It sure as hell isn’t the families of Johnston County.
It’s the county’s dealmakers, cosplaying as makeshift patriots.
They’re not backing Brad Knott because he’s bold. They’re backing him because he’s theirs. They don’t fear Brad Knott because he might challenge the system. They fund him because he’ll fucking protect it. He’s not a reformer. He’s an errand boy in a suit. District 13 damn well deserves better.
Virtual-Only Congressman: Town Halls Behind a Curtain
Brad Knott loves to say he’s “out in the district,” but scroll through his Facebook or Instagram and you’ll see exactly what that means. He’s not showing up at town halls, schools, or recovery centers. He’s posing for photo ops in boardrooms and corporate lobbies, safe, sanitized spaces where no one asks hard questions and everyone already agrees with him. Like when he attended the Johnston County Reagan Day Dinner, surrounded by party loyalists and donors. Then it’s a pharma parade: Novo Nordisk in Clayton, Grifols USA, and Biogen, all in the same week in June. In April, he congratulated Caterpillar on its 100th anniversary, because nothing says constituent outreach like celebrating a multinational corporation that was one of your top donors.
He stopped by Martin Marietta’s quarry to talk about infrastructure, not with workers, but with industry suits. He also met with the NC Restaurant and Lodging Association, not to talk wages or working conditions, just to chat about their $35.8 billion industry. Not one stop at a public school. Not one open forum. Not one damn meeting with the folks begging Raleigh to stop blocking school calendar flexibility.
I responded to one of his posts: “Tell these assholes to stop blocking school calendar flexibility.”
Unsurprisingly, no reply. Knott only hears what he wants to hear, when it’s whispered in a donor’s office with catered coffee.
Since taking office, he’s held two so-called “town halls.” Both were over the phone. Both were sanitized of anything resembling dissent. You had to submit your question in advance. If it wasn’t soft enough to pass the filter, it didn’t make it through. No live questions. No eye contact. No accountability. Not once has he stood in a public room in Johnston County or District 13 for that matter and taken real, unfiltered questions from the folks who pay his damn salary. When Brad Knott avoids public town halls, he’s not just being aloof, it’s strategy, plain and simple.
Back in early March, House Speaker Mike Johnson made it official. Republicans were being told to ditch the open forums, skip the face-to-face accountability, and stick to phone calls or tightly controlled small gatherings. Johnson blamed so-called “professional protesters,” offering no proof, just the usual smoke and mirrors. Knott took the cue. He didn’t just sidestep the messy unpredictability of public dialogue, he made sure his constituent engagement was controlled on the phone or happened in rooms where donors had the mic and cameras were scarce. It’s not about avoiding chaos. It’s about avoiding questions. Avoiding you.
“INDIVISIBLE IS INVITING CONG. BRAD KNOTT TO A TOWN HALL IN JOCO… A chair is being saved just for him to address and answer questions from 13th Congressional District constituents living in Johnston Co.”
He didn’t come. Never responded. But you know who did show up?
He didn’t duck it. He didn’t hide behind a staffer or a screen. He showed up, took questions, and answered them to their faces, even the hard ones.
That’s the contrast. Nickel faced the fire. Knott hides from it.
Knott’s refusal to face voters in real life isn’t a scheduling problem. It’s a worldview. He avoids scrutiny by design. He hosts events where the audience is hand picked and the questions are controlled. He shows up in spaces where nobody will challenge him, then disappears when working families, teachers, and veterans want answers.
If you go looking for Congressman Brad Knott’s district office, good luck. Tucked into a faux-rococo dental, medical, and office complex off Cleveland Road in Garner, his so-called constituent hub sits behind a gilded dentist sign with no posted hours, no congressional signage, and no trace of public accessibility.
This isn’t a town square, it’s a glorified mailbox wedged between a Waffle House, CVS and a used car lot. You could drive by it every day and never know your elected representative was hiding behind those white columns. For a man with nearly $1.3 million in campaign cash, you’d think he could afford a public-facing space. But that’s not the point. This setup isn’t about engaging the people, it’s about avoiding them. If you want to stop in and say hello to see if he is there it is located at 12450 Cleveland Rd, Garner, NC 27529. Just don’t bet on it and don’t waste a wish on it.
If you want a Congressman who stands in front of the people and answers the tough stuff, you’re out of luck. It is just like another thing my mama always told me when I begged for something that was never gonna happen—she’d say, “boy, put both your hands out, shit in one and wish in the other, then see which one fills up first.” That’s exactly what it’s like hoping Brad Knott will show up to a real town hall and answer to the people he’s supposed to represent.
Knott’s made it clear: he doesn’t work for you. He works for the donors who clap when he shows up in a red tie, shakes hands, and says nothing of substance. This isn’t a representative. It’s a figurehead who knows the cameras are safe in rooms that only ask softball questions and the felons wear suits.
The Shadow Network: Stock Trades, Trump Cards, and the Knott Political Machine
Brad Knott didn’t just stumble into Washington, he arrived with a map, a dynasty, and a personal playbook stitched together from the old Republican guard. And the moment he got there, he didn’t waste time pretending to learn the ropes. He was already swinging from them.
Take this as an example, while Donald Trump was pitching the “Trump Gold Card”—a gimmicky metal credit card sold to immigrants as a shortcut to citizenship, Knott was quietly buying up shares in Composecure Inc., the fintech firm that could end up being behind the card. Guess who co-founded that company and sits on its board?
Thomas Knott, but he isn’t just any board member, he’s Brad’s blood. That gives Brad an inside track on corporate info, company performance, and market moves before they’re public. So while he’s praising Trump’s latest immigrant baiting scheme on right wing news networks like OAN, he’s investing in the metal-card company that stands to benefit from the same scam. That’s not just ironic, it’s strategic corruption in broad daylight.
But it gets worse.
No statement. No disclosure. No recusal. Just radio silence from a man sitting in the same Congress that regulates the exact industry he now profits from. Knott could vote on fintech, cryptocurrency laws, or migrant financial access tomorrow, and his family’s bottom line could move with every pen stroke. This isn’t just a lapse in judgment. It’s a breach of trust so bold it ought to come with a siren.
This shit isn’t accidental. This is what a political dynasty looks like in the age of dark money and dumbed-down headlines. The Knott family didn’t show up to serve the people, they showed up with blueprints, allies, and a huge bankroll. Joe Knott, Brad’s father, has been a behind-the-scenes Republican operator for decades, building the scaffolding for his son’s political ascent. Tucker Knott is a plugged in GOP consultant who helped bring the early PAC money that built Brad’s campaign from the jump.
What we’re looking at isn’t representation, it’s a hostile takeover. It’s the DC swamp, just with a bit of a southern drawl.
Even the endorsements that I have covered earlier were part of the machine. Americans for Prosperity Action, the Koch-backed Never Trump political powerhouse, threw its weight behind Knott during the runoff, touting his commitment to economic freedom and opposition to Bidenomics. That wasn’t a spontaneous grassroots moment. That was national cash finding its next reliable vote.
At the same time, Knott had already locked in an endorsement from U.S. Senator Ted Budd, one of North Carolina’s top MAGA standard bearers. Budd’s early support gave Knott credibility with the Trump aligned conservative base, while AFP’s financial push built out the infrastructure. These weren’t competing endorsements, they were a coordinated flex of establishment influence and populist branding. One hand dropped the money, the other waved the flag.
What do you get when you blend Koch economics with MAGA theater? A candidate who sounds like he’s speaking for the people while he’s being financed by the elite.
But don’t take my word for it. Back in the primary, local Republican volunteer Edwin Boyette said it plain:
We aren't a ladder to be climbed so Knott can advance his political goals.
That was before the runoff. Before the PAC flood. Before Boyette got quiet.
That silence? That’s how the machine works. It doesn’t crush dissent. It absorbs it. Critics get seats at the table. Allies get contracts. Voters get staged town halls and recycled soundbites.
Brad Knott isn’t a bold new leader. He’s a product. Built in private rooms. Funded by cronies. Sold to you like he’s grassroots while he's trading stocks tied to national policy. Until we stop mistaking polished ambition for public service, we’ll keep getting representatives who serve themselves first, and sell us out second.
All Talk, No Results: Brad Knott vs. Wiley Nickel
Let me tell you something from someone who’s been there, who’s watched the promises, the speeches, the photo ops, and who’s kept receipts. If you want to understand what we’ve lost in North Carolina’s 13th District, you don’t need a political science degree. You just need to ask yourself; who showed up and more importantly; who showed up when the cameras weren’t rolling?
That answer? Wiley Nickel.
Wiley Nickel worked hard for District 13. I saw him at town halls, in parks, in rooms that didn’t have national press coverage. I was there on March 15, 2023, when he held a town hall in Clayton to talk about lowering costs for working families. Not a flashy event. No media stunts. Just Wiley standing at the mic, fielding real questions from real people and he listened.
I saw him again at events in Smithfield, even after he’d already said he wasn’t seeking reelection in October 2024. Most politicians would’ve vanished after that. But not Wiley. He kept showing up, because serving the district wasn’t a stepping stone for him, it was a responsibility. At “Stroll to the Polls” events in 2022, he didn’t just smile and leave, he walked with people. He stayed.
Behind the scenes? He was securing millions in federal grants. $330,000 for Selma police gear. $124,000 for Smithfield body cams. Nearly a million for Benson’s water system. $1.46 million to build out biotech training in Dunn. Wiley Nickel secured over $7 million for early childhood education through Head Start. This wasn’t headline-hunting. This was hard, slow, necessary work. Work you do when your priority is the people you represent, not the attention you get.
Now let’s talk about Brad Knott.
Since taking office in 2025, Brad hasn’t held a single open town hall like Wiley did. You won’t find him in a park without a camera crew. You won’t hear about community grants or infrastructure wins. But you will catch him on OAN, on Breitbart, on Daily Caller, anywhere he can yell “border crisis” or “Biden weakness” into a microphone and rake in clicks. That’s not service to District 13. That’s self-promotion.
Where Wiley brought home infrastructure funding, Knott brings fear-mongering bills with no bipartisan support. Where Wiley met families at early voting rallies, Knott meets party operatives in TV green rooms. Where Wiley pushed for water, jobs, safety, Knott pushes for harsher jail time for undocumented immigrants and claims Iranian sleeper cells are around every corner.
It’s a tale of two congressmen. One showed up in your town to ask how he could help. The other shows up on far-right media to say “you’re under attack.” Wiley was about solutions. Knott is about soundbites.
So ask yourself this: What’s a congressman’s job? To serve your needs, or to serve a narrative?
Wiley may be gone from office, but he never left the district. Brad Knott? He hasn’t ever arrived.
Conclusion: The Cost of Rigged Power—and the Road Ahead
Brad Knott didn’t win a mandate, he walked through a door someone else locked behind him. His rise wasn’t the product of earned trust or hard-won organizing. It was the result of a rigged map, a backroom power play, and a disengaged electorate worn thin by cynicism. Wiley Nickel was removed from the battlefield before the next round ever started. That’s what gerrymandering does: it silences the voters before they speak, redraws the lines around your community, and replaces your voice with someone else's agenda.
Knott didn’t beat Nickel. He inherited the seat after North Carolina Republicans butchered the district into something unrecognizable. They didn’t trust voters to pick a representative, so they picked one for them, a man who answers to far-right donors and MAGA media outlets, not the working families of Caswell, Franklin, Granville, Harnett, Johnston, Lee, Person, or Wake County, whether they live in Roxboro or Raleigh, Yanceyville or Zebulon, Creedmoor, Clayton, or the quiet rural edges of Milton and Broadway where no one’s sending news cameras. Now, we’re left with a congressman who recites Breitbart talking points while ignoring the basic needs of the people he supposedly represents.
This isn’t just about Knott. It’s about the infrastructure of power that rewards performance over service. The gerrymandered maps. The corporate donor class. The political machines that trade communities for control. It’s about what happens when too many of us stop believing the fight is worth it. Disengagement isn’t apathy, it’s exhaustion. But we can’t afford anymore damn naps..
We organize not because the system is fair, but because they’re counting on us believing it never will be. We vote not because the options are perfect, but because silence is their strongest weapon. We show up, again and again, because the only thing more dangerous than rigged power is what happens when nobody resists it.
This next fight won’t be won on cable news or behind velvet ropes at donor events. It’ll be won on porches, in parking lots, at church fish fries and union halls. It’ll be won when we knock every door they hoped we’d ignore, when we look someone in the eye and say, You matter more than they want you to believe.
Because at the end of the day, we’re not here to carry the weight of their climb, we’re here to burn the fucking ladder down.