Jim Kee’s Transformation

Those of us who have been following Greensboro politics for many years will remember Jim Kee. He is a black gentleman who previously represented east Greensboro on the city council. My understanding is that he is a Christian.

He served on the city council more than ten years ago when Republicans like Bill Knight, Danny Thompson, Trudy Wade and Mary Rakestraw were also serving. At that time, there was a nominal Republican majority.

Kee was a Democrat at that time, of course. My recollection is that he voted like a Democrat for the most part, typically with the Melderec con Simkins wing of the city council. That is, he voted most often with the wing that represented the alliance of east Greensboro politicians with development-related interests– i.e., with our corrupt machine politics.

Somewhere along the line, Kee switched his party registration from Democrat to Republican. He is now running for a Council of State office– i.e., North Carolina State Auditor. There is a crowded primary field for this race on the Republican side.

I happen to have attended a candidate forum this week. Kee had the opportunity to speak toward the end. It was amazing to watch. He was quoting Ronald Reagan and Donald Trump, giving the appearance of a MAGA, America First Republican. This was nothing like the Jim Kee I had observed over ten years ago. He described how he had voted with Knight and Thompson and Wade and Rakestraw on the City Council years ago. This was a bit perplexing.

Perhaps there was somewhat of a “road to Damascus” moment since then. Perhaps the transformation is sincere.

But it was still fairly amazing to behold.