Tag: mark harris

Deputy Opinion Editor Paige Masten is covering the 2026 election for The Charlotte Observer and the Raleigh News & Observer.

After Raleigh teacher Zoe Welsh was tragically killed during a break-in at her home, North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein is calling for the state to do a better job when it comes to mental health.

But his comments are being taken out of context.

In calling for more mental health crisis legislation, Stein said he believes it’s important for the state to be able to help people with mental health issues that may pose a risk to the public.

“There are these behavioral health urgent care centers, BHUCs, that the state is now setting up, which can be very helpful, so that if somebody is having a mental health crisis, 24/7, they have a place to go that’s not the emergency department,” Stein said. “Because that’s not the right place. Jail is not the right place. We need to treat folks.”

Stein was clearly talking about initiatives that could prevent violent crimes like this from occurring in the first place, not ways to discipline perpetrators after the fact. But that hasn’t stopped some Republicans from distorting his comments.

In a post on X, U.S. Rep. Mark Harris implied Stein was saying the alleged perpetrator does not belong in jail.

“Get this… Governor Stein believes that jail is not the place for a 20 TIME REPEAT CRIMINAL and alleged MURDERER!” Harris wrote in a post on X, claiming Stein “and his buddies in the Democrat Party care more about criminals than victims.”

In addition to a lengthy criminal record, Ryan Camacho, the man charged with killing Welsh, had a history of mental health challenges, court records show, and his lawyers sought a hearing on his mental capacity just one month ago. Prosecutors asked to have Camacho involuntarily committed, but that request was denied.

In another X post, Senate leader Phil Berger shared a screenshot of an article about Stein’s comments and said “criminals belong behind bars.” The screenshot included no context about what Stein actually said, just a headline that could easily mislead people into thinking Stein was talking specifically about Welsh’s alleged killer.

Obviously, if someone commits a crime, especially murder, they should face appropriate legal consequences. To suggest that Stein, who led the North Carolina Department of Justice for eight years as attorney general, doesn’t believe in justice is ridiculous. But what do we do about those who haven’t yet committed a crime and might be at risk of doing so if they don’t get the help they need? What do we do about people like Camacho who have committed crimes and served their time for them, but are at risk of committing more or worse crimes if left untreated?

The mischaracterization is particularly disingenuous given that this is an issue where Stein and Republicans actually share some common ground. After the fatal killing of Iryna Zarutska on Charlotte’s light rail last year, both Democrats and Republicans agreed changes needed to be made regarding the state’s involuntary commitment process. But both Harris and Berger are up for reelection this year, so there’s always a chance they may just be distorting Stein’s comments for political gain.

Studies have shown that better access to mental health care can help reduce crime, because it addresses underlying factors that can make crime more likely to occur. Stein is right: Letting jails and prisons serve as de facto mental health facilities is both unsustainable and unhelpful. They are not equipped to provide robust mental health services, which only makes it more likely that the behavior will occur again when someone is released.

The problem is that there are not enough beds or resources to provide real mental health support to those who need it. One of the key provisions of “Iryna’s Law,” which passed with bipartisan support, would require more mental health evaluations of people who have been arrested to determine whether they should be involuntarily hospitalized, but there have been obstacles with funding and implementation. GOP leaders have said mental health legislation and funding will be a top priority when the legislature returns in the spring.

But North Carolina has a divided government, which means that there’s very little that can be achieved without some degree of bipartisanship. Democrats and Republicans need to be working together to make our state safer, not pointing fingers and spreading falsehoods. Doing the latter will only divide us further.