Julian Philpott. Source: CCCC.edu

Central Carolina Community College Board of Trustees Chairman Julian Philpott was reappointed to a seat on the board Monday night with unanimous support from Democrats on the Lee County Board of Commissioners.

Philpott’s reappointment to the board was in question in June after his term expired and the Board of Commissioners voted to appoint Lee County GOP Chairman Jim Womack to the seat he had formerly occupied. At the same time, Republican Commissioner Bill Carver resigned his seat on the college’s trustee board, creating a second vacancy.

On Monday night, Philpott received three votes from Democratic members Mark Lovick, Robert Reives Sr. and Cameron Sharpe. Republicans Kirk Smith, Andre Knecht, and Arianna Lavallee split their votes between Central Carolina Hospital employee Oscar Moreno (Smith) and local hairdresser Lisa Ragan (Knecht, Lavallee).

Carver was absent from Monday’s meeting, allowing Philpott to be appointed with a three vote majority.

Ragan, whose hairdressing business is located in the same building as the GOP headquarters, has posted at least one blatantly anti-semitic comment on Facebook, writing “the majority of Jews” are children of “Lucifer.”

“There is a division among Jews … Jesuits & Messianic Jews,” she wrote in a comment in June of 2020. “The majority of Jews are Jesuits … who’s (sic) father is Lucifer.”

Ragan’s conflation of Jews and Jesuits – an all male Catholic religious order – is confusing, but the reference to being children of Lucifer is a longstanding anti-Semitic trope.

Ragan’s application to serve on the CCCC board, submitted to the county the day of the meeting, indicating that she had “the ability to communicate an innerstanding (sic) for positive growth for both the school & it’s (sic) enrolled students thereby elevating our local community & families to live our best lives.” She listed Womack as one of her references.

The trustee seat Womack was appointed to in June is a four year term. Philpott will serve the remainder of Carver’s unexpired trustee term, which is three years.