By Richard Sullins and Gordon Anderson | richard@rantnc.com | gordon@rantnc.com

Lee County Commissioner Taylor Vorbeck announced during Monday’s meeting of the Lee County Board of Commissioners that she won’t seek another term, and in a lengthy and at times emotional speech slammed her own party organization for having an “unelected dictator” and being “ran by fear, bullying and control, where you are for the most part not allowed to have your own opinion.”

Vorbeck, a Republican, was elected to the Board of Commissioners in 2022 representing the western Lee County-based District 4. Her announcement at Monday’s meeting paves the way for a 2026 matchup between current school board member Eric Davidson, a Republican, and former school board member Jamey Laudate, a Democrat. The filing period remains open until noon on Friday.

Vorbeck brought up accusations during her 2022 campaign that as a commissioner she would be a “Womack puppet,” referring to Lee GOP Chairman Jim Womack, and said she took those accusations “very much to heart, because even though he is the head of our local GOP chapter, I have never been a puppet, and I was my own individual person.”

Vorbeck revealed that in 2024, she was “voted unanimously to be censured/kicked out of the party for two years because I voted for an unaffiliated gentleman over the local GOP’s recommended Republican man” for an appointment to the CCCC Board of Trustees. She later said she was talking about longtime Trustees Chairman Julian Philpott.

“We should be putting the person over the party into these positions,” she said.

Vorbeck went on to say “the person coming for my seat as a GOP candidate” – presumably referring to Davidson – “is not for the community.”

“He drinks the Kool-Aid and doesn’t want unity,” she said. “He told me at one point ‘the commissioners are idiots and you don’t know what’s best for this community.’ Notice who he sits next to at meetings. Notice who he talks like. Notice who will be supporting him. He’s bringing his personal vendettas into this election and is not what this board needs to move forward as a unit.”

Although Vorbeck’s comments about her own party grabbed the most attention, she also spoke at length about the values of working together regardless of party affiliation for the betterment of the whole community. She specifically cited her experience raising kids in helping her to gain an understanding of what’s been lost in public service.

“I always heard the saying ‘it takes a village’ to raise a kid, and what I’ve learned is that the need for that doesn’t stop when they are babies,” she said. “Each new stage my kids have entered, I’ve realized that the village is needed for different reasons. The same can be said for our community. We need to get back to that ‘village’ mentality. Without that, it’s not going to matter who you put in your local office seats, if the people you are choosing are bringing a ‘me’ mentality than a ‘we.’ We are going to continue losing as a whole. Our neighbors are struggling with affording food, or having a bad day because their kid was bullied in school, or they are working two or three jobs just to afford their two bedroom apartment. We have lost the ability to look to our community as a support system, and we now view them through a lens of judgment, party lines, or just straight ‘you’re different than me.'”

But she also called on registered Republicans to show up at the GOP headquarters on Steele Street to “allow the ability of community and village to take place.”

“I’m sure I will receive some type of threat over this statement, and I’m okay with that,” she said. “I need change, I’m calling for change, I’m calling for those who want to see a change happen to step up and show up.”

Vorbeck spoke during the commissioner comment period at the end of Monday’s meeting, and talked for more than 10 minutes, receiving a loud round of applause at the finish (watch her complete remarks here, beginning around the 57 minute mark).