Trump-backed Brad Knott likely headed to Congress. Why he quit dream job to run
Twelve days before Brad Knott faced Kelly Daughtry in a runoff election, he began receiving congratulatory messages.
The first came from Daughtry: “Brad Knott will be the Republican nominee on May 14th. I extend my congratulations to him and wish him well.”
Then came congratulations from Jason Simmons, chairman of the state Republican Party.
Finally the messages on social media began.
It’s one of those moments that, if this were a television show, you would hear the record scratch, see the video freeze on Knott’s face and hear the narrator say, “Yep, that’s me. You may have wondered how I got here.”
Because somehow, despite coming in second place in the Republican primary and forcing Daughtry into a runoff election, he is being declared a winner.
But congratulations are a bit premature.
Though he secured the endorsement of former President Donald Trump, making Daughtry feel as though she has no path forward and is better off quitting her campaign, he isn’t officially the winner.
And his campaign staff seems painfully aware of that, because they continued to post on social media asking for volunteers to fan out over the 13th Congressional District, knock on doors and ask voters to cast their ballots for him.
Daughtry remains on the ballot. And by the time she left the race, 3,100 votes were cast in the district and voters have continued going to the polls.
Since runoffs tend to bring out the most politically aware electorate, it’s anyone’s guess who received the first 3,100 votes and who voters are casting ballots for now.
And without an official way to leave the race, Daughtry could change her mind and take the win if she collects the most votes. If she chooses to stand by her decision and leave the race, the local GOP gets to choose the nominee, and that doesn’t necessarily mean they will choose Knott.
That means Knott must amass the most votes and has to continue knocking on doors, earning votes and ensuring his constituents understand who he is before the May 14 runoff election.
WHO IS BRAD KNOTT?
Knott told McClatchy in an interview he was “way under-qualified” the first time he prosecuted a case as an assistant U.S. attorney.
His father, Joe Knott, worked in this role first and his stories inspired Knott to follow in his footsteps. That, along with a childhood of playing cops and robbers with his two brothers, Tom and Tucker, who, along with Knott, make up three-fourths of a set of quadruplets.
In 2016, Knott jumped at the opportunity to take a temporary position under acting U.S. Attorney John Bruce.
Knott began working on the case of Antonio Kevin McCoy, a drug kingpin who had led one of the largest operations North Carolina had seen in decades.
Knott’s work resulted in a life sentence for McKoy.
And while he was prosecuting the case, Trump appointed U.S. Attorney Robert Higdon Jr. to oversee the office. Higdon decided based on Knott’s work on the McKoy case to give him a full-time position.
“The greatest thing you could ever do as a lawyer is to get up and say, ‘I represent the United States of America,’” Knott said. “I’ll never forget saying that to the jury, for the first time.
“It was one of those dreamcome-true moments.”
But Knott said after President Joe Biden took office, a change in policies and procedures made it harder for him to do his job and worsened morale among law enforcement.
Knott decided to quit his job and run for Congress.
MARCH PRIMARY
On Dec. 9, 2023, Knott made it official, filing his candidacy with the board of elections.
Three months later, Knott finished in second place to Daughtry, a Johnston County attorney and the daughter of former state Rep. Leo Daughtry.
But Daughtry did not capture enough of the vote to stop Knott from requesting a runoff election, which he did almost immediately.
And he bolstered his campaign with the Trump endorsement that is coveted by Republican candidates.
“Brad Knott is a Strong Patriot who is running for Congress in North Carolina’s 13th Congressional District against a RINO, Kelly Daughtry, who has given money to Far Left Democrats, pledged to vote for Obama, and is no friend to MAGA,” Trump posted on Truth Social.
Knott and Daughtry have similar backgrounds, so their campaigns worked to prove who is the most local and most conservative candidate.
KNOTT’S BACKGROUND
Knott considers himself a lifelong Eastern North Carolinian.
His mother’s family, the Tuckers, has deep roots in Raleigh and Wilson. His father’s family is from the Wendell, Knightdale and Zebulon areas and into Wake Forest.
His parents had already had two daughters when they decided to try for a third child. They didn’t expect four, which includes the Knott brothers’ third sister.
Knott said having quadruplets
forced his father to quit his job as an assistant U.S. attorney in order to afford groceries. But throughout Knott’s childhood they would hear tales from his career.
“He would tell us stories,” Knott said, “and I was always intrigued by them. Back then, it was bootleggers, marijuana dealers and things like that. Much, much less serious but very dramatic and interesting.”
Knott said he had an idyllic childhood and enjoyed visiting his grandparents’ farms in Wilson and Knightdale. He spent most of his time with his brothers, who, being the same age, played the same sports and had the same hobbies as him.
Those hobbies include fishing and hunting. He considers himself an outdoorsman.
They attended St. David’s School, a private Episcopal school in Raleigh, which has a current price tag of $27,900 per year for 7th-12th grade. After his high school graduation, he attended Baylor University, a private Baptist school in Waco, Texas, and then attended Wake Forest University’s School of Law.
During law school, he held externships in local district attorney’s offices, worked on litigation and participated on the Mock Trial Team.
After graduation he worked in a civil practice and did a short stint in former N.C. Gov. Pat McCrory’s administration.
But Knott said from the time he graduated, anytime he saw an opening at the U.S. attorney’s office he would send in an application.
KNOTT TAKES A CHANCE
That opportunity finally presented itself in 2016, when Bruce needed someone to fill his temporary opening for an assistant district attorney, while someone else was on a special assignment. He hired Knott.
“It was a gamble,” Knott said. “There was no guarantee I would be hired. But again, that was what I always wanted to do. I wanted to prosecute the biggest cases with the worst people at the highest level.”
The excitement Knott felt prosecuting McKoy is still palpable in his voice when he retells the story today.
“The long and short of it is, I have a drug dealer who was meticulously organized, and candidly, brilliant in his ability to hide and use rural North Carolina to his advantage,” Knott said. “You know: finding dirt roads that only had one way in and one way out. Using family who was very loyal to him. Having stash houses spread around at various locations that made it hard to pin down just where the contraband was going. Using people there that were two or three steps removed from himself to commit grievous violence.”
Knott said McKoy was able to scale this into a multi-million dollar organization.
The investigation resulted in what Knott estimates to be around 50 people indicted, millions of dollars in forfeitures and thousands of kilograms of various drugs seized.
Knott went from a temporary position to seven years traveling the country working on the prosecution of serious cases.
ENTER THE BIDEN ADMINISTRATION
But Knott’s said everything changed when Biden took office.
“It became hard to do the job well,” Knott said.
From policy to procedural changes, Knott said everything was different— especially when it came to immigration.
“It’s no secret that the Biden administration’s policies tie the hands of Border Patrol, not the illegal immigrant,” Knott said. “I have U.S. marshals who ... were told you cannot arrest, you can not restrain, all you can do is direct them to these processing centers.”
Knott said it affected morale, caused attrition and was incredibly punitive.
It also affected Knott’s job. He said when people knew they would be going to prison for a long time, they would cooperate, help the prosecutors and tell law enforcement where the drugs were coming from.
But without strict immigration policies, Knott said, he personally prosecuted people who repeatedly entered the U.S. without permission, committed a crime, got caught, and came right back to do it again. When he asked them why, he said the answer was some form of, “Why wouldn’t I come back?”
Under Trump, Knott said when he visited prisons, he would witness immigrants chained, surrounded by guards and in the process of being deported for committing a crime while in the U.S. without permission. Under Biden, he said he watched as that same group of people would be allowed to walk out of prison at the end of their sentence.
He said more lenient border policies allowed drug prices to decrease and the amount of drugs to increase.
“What used to be your dimebag dealer now had hundreds of doses for the same price and it was a real problem,” Knott said. “Morale was really challenged during that time and the effects were real.”
Knott added that he is not against immigration.
“If we need workers, if we need support in certain areas, make the legal pathway clear and enforceable,” Knott said.
But when it comes to entering the U.S. illegally, he wants stricter enforcement.
“You have to strengthen the penalties of the illegal immigrants from coming here to commit crimes,” Knott said. “I would advocate for a special class of punishments for people who come here illegally to commit crimes.”
And he added that he is against birthright citizenship, which makes everyone born in the United States a citizen.
RUNNING FOR CONGRESS
Knott said those changes weighed into his decision to run for Congress.
“A few years ago I was content chasing bad guys and locking them up,” Knott said. “I was honored to work with law enforcement and I had a stellar record.”
He finished out his prosecutorial career with the conviction of Don Eugene Nixon Jr., a 48-year-old Bloods leader on charges of trafficking heroin, fentanyl and cocaine.
A news release about the prosecution said that Nixon operated for more than a decade in Eastern North Carolina and finding witnesses who would cooperate in his prosecution proved difficult due to threats because of Nixon’s rank within the Bloods.
After Knott ensured Nixon would spend the rest of his life behind bars, he walked away from his dream job to run for Congress.
THE CAMPAIGN
Knott and Daughtry’s campaigns have become messy since the March 5 primary.
In a campaign field of 14, Daughtry out-raised all of her opponents with more than $4.4 million, though she only had just over $621,000 as of April 24.
Knott raised more than $1.7 million and had less than $94,000 cash on hand at the end of April.
But Knott’s family was also raising money for him through the American Foundations Committee, which raised $1.1 million this cycle but has about $8,400 left. The committee has purchased additional ads to run this week.
And both campaigns have not spared each other attacks throughout the last three months.
Knott’s been accused of working for Biden and former President Barack Obama. He’s quick to point out that when he took on the temporary position in 2016, the Obama appointee had already resigned. Later, Knott stayed on in the U.S. attorney’s office under Biden long enough to wrap up his larger cases, or at least get them into a place where he could transition them to another prosecutor.
But he said it shouldn’t matter. He said his job was to prosecute.
“If I’m a soldier, under Trump and Biden, I’m not Trump’s soldier, I’m a soldier of the American people,” Knott said. “Same thing with a prosecutor. But the accusation on its face, it doesn’t hold water. I had no contact with Barack Obama. I’d never spoken to Barack Obama.”
He added that Bruce was hired under former President Ronald Reagan.
Knott also admitted to voting five times using the address he grew up at, instead of the address he moved to, but told WRAL it was a paperwork issue.
Knott has also been accused of being a “never Trumper,” despite getting Trump’s endorsement. Daughtry’s campaign made the accusations after Knott failed to vote during Trump’s elections. Knott said he’s not sure why he missed those votes, but he assumes something came up at work.
“One of the two candidates donated to Trump and it wasn’t Kelly, it was me,” Knott said.
He also attacked Daughtry for donating to Democrats in past election cycles, and for saying she would vote for Obama. Daughtry told The Assembly she voted for former Gov. Mitt Romney over Obama in 2012.
COMING TO CONGRESS
If Knott does secure the victory on May 14, he will face off against Frank Pierce, a Democrat, in November.
But members of the state’s General Assembly redrew the district last October in a way that will more than likely give the win to the Republican. Rep. Wiley Nickel, a Democrat from Cary who currently represents the Triangle district, chose not run for reelection.
Whoever wins will enter into Congress at a time that’s proven quite contentious for Republicans.
Knott said polling shows that people are focused on problems surrounding illegal immigration, border security, crime and drug death and he believes conservatives have the most sensible solutions to solving those.
Knott said he believes Trump will win back the White House, and that would make finding solutions to those problems easier. But he said regardless of whether Trump or Biden wins, Knott hopes to drown out the noise and focus on what matters.
“It might take a little bit of time but with a little bit of hard work, I think there could be a real rally around: let’s take up one of these issues at a time, have simple solutions and build political support from the ground up,” Knott said. “And I think that can be effective.”
Danielle Battaglia: @dani__battaglia