Homophobic and racism alive in Chatham County Mayoral Race!
Nick Gallardo, 23 and the son of a Panamanian immigrant, is running for Siler City Mayor in Chatham County, North Carolina which has been notorious for racism. In Siler City, the interim-Mayor and Gallardo’s competition, Chip Price, is allegedly known around as a racist who was allegedly fired from his previous employers, Southern States, for embezzling money.
Gallardo, whose family is from Panama, has received racist and homophobic messages. Such messages threaten Gallardo and the Unity slate (Nick Gallardo, Jared Picot, Sam Williams and Dean Picot) with bodily harm, and they have escalated to the point of a picture taken of Gallardo with a noose around his neck and a crudely drawn penis near his head with the tagline “That’s what you like huh”. Gallardo’s mother was followed home and when slowing down to 30 mph in 65, the red car continued to follow her. From the over 100 text messages that started shortly after filling, one message is on repeat: Get Out of Town.
Reverend Dr. Albert Reddick, who is running for Chatham County Commissioner District 4, gave his support to the Unity slate. Afterward, Gallardo received graphic and disturbing texts of a KKK puppet lynching a black doll with the caption “Now this some unity I can get behind”. A picture was sent of Rev. Dr. Reddick, who was wearing a mask on a porch during Covid, the sender sent “heard you got that old ape behind you” and “Trying to cover up that big monkey face”.
If successful, Nick Gallardo will be the first Hispanic mayor in North Carolina history and the youngest Hispanic mayor in United States history.
Thursday, May 12, 2022, a police report was filed in regards to the text messages Gallardo received on May 8, 2022. As of Monday, May 16, 2022, Siler City police department has not reached out to Gallardo about the text messages.