‘I’m converted’: Sole Republican on ballot wearing a Muslim face veil claims she’s totally conservative now

The sole Republican candidate running for North Carolina’s 22nd state Senate district is turning heads after donning a Niqab-style face veil in her candidate photo and voting for Democrats in past elections despite her new GOP candidacy.

LaKeshia Mashonda Ruddi Alston is the lone Republican candidate running for a spot in North Carolina’s 22nd district state Senate, facing two Democratic challengers for the position. A Durham, North Carolina, voter since 2008 based on publicly available filings, Alston voted for Democratic candidates twice in 2012 and once in 2024, before voting for a Republican candidate in the October 2025 primary election.

Alston told the Daily Caller News Foundation regarding her Republican candidacy that “[W]hen I was a child I thought as a child, but as I matured. I’m converted as a Republican. In order to form a more Perfect Union.” Alston, as previously noted, voted for a Democrat only one year previous to her new GOP candidacy. Alston signed the email with the phrase, “Transforming the Masses”.

Alston did not respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for further comment on her candidacy.

Robert Burns, mayor of Monroe, NC—population some 40,000—retweeted a picture of Alston and called on members of the North Carolina General Assembly to codify legislation closing the state primaries, saying, “That is the fix for this.”

“In all honesty, closing primaries is only one piece of the puzzle. We should also include extending out the date when you can flip your party as well,” Burns wrote on X Monday. “But even then, there are individuals around the state who have ran as Republicans for years and get elected, but you can’t tell them apart from the radical Democratic Party. They tend to be too soft and obviously are in it for themselves.”

“So the real fix is that we need a concentrated effort from party leadership and informed voters to do a better job at filling seats with good people to run all around the state,” Burns said. “We should never let there be empty seats. Give us something to fight for. And never go down without a fight.”

North Carolina Notice of Candidacy forms require that a candidate must be registered as an affiliate of the party they wish to represent, as well as pledge to have been “affiliated with that party for at least 90 days as of the date of the filing of the notice of candidacy.”

In North Carolina, voters registered as party members may only vote in their own party’s primary, according to the North Carolina State Board of Elections, while unaffiliated voters may choose which party’s primary ballot to request.

The North Carolina state Senate elections will be held in March 2026.

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