Support your Democratic leaders -- God knows, they need it. Via Smoky Mountain News:
As chair of the Henderson County Democratic Party, Leslie Carey has spent years helping to build the county’s progressive infrastructure and lead one of the most successful local party operations in the state. After her family received death threats, she says she can no longer continue in the role.
The threats came after her husband, disabled Army veteran and activist Jay Carey, drew national attention for his veterans advocacy and political protests, including confronting Rep. Chuck Edwards during a town hall earlier this year and burning an American flag in Lafayette Park near the White House. Both incidents, Jay says, were acts of conscience, but to some, they were seen as provocation — and they led to a wave of hostility that would upend the family’s life.
Jay said he began receiving threatening text messages, voicemails and social media posts after the Washington, D.C. protest. Some of the messages went further, warning that the sender knew where his family lived. He didn’t report the threats to police because he didn’t think it would help.
“They were more specifically, ‘We know where you live. We know who your family is. We know how to get to them,’” he said. “It was, ‘We’re going to burn your house down with your family in it, find you and kill you,’ kind of stuff.”
He said even his publicist was targeted because her phone number appeared on the website of his nonprofit, resistpersist.org. The family responded by implementing security measures at their home. Leslie, however, didn’t want to hear the messages.
“I told Jay I did not want to know what the death threats were,” she said. “For my own well-being, I needed to protect myself that way.”
