Former North Carolina Congressman George Holding will be joining the Board of Directors of Trump Media and Technology Group Corp., per a Mar. 7 press release.
Holding will replace Linda McMahon, who has been confirmed as the Trump administration’s Secretary of Education.
"Linda was a fantastic, hard-working board member, and we appreciate her commitment to our mission and all the contributions she made to the company,” the company’s CEO and former Congressman Devin Nunes said. “Based on her long track record of success throughout her career, we have no doubt she will excel as Secretary of Education and as a member of President Trump’s Cabinet.
Concurrently, the Board extends a warm welcome to George Holding. With his extensive experience as a congressman and his wide-ranging legal background, George will bring a valued, fresh perspective to the Board as TMTG strives to fulfill its plan to diversify into new industries and explore possible mergers and acquisitions."
Trump Media and Technology Group operates Truth Social, the streaming platform Truth+, and the FinTech brand Truth.Fi.
Here are a few nuggets the press release doesn’t mention.
Holding was also NC Sen. Jesse Helms' legal counsel in the late 90s. Holding is a lawyer by trade; earning both his undergraduate and his JD from Wake Forest.
Holding represented North Carolina's 2nd Congressional District starting in 2012. Redistricting turned his seat into a safe Democrat district and he announced in 2019 that he would not run again, but instead retire.
Prior to serving in Congress, in 2006 he was picked by President George W. Bush to be U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina. While there, he was involved in the conviction of former NC Democratic Governor Mike Easley, who ended up pleading guilty in a lengthy campaign finance case.
Holding would also prosecute another high ranking North Carolina Democrat for campaign finance violations when former U.S. Sen. John Edwards was charged in 2011.
Edwards was indicted on six counts of allegedly trying to violate campaign finance laws, making false statements to the Federal Elections Commission, and accepting illegal contributions. The case ended in a mistrial on all but one count, for which he was found not guilty.
Fun fact: Governor Josh Stein was Edwards' chief of staff from January 1999 through December 2000. Stein was Edwards' campaign manager for his 1998 Senate run.
NC Supreme Court Race Update
Near the end of February, MTS gave an update on the yet unresolved NC Supreme Court race involving Republican Jefferson Griffin and Democrat Allison Riggs.
In that update, attorneys for Riggs had filed motions with the NC Court of Appeals to hold an en banc hearing and for the recusal of that court's Judge Tom Murry. This past week, on Mar. 6, attorneys for Griffin filed two motions; one opposing the en banc hearing and the other opposing Murry's recusal.
Catch up on the previous events here:
Here's the updated timeline. The abbreviation NCSBE stands for NC State Board of Elections.
Feb. 25, 2025: Griffin’s attorneys file their brief with the NC Court of Appeals. Riggs’s attorneys filed a motion for a full en banc hearing by the NC Court of Appeals. Riggs also filed a motion for the recusal of NC Court of Appeals Judge Tom Murry citing a $5,000 donation Murry’s campaign committee made to the Griffin campaign’s legal defense fund.
Feb. 27, 2025: Multiple requests to file amicus curiae briefs are submitted from groups and individuals that oppose Griffin’s case. Of note, those filing the request include the Elias Law Group and Riggs’ former employer, the Southern Coalition for Social Justice (SCSJ).
SCSJ’s filing includes around 2 dozen individuals plus the North Carolina State Conference of the NAACP, North Carolina Black Alliance, Common Cause Education Fund, Democracy North Carolina, El Pueblo, North Carolina Asian Americans Together, and North Carolina Poor People’s Campaign.
Campaign Legal Center (Washington, D.C.-based) and former NC Judge Lucy Inman also filed a request on behalf of a 501c4 group called “Secure Families Initiative,” and “Count Every Hero,” which is “an unincorporated association of eight retired four-star admirals and generals, and former secretaries of the Army, Navy, and Air Force.Mar. 3, 2025: Griffin’s attorneys file a reply brief to the Feb. 27 briefs filed by Riggs, the NCSBE and others. Griffin’s brief references a NC Supreme Court precedent, James v. Bartlett (2005) in which 11,000 ballots were deemed unlawfully cast due to NCSBE guidance.
Mar. 6, 2025: Griffin responds with a motion opposing Riggs request for en banc hearing and for the recusal of Court of Appeals Judge Tom Murry.
All of the Court of Appeals docket and filing information can be accessed on the NC Courts website under case number 25-181 : Griffin v. N.C. State Bd. of Elections: All Documents For This Case : Docket Sheet : Orders
More To The Story
Just to recap what this elections legal battle is about, the underlying dispute involves three main challenges by Griffin: Constitutional challenge to overseas voters who never lived in NC (267 votes), Photo ID requirements for overseas/military voters (5,509 votes), and voter registration information requirements affecting 60,273 voters.
A point to note about the registrations: North Carolina law requires driver's license or social security numbers for valid voter registration.
Several years ago, the NCSBE was sued over voter registrations lacking this data. The lawsuit noted the NCSBE approved the registrations but did not correct the faulty records in question even after being made aware of them. These registrations have now become part of Griffin's legal challenges. Instead, the NCSBE altered its voter registration form to make those fields more prominent.
On election night, Griffin led by over 10,000 votes. Following absentee ballot and provisional ballots being counted, Riggs ended up ahead of Griffin by 734 votes out of the 5.5 million ballots cast in the race.