Reporting Highlights
- Political Favoritism: GOP lawmakers directed millions of dollars away from longstanding Democratic-led agencies to a tiny commission controlled by Republicans.
- Religious Favoritism: Lawmakers singled out money for faith-based groups. One said, 鈥淲e Christians, we鈥檝e got to be able to support these kinds of organizations.鈥�
- Reduced Services for Victims: Leaders of rape crisis centers say that the disruptions in funding continue to limit the services they can offer to women who seek urgent, potentially life-saving help.
These highlights were written by the reporters and editors who worked on this story.
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For years, North Carolina鈥檚 Republican-majority Legislature has taken steps big and small to wrench power from Democratic governors and the agencies under their control.
One move that didn鈥檛 get much attention 鈥� tucked into a four years ago 鈥� was to direct $15 million in funding for sexual assault victims away from Democratic-led agencies that had long overseen such money. The money instead would be funneled through the North Carolina Human Trafficking Commission, an obscure group that鈥檚 part of the state鈥檚 GOP-helmed courts system.
What happened next illuminates how efforts to consolidate power in one branch of government can help political insiders and hurt vulnerable populations. With President Donald Trump executing a similar but far more drastic power grab in Washington, the events in North Carolina provide a glimpse of the longer-term outcomes when a branch of government assumes unprecedented control.
The Human Trafficking Commission 鈥� which at that time was a two-person operation 鈥� was an unusual choice for distributing funding to the dozens of local service providers that assist survivors of sexual assault and domestic violence. Prior to 2021, two state agencies had effectively carried out that task.
People who worked for the Human Trafficking Commission and for the Legislature warned their bosses that redirecting the funds could overwhelm the commission and harm survivors, according to multiple sources with knowledge of discussions. They said the commission was not equipped to handle more than $28 million in grants over two years, given that it previously had an annual budget of about $250,000.
This ultimately proved true, according to the commission鈥檚 former top grants administrator, Kathy Estrada.
鈥淲e just did not have the capabilities to do it,鈥� said Estrada, who recalled informing her leadership repeatedly in 2024 that her staff was overwhelmed and underresourced, relying on makeshift Excel spreadsheets instead of industry-standard grants management software. 鈥淓ven if we worked all day overtime, it was just impossible to get done.鈥�
Staffers the state鈥檚 crisis centers told ProPublica that payments were delayed for months. The money was supposed to be allocated by June 2023, but in April of that year the Legislature to remove that deadline. The earliest initial installment for services to reach any of those 18 centers came in May, according to records ProPublica received from the commission. Some had to wait until February 2024. The majority are still waiting for their full funding.
Leaders of some of those centers say that, even today, the disruptions in funding continue to limit the services they can offer to women who come to them for urgent, potentially life-saving help.
The events at the Human Trafficking Commission are part of a pattern by the state鈥檚 Republican-controlled legislature and judiciary to deprive elected Democrats of resources and powers. Shortly after Democrat Roy Cooper was elected governor in 2016, lawmakers that stripped him of various powers, including removing his ability to hire and fire over 1,000 key government positions. (Many of these changes were contested in court, and some were reversed.) Shortly after Democrat Josh Stein was elected to succeed Cooper last fall, the Legislature him and other Democratic officials of numerous powers, including control of the board that manages the state鈥檚 elections, which is now the subject of .
When lawmakers created the budget that redirected funds to the Human Trafficking Commission, they specifically set aside additional money for political allies. One particular faith-based group was prioritized in the budget bill to receive the most funding 鈥� $640,000. That group had been created by the former head of the state GOP about two months before its name showed up in the budget bill in 2021. By October 2024, the group had reported to the Human Trafficking Commission that it had helped only four victims, and its executive director said that at least three of those women had been given just food and gas and no long-term services. (The executive director told ProPublica that as of March 2025 the group had helped about two dozen victims.)
Michael Bitzer, a professor of politics at Catawba College, has studied the North Carolina Legislature鈥檚 power grabs over the past decade. He said the state鈥檚 Republican legislators have been 鈥渧ery willing to try new and innovative things based on simple power politics that may call into question basic principles of a democratic republic.鈥� And he said such actions can have repercussions for a large swath of people in North Carolina.
鈥淚f elected officials are only working for their respective political bases, and citizens aren鈥檛 getting the benefits they are eligible for based on partisanship,鈥� Bitzer said, 鈥渢hen public policy making has gone off the rails.鈥�
Graham Wilson, the communications director for the court system and Human Trafficking Commission, said there wasn鈥檛 anything unusual about the Legislature sending money to the commission or making the commission 鈥渢he legislatively mandated leader鈥� in the state for funding anti-human-trafficking work. He also disputed that any payments were delayed. In response to ProPublica鈥檚 questions, he wrote that the recipients must comply with all terms of their grant agreement before the commission releases funds. He would not elaborate on whether or how recipients failed to comply with those terms.
鈥淥ur experience is that support for fighting human trafficking is nonpartisan in the legislature,鈥� Wilson said, 鈥渁s it is in the Judicial Branch.鈥�
Ted Alexander, the Republican state senator who was primarily responsible for empowering the Human Trafficking Commission, declined to comment for this story. He previously said the idea stemmed from his concern that Christian groups had too few resources compared to secular groups. To address that, the budget bill included money specifically for 25 mostly faith-based service providers, .
鈥淵ou look at these other groups, like Planned Parenthood and other groups out there, and they just, the money just pours in on those groups, and it makes me sick,鈥� he said . 鈥淪o we Christians, we鈥檝e got to be able to support these kinds of organizations鈥� that are 鈥渄oing the Lord鈥檚 work.鈥�
After accepting an award at a Human Trafficking Commission event in 2024, he declared, 鈥淥ur goal was to help those organizations that are kind of low on the ground, that are trying to do God鈥檚 work鈥� and 鈥渢ake them to a higher level.鈥�
In May 2023, the leader of the Orange County Rape Crisis Center sent an email to the deputy director of the North Carolina court system warning that because the commission had been months late in releasing promised payments the center was in crisis.
鈥淎bsent an immediate disbursement of funds in the next 2 weeks our agency will furlough core services staff,鈥� wrote Rachel Valentine, warning that victims would lose legal, medical, and housing services. She said that due to delayed payments her organization had to stop paying for a hotel for one human trafficking victim, after which the woman went back to her trafficker.
鈥淚 am speaking on the experience of my own agency, but I know there are at least a dozen鈥� other domestic violence and sexual assault service providers 鈥渢hat are on the brink of outright crisis,鈥� she wrote. 鈥淎ny further delay will destabilize victim鈥檚 services in this state for years to come.鈥�
Valentine had been appealing for months to get the funds. After her emails to commission staff went unanswered, she reached out in March to her Democratic state senator, who was unable to help her get the money. Emails show that it was only after she enlisted the help of a high-ranking GOP House member that the commission released the first payment, about $95,000 of $236,000, a few days before her May email warning of the coming crisis. But she still needed the rest of the funds that the Legislature had originally promised by the end of the next month.
The deputy director of the state court system wrote back to Valentine, 鈥淲e are working to disburse鈥� the remainder of the 鈥渇unds as soon as possible and appreciate your patience.鈥�
But no more funds had come by the fall, though they were supposed to be disbursed quarterly. Valentine made a personal loan to the crisis center to ensure that her staff was paid.
Ultimately, she had to cut two staffers, one who handled the cases of Black women and another who served the Latino community. After those positions were cut, the number of Black and Hispanic clients at the center dropped over the following six months by 76% and 63%, respectively, according to Valentine. She also had to cut a program educating over 1,300 Spanish-speaking participants in how to respond to sexual violence.
Wilson, the court system鈥檚 communications director, denied that 鈥渢he timing of Commission grant disbursements has any causal relationship to internal OCRCC issues.鈥� Wilson also suggested that if organizations did not get timely quarterly payments, it could have been because they weren鈥檛 in compliance with the terms of their grant. But emails between the commission and Valentine showed the director of the commission attributed delays to 鈥渁n extremely heavy workload with grants and report reviewing鈥� and explained that commission staff had long known that 鈥渢his would be a heavy lift to start鈥� the program.
Of 18 crisis centers whose employees ProPublica spoke with, all but three reported that they experienced delays in funding that harmed their work. The commission鈥檚 grants were supposed to help bridge recent in for such agencies, which had already put them in 鈥� but the delays ended up compounding some of the agencies鈥� woes.
In addition to Valentine, leaders of two centers said funding delays forced them to lay off employees who focused on minorities, resulting in severe drop-offs in those communities receiving services. One of them had to lay off so many staffers that it could no longer immediately evacuate women from unsafe situations, sometimes being unable to offer any help for days, according to its director. Other centers said they did not have to lay off staff but did have to cut services like therapy or paying for the first month of rent for women moving out of shelters.
Some of the faith-based groups singled out for funding also experienced payment delays. Brianna Racchini, the director of Triad Ladder of Hope, a faith-based provider, said she had been forced to cut her only employee the month after a Human Trafficking Commission grant failed to come through and some churches reduced their funding. Racchini also had to scale back other expenses, like paying for medical appointments or lawyers for the women.
鈥淚t is frustrating that funding wasn鈥檛 given at the time it was supposed to be given,鈥� Racchini said.
Once Racchini was finally paid in the summer of 2024, she used the grant to cover medical debt for one woman. She said that ultimately she understood that the commission鈥檚 delays were because they were 鈥渄rowning鈥� due to administrative issues.
鈥淭hey are still doing good work,鈥� she said. 鈥淎nd we are going to partner with them whenever we can.鈥�
When Valentine was finally paid out in November 2023, she decided that she would not seek more funding through the commission. She has not been able to afford to rehire the two positions she cut, and she says the Legislature鈥檚 decision to redirect the funds to the commission is part of the reason her agency now serves fewer survivors.
鈥淲hen people are playing political games with the money, it might seem like small administrative choices, but it creates really malignant impacts,鈥� Valentine said.
While organizations like Valentine鈥檚 were struggling to even get their emails answered by the Human Trafficking Commission, two organizations that were promised substantial funding from lawmakers were gearing up.
The Legislature had mandated in its budget bill that be sent to two groups.
The first, Compassion to Act, describes itself as a 鈥渇aith-based ministry鈥� that had or activity since 2016, when it had $28,006 in revenue. It was awarded $500,000. Alexander, the state senator who鈥檇 been instrumental in shifting power to the commission, has in the issue of human trafficking as having come from meeting the leader of Compassion to Act. He said the leader inspired him to realize that it was part of his job as a pro-life senator to help women in these situations.
Another $640,000, followed by an additional $100,000 in a subsequent bill, was directed to the North Carolina Institute Against Human Trafficking, a faith-based organization that had been created just two months before lawmakers named it in the bill. The was filed by the former head of the North Carolina Republican Party and the chair of the , the state affiliate of one of the nation鈥檚 largest evangelical get-out-the-vote operations, which . The institute is led by Shannon Williams, the wife of the executive director of the NC Faith and Freedom Coalition, who is paid $70,000 a year, according to financial documents.
The institute and Compassion to Act also experienced delays in payments from the Human Trafficking Commission. In the summer of 2024, after paying the institute about $160,000, the commission temporarily paused the institute鈥檚 funding and initiated a review of its finances.
鈥淭he delay in funding has caused numerous victims of human trafficking to be continually victimized,鈥� the institute wrote in its to the commission. In August 2024, the institute received another $160,000 from the Human Trafficking Commission. Nonetheless, in its October report, the institute said the delay in funding had forced it 鈥渢o scale back operations.鈥� By January 2025, that the Human Trafficking Commission had paid the institute over $500,000.
Compassion to Act also repeatedly criticized the commission for delays.
The funding directed to the Human Trafficking Commission was part of a massive shift in how the state Legislature was allocating money 鈥� and part of a pattern of legislators writing laws that direct funds to their political allies through grants or similar noncompetitive means.
According to the state budget office, there were 81 directed grants for about $17.5 million in the 2019-2020 fiscal year. That grew to 627 grants for $1.2 billion in the next full budget year, much of that from the influx of federal pandemic money. $3.5 million sent to a domestic violence monitoring agency with political connections and little track record, The Raleigh 瓜神app and Observer . (No one has been charged.) Separately, a Republican ex-judge鈥檚 company was paid over $400,000 after the Legislature sent more than $50 million to two organizations seeking to bring the Olympics to North Carolina, has reported.
After ProPublica first asked the Human Trafficking Commission in 2024 about delayed payments and financial management, it began working to rectify some of the problems it had been warned about for years, according to sources and records. In November, the court system completed a of the commission that concluded that 鈥渁ll active grants adhere with applicable federal and state statutes and regulations.鈥�
However, the commission has also taken numerous steps to block or obscure public information about its actions, including rejecting a 2024 monitoring visit by the state agency that oversees its spending of federal funds 鈥� becoming the only such entity to do so out of more than 90 of them, according to the state budget office. In records obtained by ProPublica, the court system argued the state agency lacked the authority to monitor the commission.
The vast majority of the commission鈥檚 millions of dollars had been flowing to the state from federal pandemic recovery funds. That federal money now has stopped. Some groups, like Valentine鈥檚 Orange County Rape Crisis Center, will continue to get funding from other state agencies, which disburse other federal funds. As for the commission itself, the Legislature in its most recent budget set aside $500,000 in permanent annual funding. The commission can give that money only to agencies working exclusively on human trafficking, which excludes groups like the Orange County Rape Crisis Center.
Valentine said it鈥檚 unfortunate that the significant sum of money that had been flowing through the commission didn鈥檛 do enough to help bolster groups like hers.
鈥淭here was an opportunity to use this funding to enhance services and increase collaboration鈥� between traditional service providers and the human trafficking community, she said. 鈥淏ut that got lost.鈥�
