Brad Knott has represented North Carolina's 13th District since January 2025. He's new to Washington, but his first year already shows whose side he's on. Here are 3 things voters in the Research Triangle should know.
He's funded by corporate giants, not working families
Knott represents a district full of working families in the Research Triangle. So who pays for his campaign? Look at his top donors:
- Blackstone Group
- Accenture
- Walmart
- Home Depot
- Deloitte
These are some of the largest corporations on Earth. When the people writing your representative's checks are giant Wall Street firms and big-box chains, it's a safe bet they're the ones he answers to — not the family down the street trying to make ends meet.
He shrugged while DOGE gutted his own district's economy
Knott's district took one of the hardest hits in the entire country when Elon Musk's DOGE took a chainsaw to the federal government — and Knott went right along with it. On June 12, 2025, he voted for the Rescissions Act of 2025, the bill that cancelled about $9 billion Congress had already approved for foreign aid and public broadcasting, locking in cuts DOGE had picked out.
The damage to the Research Triangle was massive:
- Research Triangle Park was the hardest-hit congressional district in the country, losing 186 federal grants.
- RTI International — a major research employer in the Triangle — lost about $1 billion in contracts and laid off one-third of its workforce.
- UNC-Chapel Hill lost $38.4 million in federal grants, and Duke University lost more than $135 million.
All told, North Carolina lost at least $714 million to DOGE cuts. These were jobs and research dollars in Knott's own backyard. He had a chance to fight for them. He voted to make a round of the cuts permanent instead.
He cheered on a masked, out-of-control ICE
We should all be able to live our lives without fear that law enforcement will turn on us. But ICE has become a secret police force, with masked agents grabbing people off the street, hauling them away from court hearings, and — in two separate cases in early 2026 — killing U.S. citizens.
Brad Knott's response wasn't to demand accountability. He bragged about voting to restore and expand ICE funding — pouring more money into the very agency that's terrorizing communities. A solid majority of Americans disapprove of how ICE operates. Knott wants to give it more.
Whose side is Brad Knott on?
A donor list full of corporate giants, a shrug while his district's economy got gutted, and a cheer for a police force that's killing citizens. Different issues, same instinct — and even in just his first year, the pattern is already set. Before you vote in 2026, it's worth knowing whose side Brad Knott is actually on. It hasn't been the Research Triangle's.
