At —of all places—the Bladenboro Beast Fest— N.C. House of Representatives District 46 candidates Brenden Jones and Timothy Benton engaged in a physical confrontation, after which Jones filed assault charges against Benton.
According to witnesses providing accounts to various media sources, Benton confronted Jones at the Beast Fest claiming Jones was trying to link him to the Ku Klux Klan. According to the NCGOP:
Yesterday afternoon Tim Benton spotted Brenden Jones at the local Beast Fest in Bladenboro, NC. He approached Jones very aggressively in front of families, while pushing his own grandson in a stroller. Jones tried to calm him down and asked if they could go across the street to get away from the growing crowd. Benton was spewing profanity, screaming in Jones’ face saying, “I’m going to kick your a** by the end of the day,” and repeatedly nudging his shoulder. The two men went to the other side of the road, meanwhile Benton left his grandson in his stroller on the edge of the street causing Mrs. Jones to divert her attention away from her husband to care for the child. Then Benton proceeded to sucker punch his opponent, Brenden Jones.”
Tempers flare as presidential elections wind down— but more disturbing is one witness claim that Benton left a young child—allegedly his granddaughter—alone in a stroller as he confronted Jones and—as another witness claimed “if Mr. Jones’ (companion) hadn’t caught her, the child would have rolled into the street.”
