NC Rep Turner, Winston Clash Over Iran Conflict

0:00It's March 23rd. This is Durham News Today, your AI-powered local news. North Carolina State Representative Brian Turner, a Democrat from Buncombe County, recently sent a campaign email urging people to oppose the ongoing. US and Israel conflict with Iran. Now, in its fourth week, the war has led to deaths of top Iranian officials and major damage to their oil facilities. Just one minute after his message went out on a Tuesday evening, Turner got a crew reply from an email address linked to Robert Winston, the CEO of, Winston Hospitality. Winston is a big name in Raleigh Business Circles. His company runs hotels in places like Jacksonville, Kingston, and Goldsboro, plus spots nationwide. He's held key roles, including Chairman of the UNC Chapel Hill Board of Trustees and Board Member for the Research Triangle Park Foundation. He's also donated heavily to NC State University. Turner shared the email exchange on Facebook that Friday morning, and the post quickly racked up over 50,000 views.

1:02He told reporters he wanted to highlight the issue without going overboard, but felt it was time to call out bad behavior publicly, especially from someone so influential. Turner fired back the next morning with a pointy reply about how rising gas prices might hurt hotel bookings. Winston hasn't responded to that, and efforts to reach him by phone, email, or text have fallen flat. This dust up shows how heated debates over the Iran conflict they're getting, even spilling in a personal attacks between politicians and business. Leaders.