A new Trafalgar Group poll in North Carolina finds Ted Budd (R), who was endorsed by Donald Trump, leading the GOP Senate primary field with 51%, followed by Pat McCrory (R) at 29% and Mark Walker (R) at 8%.

Rep. Ted Budd (R-NC) won’t debate Pat McCrory (R) in the North Carolina Republican U.S. Senate race, WRAL reports.

North Carolina U.S. Senate candidate Mark Walker (R) announced on Twitter that he’d been approached to drop out of the race, appear at Trump’s Saturday rally in the state and endorse Rep. Ted Budd (R) in return for onstage praise.

Said Walker: “I didn’t play this game in DC and I won’t do it now.”

A new WRAL News poll in North Carolina finds Rep. Ted Budd (R) leading the GOP Senate race with 33% support, followed by Pat McCrory (R) with 23% and former U.S. Rep. Mark Walker (R) with 7%.

Former North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory (R) said last year that not receiving an offer to teach at Duke University upon leaving the governorship was “blacklisting” and comparable to the refusal to serve Black Americans at lunch counters in the 1960s during segregation, CNN reports.

Jeff Jackson (D) is walking away from the U.S. Senate race in North Carolina, the Raleigh News & Observer reports.

“The 39-year-old state senator from Charlotte is the second candidate in recent weeks to make that decision, which leaves former N.C. Supreme Court Justice Cheri Beasley as the biggest-name candidate for the Democratic nomination.”

Former Rep. Mark Walker (R-NC) will remain in North Carolina’s U.S. Senate race for the remainder of the year and spend the next few weeks mulling a run for a House seat, despite former President Donald Trump urging him to bow out of the 2022 Senate contest, the AP reports.

“President Donald Trump endorsed Ted Budd three months ago in North Carolina’s 2022 U.S. Senate race,” the Charlotte Observer reports.

“Now one of Budd’s biggest political backers is spending $3 million to make sure Republicans in the state are aware of Trump’s endorsement.”

The Hill: North Carolina primary is a key test of Trump’s sway.

“As Rep. Ted Budd (R-NC) launched his campaign for a pivotal U.S. Senate seat earlier this year, the North Carolina Republican pitched himself as a staunch ally of farmers,” the Washington Post reports.

“But as Budd has told his narrative in a state where agriculture is the largest business, he omitted a key chapter. He made no mention of his role in his family’s calamitous involvement in a company called AgriBioTech, which ended in a bankruptcy case that cost farmers millions of dollars in losses.”

“A trustee for farmers and other creditors alleged that his father, Richard Budd, improperly transferred millions of dollars in assets to his family, including Ted Budd. That occurred before Richard Budd and a family company faced a $15 million judgment in the case. Moreover, the trustee alleged, Ted Budd ‘acted in concert’ with his father ‘in connection with the fraudulent transfers.’”

The Club for Growth released a statement saying “it has already raised $5.125 million to support Rep. Ted Budd’s (R-NC) campaign to become the next Senator from North Carolina.”

Retiring Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC) told Politico that former Gov. Pat McCrory (R) is “the only one in the race that can win the general election.”

That would mean Burr is asserting Trump-endorsed Rep. Ted Budd (R) could not win.

Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC) expressed bewilderment over former President Trump’s endorsement of Rep. Ted Budd in the GOP primary for the retiring senator’s seat, The Hill reports.

Said Burr: “I can’t tell you what motivates him. I’ve never seen individuals endorse a candidate a year before the primary. That’s unusual.”

A new Meeting Street Insights poll in North Carolina shows former Gov. Pat McCrory (R) leading the Republican Senate primary with 45%, followed by Rep. Ted Budd (R) with 19%, and former Rep. Mark Walker (R) at 12%.

However, once respondents are informed Budd secured former President Donald Trump’s endorsement, Budd leads with 46%, followed by McCrory at 27%, and Walker at 8%.

“A difference of opinion between former President Donald Trump and some activist North Carolina Republicans was highlighted when Senate candidate Mark Walker (R) told guests at a GOP luncheon that Trump’s former chief of staff engineered Trump’s surprise endorsement seven days prior of another candidate, Rep. Ted Budd (R-NC),” the Fayetteville Observer reports.

Said Walker: “Ah — my first thought — it was that Mark Meadows had orchestrated this whole event…”

“Walker accused Meadows of not telling Trump that Walker led a straw poll of Republican delegates earlier that day for the GOP 2022 Senate nomination.”

Former North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory (R) said he was “disappointed” in Donald Trump’s endorsement of Rep. Ted Budd (R) for U.S. Senate, calling the congressman “a Washington insider who has done more to oppose the Trump agenda than anyone in the race,” the Charlotte Observer reports.

Said McCrory: “The president got some bad advice and you could tell by the immediate reaction of the audience, which was no reaction to the individual he endorsed. They selected a Washington insider and I assume a Washington insider around the president made this very poor decision.”

“Former president Donald Trump jumped into a competitive Senate primary on Saturday night in North Carolina, endorsing Rep. Ted Budd for a hotly contested seat in the 2022 election,” the Washington Post reports.

“Trump’s surprise endorsement — which he said he told the congressman about 15 minutes before taking the stage at a convention center here — came minutes after his daughter-in-law Lara Trump said she was not going to be running for the seat in North Carolina.”

Politico: “Trump’s endorsement is a major boost for Budd, who is running against former Gov. Pat McCrory and former Rep. Mark Walker in the Senate primary.”