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.’”
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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.”
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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.”
Rep. Ted Budd (R-NC) announced he’ll run for North Carolina’s open U.S. Senate seat, the Raleigh News & Observer reports.
His announcement video features two monster trucks running over the “liberal agenda.”
Later, he describes how he will prevent America from becoming a “woke socialist wasteland.” After saying this, Budd is offered an assault weapon by a man in sunglasses. Budd declines it, saying “we can skip the shooting part, I own a gun store.”
Cheri Beasley (D), the first Black woman to serve as chief justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court, announced she will run for U.S. Senate from North Carolina, the Raleigh News & Observer reports.
Beasley narrowly lost her 2020 election for chief justice by 401 votes to fellow Supreme Court Justice Paul Newby.
Former North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory’s (R) career in politics is not over, the Charlotte Observer reports.
“McCrory, a Republican who served one term as the state’s chief executive and 14 years as Charlotte’s mayor, has launched a campaign website announcing his run for North Carolina’s open U.S. Senate seat in 2022.”
“Pat McCrory, the former Republican governor of North Carolina, is planning to launch his campaign for the state’s open Senate seat this week,” Politico reports.
“The former governor, who won the office in 2012 and lost reelection in 2016, would begin the primary in the race to replace retiring GOP Sen. Richard Burr as an early frontrunner.”
“With Lara Trump still on the sidelines and landing a new gig on Fox News, Republican candidates are preparing to move on without her,” the Raleigh News and Observer reports.
“Three-term U.S. Rep. Ted Budd (R-NC) is now ‘leaning towards’ running for the Senate seat — an indication that Trump may not enter the race for several months or at all.”
Said Club for Growth President David McIntosh, “It would be best if they weren’t both running.”
☑️ Life in the Middle: Marginalized Moderate Senators In the Era of Polarization is available on Amazon. It takes a deep dive into the power of moderates and why we see them behave so precariously.
Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.