December 29, 2024

Ted Budd enters North Carolina Senate race, adding a new GOP primary rival against Lara Trump if she runs

Lara #Lara

a man wearing glasses and smiling at the camera © Provided by Washington Examiner

Rep. Ted Budd on Wednesday entered the North Carolina Senate race, adding another high-profile GOP primary challenger against Lara Trump if she decides to jump in.

Budd, a gun-store owner first elected to the House in 2016, launched his Senate bid describing himself as a “liberal agenda crusher” and “political outsider.”

Budd in a campaign video invoked the former president’s name, saying that he was “so fed up with the liberals’ attacks on our faith, our families, and our way of life that I ran for Congress to stand and fight alongside Donald Trump and drain the swamp and take our country back.”

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A video clip of Trump shows the former president saying of the congressman, “Ted Budd is a champion for the people of this state.” Budd, Trump added in the video clip, “voted to cut your taxes, build a border wall, and protect your Second Amendment rights.”

Budd is the third prominent Republican to enter the Senate primary after former North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory and former Rep. Mark Walker declared their candidacies to replace retiring GOP Sen. Richard Burr.

Trump’s daughter-in-law Lara Trump is still considering a candidacy herself. But she is now a Fox News contributor and is taking her time deciding on race. And the three most prominent candidates in the races don’t seem scared off by the prospect of her running.

While McCrory has high name recognition around the state after his tenure as mayor of Charlotte and later as governor, unlike Budd, he did not mention Trump in his campaign launch announcement.

However, the 45th president has made no public indication of where he stands in relation to this Senate primary.

Budd in his Wednesday campaign video slammed Democratic leaders, including President Joe Biden, for creating the “crisis at the southern border” and “cutting American jobs and mortgaging our children’s future with massive debts.”

Toward the end of the video, Budd is handed a semi-automatic long rifle.

“The only trigger warning around here is keep your finger off it until you’re ready to fire. We all know that Joe Biden is a weak leader who won’t stand up to the radical Left today,” Budd said. “Today, the U.S. Senate is the last line of defense against becoming a woke socialist wasteland. And I’m running to stop that — period. No, I think we can skip the shooting part. I own a gun store. They know where I stand.”

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Disappointed at losing the last Senate race to Republican incumbent Thom Tillis after a sex scandal befell the Democrat challenger, North Carolina Democrats are hoping to break a winning streak Republicans have had for decades. Since 1972, Republicans in the state have defeated Democrats in 13 Senate races, while Democrats won only four.

Tags: News, North Carolina Senate, North Carolina, 2022 Elections, Senate

Original Author: Kerry Picket

Original Location: Ted Budd enters North Carolina Senate race, adding a new GOP primary rival against Lara Trump if she runs

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