Free Republic

Pat McCrory’s campaign did not expect to win. So instead of renting a hotel ballroom, their campaign event was at Selwyn Pub, a few blocks from his home in Myers Park. There were about 50 people there. They heard McCrory say he doesn’t know if he has a place in the Republican Party anymore. “Now I have to do some real self-evaluation of where I belong. And not only me, it’s where these people belong in our party,” McCrory, gesturing to his well-wishers. “I want to make sure we maintain a sense of civility, a sense of character and accomplishment.”...

U.S. Rep. Ted Budd, a Republican backed by former President Donald Trump in North Carolina’s Senate race, is pulling ahead of other GOP candidates in the polls for retiring Sen. Richard Burr’s seat. The Raleigh News & Observer reported Sunday that Budd, a Davie County native, is leading by the double digits in the polls ahead of former Gov. Pat McCrory, former U.S. Rep. Mark Walker and political newcomer Marjorie Eastman. He has skipped debates, strategizing to instead rely on campaign events and millions of dollars in advertisements to resonate with voters and secure the party ticket. The influential conservative...

New campaign filings show North Carolina U.S. Rep. Ted Budd brought in more money during the final three months of 2021 than his opponents in his bid for the Republican Party’s U.S. Senate nomination. It’s the first time since both candidates entered the race in April that Budd has reported raising more money than former Gov. Pat McCrory, his top competitor. Budd’s campaign on Monday reported raising more than $968,000 during the period ending Dec. 31, according to a Federal Election Commission filing. McCrory took in more than $748,000. Campaign finance filings are an indicator of a candidate’s strength and...

Former President Trump and his allies are struggling to clear the Republican field in North Carolina’s wide-open U.S. Senate race and galvanize GOP voters around his preferred candidate, Rep. Ted Budd (R-N.C.). Despite winning the former president’s endorsement early on, Budd has so far failed to become the runaway favorite in the GOP primary and has regularly trailed his chief rival, former Gov. Pat McCrory, in polling. That set off an effort by Trump and Budd’s allies to nudge former Rep. Mark Walker (R-N.C.) out of the race by promising an endorsement if Walker runs instead for a Greensboro-area House...

Washington (CNN)A television attack ad from conservative Super PAC Club for Growth Action uses egregiously deceptive editing to build its case that Pat McCrory, a Republican candidate for a US Senate seat in North Carolina, is a "Trump-hater" and "liberal faker." Facts First: The attack ad dishonestly sliced and diced remarks McCrory made on the Charlotte radio show he co-hosted after his term as North Carolina governor ended in 2017 -- changing the meaning of some of his quotes to transform them into what sounded like direct attacks on former President Donald Trump and Trump supporters. As CNN reported in...

A handful of open Senate seats have drawn a crowd of Republicans vying to replace outgoing GOP senators. Those senators are mostly staying neutral in the primaries — at least for now. Alabama’s Richard C. Shelby is so far the only retiring senator to take sides in a primary, backing his former chief of staff, Katie Britt. While others weigh picking a favorite, the primary fields have continued to grow. In some races, vocal backers of Donald Trump are battling each other to succeed senators who have openly criticized the former president or have built reputations as legislative deal-makers. Two...

It doesn't get any better in the U.S. Senate race where former party state chair Jane Timken, perennial right-wing candidate Josh Mandel and author J.D. Vance are fighting over who is the most Trumpian. Ohio State Sen. Matt Dolan jumped into the race, giving the anti-Trump forces an outside shot if the others split their vote. It'll be interesting to see if retiring Sen. Rob Portman — who didn't stand up to Trump for four years — will show political courage now that he’s not facing voters. It’s not much better in neighboring Pennsylvania, where the leading Republican U.S. Senate...

Lara Trump said during North Carolina’s Republican Convention Saturday night that she would not seek the state party’s nomination to run for U.S. Senate, citing her young children – but she left open the possibility of a future run. "No for now," she said, thanking the supporters in her home state. "Not no forever." After she left the state, former President Donald Trump endorsed Rep. Ted Budd, R-N.C, as "your next senator" to the crowd. "A lot of you don’t know him that well, but you’re gonna know him probably within a few minutes," he said. "Ted Budd." Then he...

Former Republican Gov. Pat McCrory on Wednesday announced he'll run for the U.S. Senate in North Carolina, shaking up the calculus in the expanding field to succeed retiring Sen. Richard Burr with the entrance of a veteran of statewide politics. McCrory, who served as governor for four years through 2016, revealed his plans on his morning radio show in Charlotte, where he also served a record 14 years as mayor. McCrory had said in late 2019 that he would strongly consider a Senate bid in 2022. He has quietly built a team of experienced consultants and fundraisers. “I'm in,” he...

<p>With the race between North Carolina Republican Governor Pat McCrory and Democrat Roy Cooper down to a razor-thin margin, Republicans filed claims of voter fraud with county boards of election around the state. The GOP was aiming to delegitimize Cooper’s lead and to legitimize years of effort to overhaul voting laws to make them more restrictive, claiming serious fraud.</p>

North Carolina officials are trying to figure out how to unwind parts or all of a 2014 public-private partnership that is building managed toll lanes on a Charlotte-area highway.Ever since the ink dried on North Carolina’s first transportation P3 contract, the plan to relieve severe congestion in the Charlotte region has generated controversy.Public opposition remains just as fierce today to the project that will add express lanes on Interstate 77, even though more than one report says the deal with I-77 Mobility Partners LLC, a consortium led by Cintra Infraestructuras S.A., was properly authorized and permitted.The 26-mile-long project is designed...

Since the election, there has been ample speculation about how Trump “happened.” Last week, Obama offered his hypothesis: resentment and paranoia on the right. He lamented the destruction of the Republican Party and the ensuing demise of America because of the divisiveness and bigotry propagated by the president and those who support him. It seems that most on the left agree with Obama’s view. Progressives purport that enthusiasm for Trump is bolstered by “white fragility”— an insecurity that white voices, once dominant, are now being drowned out by increasingly influential minority groups bolstered by demographic changes. Trump is their “white...

N.C. Gov. Pat McCrory will meet with President-elect Donald Trump in New York on Wednesday, according to The Hill.The Trump transition team said the meeting will happen after a transition fundraising breakfast.

Just when you thought the 2016 election was over, they pull you back in. Or rather, they want to kick you back out. Democrats in North Carolina have begun calling for Governor Pat McCrory to concede his re-election bid against Roy Cooper after coming up 6,500 votes short — and having several recount and challenge bids denied. Thus far, McCrory’s not playing along: McCrory’s challenger Democrat state Attorney General Roy Cooper has said repeatedly that he won the race and received big support from Democratic lawmakers who believe there’s no way McCrory can win.“By any definition, Roy Cooper has...

Formal protests are now being filed in 11 additional counties to challenge potentially fraudulent absentee ballots cast for Roy Cooper and other Democrats, according to Governor Pat McCrory's campaign.A formal protest was filed with the Bladen County Board of Elections to challenge several hundred absentee ballots, alleged to be fraudulent on Tuesday. The initial evidence laid out in the protest suggests a "massive scheme to run an absentee ballot mill involving hundreds of ballots, perpetrated by and through the Bladen County Improvement Association PAC," a political-action committee funded by the N.C. Democrat Party and other prominent statewide Democrats.  In addition to...

Standing on principle, not to mention common sense, is so rare these days that when someone does it they make headlines. That's because you can quickly be labeled a "bigot" if you oppose a lot of the sludge dumped on us by the secular left, and few can withstand the onslaught. North Carolina's Republican governor, Pat McCrory, is unafraid. On Friday, the Department of Justice sent him a letter warning that North Carolina's House Bill 2, also known as the bathroom bill, violated the Civil Rights Act. The bill, which requires that transgender people use public bathrooms that match their...

Burr calls NC GOP governor 'off base' for seeking congressional action North Carolina's senior senator said his state's Gov. Pat McCrory is "off base" in calling for congressional intervention to resolve a state dispute over restroom access for transgender people. "I've never seen Congress get involved in judicial matters and this is turned over to the court system now," Republican Sen. Richard M. Burr said Tuesday. "So, I think the governor's off base."... Burr said he would rather see the issue remain in the courts. "That's where they chose to put it,” he said. “I would have preferred that they...

A "law enforcement action". Will be live-streamed. 3:30 Eastern. https://www.justice.gov/live-stream

Raleigh, N.C. — Gov. Pat McCrory says the General Assembly should reverse a portion of the recently passed House Bill 2 but leave in place provisions that deal with locker room and restroom usage. Specifically, the governor called on lawmakers to reverse a part of the law, known as the Public Facilities Privacy & Security Act, which prevents North Carolina workers who believe they've been wrongfully fired due to sex, age, race or gender from suing in state court. "I will immediately seek legislation in the upcoming short session to reinstate the right to sue for discrimination in North Carolina...

The chief executive of Pepsi, a company with roots in North Carolina, has written to Governor Pat McCrory to ask him to repeal a new law preventing specific anti-discrimination rules for LGBT people over public accommodations and restroom use. In a letter hand delivered to McCrory on Friday, PepsiCo head Indra Nooyi called the law inconsistent with how her company treats its employees. Nooyi also said the law was undermining efforts to advance North Carolina’s interests, and she said she hoped McCrory would consider repealing the law when the state legislature reconvenes later this month.