NC's Judge Bob Orr Is Leading a Republican Splinter Group

Judge Bob Orr

Noted North Carolina constitutional conservative Judge Bob Orr has become the national spokesman for a splinter group of non-Trumpist Republicans. They're calling themselves the "National Republican Party," and they're planning to hold their own rump convention next summer in Charlotte at the same time the Republican National Convention will be (presumably) renominating Donald Trump for a second term.

The National Republicans have a Facebook group page on which they published this "pledge":

1. I am a registered Republican, and/or generally support GOP policies and candidates. 

2. I believe that Republican presidential primaries and caucuses that have been closed should be re-opened, and stay open. 

3. I support the Republican Platform as adopted at the 2000 Republican National Convention in Philadelphia, minus the abortion and same-sex marriage planks, on which we take no positions.

Number 2 responds to the cancelling of some state Republican primaries in South Carolina, Arizona, and a few other states, presumably to clear Trump's path of any (even weak) Republican opposition.

Who Is Bob Orr?
Aside from having served as the appointed District Attorney serving Watauga County and the rest of the 24th Prosecutorial District in 2014 (to finish the term of DA Jerry Wilson), Orr had already built an impressive record of service. He was appointed to the NC Court of Appeals by Republican Governor Jim Martin in 1986. He won election to the NC Supreme Court in 1994 and served there for ten years. He ran for governor in the Republican primary of 2008, losing to Pat McCrory. In 2016, he was a John Kasich delegate to the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, leaving the convention early before Trump's formal coronation but not before commenting to a WRAL reporter that Donald Trump was “singularly unqualified to lead this country.” In fact, Orr said, "Trump is a danger to the country."

Truer words?

The News&Observer has an article up this morning about Orr and the National Republicans.