The Bo Hines Relapse

 

Remember the football player who won some big football games and then wanted to be somebody in the political world? Bo Hines originally from Charlotte, but very flexible in where he was willing to call home. In January 2021, he lived in Winston-Salem where he was in law school, but politics had gotten ahold of him in a leap-before-you-look kind of way. That January. Hines posted a video to his Twitter and Facebook feeds criticizing Congresswoman Virginia Foxx -- that she had mainly made herself rich in Congress and had done little for her constituents other than the disaster of a pork-barrel teapot museum which didn't actually come about. Hines was suddenly interesting as a brash insurgent taking on one of the most securely gerrymandered Republicans in Congress. Hines tried to make headway with Young Republicans during a visit to AppState in April 2021. Almost immediately thereafter Foxx got the endorsement of Hines' hero Madison Cawthorn (who hadn't turned totally toxic yet).

Oops.

Bo Hines folded quickly. On May 8th, 2021, less than a month after he announced against Foxx in the 5th, he was reported in conservative circles to be moving his candidacy from the 5th to the 13th. Incumbent Congressman in the 13th, Ted Budd, had already announced he was stepping down to run for US Senate. An open seat! (Which was ultimately won by Democrat Wiley Nickel last November.) Say whatever you want about Bo Hines's political I.Q. -- he had learned something valuable: Don't jump in the first time against an entrenched grandmother from your own party. 

But shit happened to the 13th CD. Under court order to divest itself of partisan advantage, court-appointed masters created new Congressional maps in 2022 that shuffled many of the precincts from the 13th into a newly drawn 7th CD, which was already complicated with bigger names than himself (Republican David Rouzer was the incumbent). For some nefarious reason Donald Trump Hisownself wanted Hines to run in the new 4th in exchange for the Trump endorsement. Instead, Hines went back to the now new 13th -- and got the Trump endorsement anyway. Trump featured Hines during a rally in Johnston County. Hines prevailed in the Republican primary but lost last fall to state Senator Wiley Nickel.

Just a few minutes ago

Reporter Bryan Anderson flashed the news on Twitter:

It's official: Republican Bo Hines is running against former U.S. Rep. Mark Walker in NC's 6th Congressional District, which includes outskirts of Greensboro and Winston-Salem. Other GOP primary candidates include Christian Castelli, Mary Ann Contogiannis and Jay Wagner. 

The incumbent congresswoman in the 6th, Democrat Kathy Manning, was brutalized by the latest Republican gerrymandering and is considered a Dead Woman Walking, though I don't know if she's announced her plans for 2024.