Hunt vs. Weatherman: Opening Shot

 

Around 3 p.m. yesterday, Democratic candidate for lieutenant governor Rachel Hunt posted a thread on Twitter announcing an amendment to the North Carolina constitution "to protect women's health care and abortion rights." And indeed, there it is, Senate Bill 909, "An Act to Amend the Constitution of North Carolina To Protect Women's Health." The bill calls for a public referendum on the November 2024 ballot.

Bold move, lady. And the right one. It's never gonna pass, natch! But it puts the Republicans in the corner, which is the tight intersection of walls that they themselves constructed. "Let the voting public of North Carolina have their say this November," ha!

She can't get this constitutional amendment on the ballot, but she sure as hell can raise the profile of Republican anti-abortion activities, and beyond present activities (like passing more restrictive laws) to the wishlist of both Mark Robinson (R candidate for governor) and Hal Weatherman (R candidate lt. gov.):

Both Robinson and Weatherman say they want to see a “heartbeat” bill pass the legislature, which would ban abortion after cardiac activity is detected, which is around five or six weeks into pregnancy. [Dawn Baumgartner Vaughan]

Part of her statement published on Twitter yesterday:

Decisions around pregnancy, including abortion, birth control, and miscarriage care, are personal and should be left up to women and their families .... The people of North Carolina deserve a chance to vote for themselves on whether we will protect women’s healthcare or continue down the path of states like AL and TX.

I want to ensure that we are putting families – not politicians like Hal Weatherman or Mark Robinson – in charge of our personal medical decisions.By choosing Weatherman as their nominee, the MAGA Republicans decided they want abortion to be front and center in this election. Weatherman has repeatedly said he wants to completely ban abortion access. He makes a great ally and partner for Robinson, who is leading the anti-abortion charge here in NC. 

...I don’t want my daughter, or any of our daughters, to live in a state where they could be forced to travel hundreds of miles for care or where doctors and nurses could be criminalized for basic access to health care that their patients require....

The Republican facing Rachel Hunt -- Hal Weatherman -- began his career with Rep. Sue Myrick, but he proved himself an accomplished political operative as both Dan Forest's campaign manager and then Forest's chief of staff. The Dan Forest bubble broke in the elections of 2020 when Roy Cooper beat him, and according to his LinkedIn, Weatherman went to work briefly for the Madison Cawthorn campaign from January '21 to June '22, when he apparently had had enough of that particular shitshow and somehow decided to run for lieutenant governor, which will be for Weatherman -- let's be honest -- a lovely little sinecure with hardly any lifting at all, just a job about sitting on committees and being agreeable and showing up at golf tournaments, and -- of course! -- mouthing whatever conservative bullshit is agreeable to the day.

He's actually running on charm, I think. This is his photo on Twitter, a prepster dressed impeccably and smiling, in a nicely rugged setting:

He brags that he visited every county -- all 100 -- before the primary and that he'll visit them all again before November. Before the March primary he published videos of himself talking about where he's going that day and who he'll be talking to, but always solo, standing at an anonymous spot somewhere, but the picts he's put on Facebook give a clue that he's been most comfortable in living rooms with crystal light fixtures at strictly high-dollar donor events, with cocktails and polite conversation. I don't see a lot of evidence of this guy's appeal for the MAGA crowd, though an attack piece from the Democratic Lieutenant Governors Association calls Weatherman's campaign "MAGAPURISM." I don't see any evidence yet that Weatherman has faced a crowd of cultists who always prefer blood. Weatherman looks like a country club Republican. Is he gonna roar with Mark Robinson about abortion? I think it unlikely. I think he'll go to ground on that issue and find something else to excite his crowd.