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Mike Schietzelt |
Democrats are counting on a big Blue Wave, especially in Wake County, to truly put a permanent crimp in the GOP's veto-proof House majority. One of the only remaining Republicans representing any part of Wake, Mike Schietzelt in HD 35, has been targeted for defeat by Democrat Evonne Hopkins, a family law specialist who ran against Schietzelt in 2024 before he was the incumbent and lost to him by only 200 or so votes. Carolina Forward has endorsed Hopkins. I'm very curious how fundraising is going for her, and was frustrated to find that the 2nd Quarter report which was due at the State Board of Elections on July 10th hasn't been posted. Schietzelt also hasn't reported for the 2nd Quarter. Cash-on-hand for the two campaigns, and where the cash is coming from, will tell us a good deal about whether there's grassroots juice rising for either candidate.
Schietzelt is getting big money from the House Republican caucus and plenty of support from Speaker Destin Hall and the whole networked donor base that concentrates on keeping the General Assembly imperious to any Democratic governor.
Schietzelt is fascinating as a new character in the NC GOP because he eschews culture war and MAGA shit in favor of practical matters that suburbanites actually care about a lot more, like his strong opposition to changing the Capitol Blvd. corridor from downtown Raleigh to Wake Forest into a toll road. Schietzelt appears to be a young and affable but also conservative policy lawyer with a suburban governing style. He's not trying to become a firebrand. He's trying to become known as someone who solves practical district problems.
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Evonne Hopkins |
His first-term incumbency gives him an advantage over Evonne Hopkins. This is her second contest with Schietzelt. She did very well against him in 2024, and some think that loss established for her enough name recognition to overcome Schietzelt's incumbency advantage. I don't know about that. Familiarity can also breed contempt. I hate to suggest it, but I think it's true.
The Civitas Partisan Index puts HD 35 at R + 0, pure tossup, but I actually think Schietzelt has the advantage. It may well come down to how overwhelmingly Roy Cooper beats Michael Whatley in Wake. His coattails may be as potent as any hoped-for Blue Wave.
4 comments:
The blue wave is waving bye bye.
Because we are cruelly limited to the Duopoly Party our needs will not be met by an inevitable DNC victory over fascist MAGA. The neo-Confederate insanity will remain and threaten insurrection, but a responsible citizen hopes substantive patriotism and self-preservation instinct will lead to prosecutions and punishment. American history is more dialectical and contradictory than
even Frederick Engels could have imagined. Donald Trump cultism has proven that capitalist perversion, racism and mafia corruption always contained the seed of their own destruction.
But the Big Heat won't solve itself. It's far beyond the Super El Nino
model. Roy Cooper and other conformists will be forced to abandon
the coat and tie uniform of business. I predict a leveling in fashion to
accompany redistribution and collectivization of wealth and resources.
Otherwise bye bye Civillization.
". The neo-Confederate insanity will remain and threaten insurrection,"
Uh, RH, you DO know that Confederates were Democrats, don't you? And Slavers? And started the KKK?
It's all settler colonialism. The real estate game down in Charlotte greatly resembles the Board Of Peace racket in Palestine.
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