Bo Hines Gets His Consolation Prize

 

Remember Bo Hines, the right-wing football thrower who shopped himself all over North Carolina Congressional districts, starting in 2022, looking for one he could win -- which he never did. First, he was going to primary Virginia Foxx. Then he finally settled on a race in the new 13th Congressional District, and Trump endorsed him in the 8-candidate Republican primary, which Bo won but then lost that November to Democrat Wiley Nickel. In 2024, Bo tried again in the 6th Congressional District, so gerrymandered that no Democrat was running, but this time Trump endorsed nebbish Addison McDowell because of his friendship with Don Junior.

"Poor Bo Hines" no more! Trump has appointed him (gird yourself) as executive director of the Presidential Council of Advisers for Digital Assets. The short version for that mouthful is Crypto Council.

“In his new role,” someone wrote in a Trump admin press release, “Bo will work with the White House czar for artificial intelligence and crypto [there is such a thing] to foster innovation and growth in the digital assets space, while ensuring industry leaders have the resources they need to succeed. Together, they will create an environment where this industry can flourish and remain a cornerstone of our nation’s technological advancement.”

Whatever. At least Bo's history of Congressional district shopping may be over for awhile.

Who Did Trump Endorse in CD 6?

 

Trump's new find

Donald Trump announced his endorsement on Wednesday of his favored candidate in North Carolina's 6th Congressional District. It wasn't Mark Walker, the ex-congressman who ran for US Senate last year and lost to Trump endorsee Ted Budd. And it wasn't Bo Hines, the Madison Cawthorn wannabe whom Trump endorsed in 2022 for the seat in the 13th Congressional District. Both Walker and Hines are announced candidates in CD 6.

No, Trump endorsed one Addison McDowell, who Danielle Battaglia reported wasn't even an announced candidate on Wednesday.

Born and raised in Davidson County, [McDowell] worked on Rep. Richard Hudson’s 2016 campaign and then from 2017 to 2019 in Sen. Ted Budd’s congressional office, while Budd served in the U.S. House representing the same area of the state .... McDowell currently is registered as a lobbyist for Blue Cross Blue Shield.

How Trump and McDowell got together could be an interesting love story. Did they "meet cute"? How did the romance blossom? "McDowell visited Trump's Mar-a-Lago Club in Florida to meet with the ex-president on Tuesday, campaign adviser Jonathan Felts said." 

The most devastated collateral damage of the Trump-McDowell elopement ... young Bo Hines, who was counting on getting the Trump rose himself.

Battaglia reports that McDowell has hired the hard-driving veteran operative named above, Jonathan Felts. The Felts resume is impressive. He ran the Bush-Cheney campaign in North Carolina in 2004 and then worked for Bush in the White House. In 2023 after Budd won his Senate seat, he hired Felts as his transition manager. Felts has also been a policy whisperer for Superintendent of Public Instruction Catherine Truitt.

One naturally wonders if that was the conduit for getting McDowell under Trump's nose: McDowell to Felts to Budd to Trump.

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.

Bo Hines -- The Once (And Future?) Congressman

 

Bo Hines, who tried out the political "fit" for himself in several Congressional districts (including Virginia Foxx's 5th) before finally settling on the 13th in 2022, with Donald Trump's ineffable blessing, but ultimately lost that contest against Democrat Wiley Nickel by almost nine thousand votes. Berger-Moore will soon redesign the district to be more winnable for "the second-coming of Madison Cawthorn," if he decides to run again. Bo Hines's main claim to fame seems to be that he once threw a football several yards downfield.

That football -- or at least, a football -- figures prominently in a video that Hines posted on Twitter on March 2, announcing that his new role in public life will be CEO of something called awkwardly "Today Is America" (what?), which bills itself as a "Media and News Company." Today Is America first joined Twitter early in July 2020, posting boilerplate conservative memes and especially attacks on Roe v. Wade,  but so far its website is empty of content. It's so far very unclear what Today Is America is selling.

I mention the heavy attacks on Roe because Hines himself scrubbed his own campaign website free of all references to his previous anti-abortion stances even before the 2022 election. That scrubbing was well documented. And the speculation for it centered on the new high focus on abortion rights following the overturning of Roe by the Supreme Court before last fall's voting. It's as though Hines -- or someone close to him -- said "oops" and repainted his stripes. He can change his issues as easily as change the district he's planning to run in.

It's enough, apparently, that Bo Hines displays a football prominently in every appearance. It's his shibboleth, his touchstone, his substitute for a golden retriever.

Bo Hines Repents His Anti-Abortion Statements

 

Nothing says rising tide of blue like watching professional conservatives suddenly losing their shit over they past statements about abortion. I quote at length here about Bo Hines (he of checkered past) -- because it's so damn juicy -- from the newsletter "Indy Daily" by Jane Porter, editor of IndyWeek, delivered as an email last Thursday morning:

Good morning, readers.

Here’s a funny thing: Bo Hines, the 27-year-old second coming of Madison Cawthorn who doesn’t like to be compared to Madison Cawthorn, has scrubbed his entire campaign website of any mention of his "pro life" values—but they featured heavily in his primary campaign for the Republican nomination for the 13th Congressional district. 

So that’s weird, right?!

Scroll down to the first photo in this newsletter for receipts. There used to be a whole page linked to Bo Hines’s position on "Life and Family" on his website that has now mysteriously disappeared. Web archives indicate that when you clicked the vanished link, a page would have popped up with the following statement:

"I am pro-life. I believe that life begins at conception and that we must protect the rights of the unborn. I also believe in traditional marriage. We must fight to protect our core family values that are rooted in biblical principles."

But you can’t find any references to Bo Hines being pro-life on his website anymore. Could it be that since the U.S. Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision came down in June, North Carolinians, including those in Bo Hines’s tossup district, have vociferously and via survey indicated their support for abortion access and reproductive rights?

Some polling certainly indicates that that’s the case: here’s Blueprint from earlier this month. Here’s a joint survey from WRAL and SurveyUSA from June. 

Let’s not forget that before his primary—in which Bo Hines ran against and defeated DeVan Barbour IV, Kelly Daughtry, Renee Ellmers, Kent Keirsey, and three other candidates—he told the News & Observer that he would support legislation banning all abortions with no exceptions. Funnily enough, Bo Hines has been mum on the issue ever since. 

Here’s another funny thing: there’s a video on Bo Hines’s website touting his endorsement from the legally embattled former president, one Donald J. Trump. 

But a Public Policy Polling survey from last week indicates that, of 506 residents polled, 56 percent of people in North Carolina’s 13th Congressional district have an unfavorable opinion of the former president while only 35 percent of survey respondents have a favorable opinion of Trump. 

How long before that video disappears from the website as well? The PPP survey shows Bo Hines running neck and neck with Democratic state Senator Wiley Nickel, both with 40 percent support from respondents and 20 percent undecided. So, go ahead—do the math, and place your bets now. DJT and a hardline anti-abortion stance likely won't play well in the new 13th district. 

Have a great Thursday! Thanks for reading.

—Jane

For Trump-Boy Bo Hines, First, It Was Virginia Foxx

 

In 2020 Bo Hines, a once-upon-a-time NCSU football star (for one season) but in 2020 an aspiring student in the Wake Forest School of Law, must have watched the fulminating rise of Madison Cawthorn with some envy and said to himself, "I could do that too!" Because, actually he's several centiles smarter than Cawthorn, and knows it. Subsequently, because he's so smart, he hopscotched all over North Carolina looking for just the right congressional district where he could wow 'em with his hard-edged Trumpist ventriloquism and Cawthorn good looks, and he finally landed his candidacy in the new, newer, newest CD13, about 200 miles from his Winston-Salem residence. Make no mistake: He has not only the time-stamp of Trump but also the explicit and florid endorsement of Trump. Just look at the graphics on both his Facebook and his Twitter pages. We also note just in passing and by way of essential taxonomy, he's a hang-out-with-Matt-Gaetz type of guy.

That's the 13th CD in bright green, southern Wake, Johnston, and parts of Harnett and Wayne

But First, He Was Running Against Virginia Foxx

He launched what promised to be a delicious primary campaign against Foxx in January 2021 with a video posted to his Twitter and Facebook. His criticism of Foxx, more implied than explicitly stated, was 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 come about. Ouch. His condo in Winston-Salem was not in Foxx's 5th CD at the time (but Hines has never let actual residence stand in the way of his ambition).

Bo Hines made a publicized visit with Young Republicans at AppState in April 2021, campaigning against Foxx obviously, and almost immediately -- and to our amazement -- Foxx announced that Madison Cawthorn had endorsed her for reelection ... herself, Virginia Foxx, the 70-something battle-axe who can cry on cue and not the 20-something fellow aggressive male conservative that you might think Cawthorn would gravitate to. (Cawthorn did later develop a political crush on Hines, but in April of 2021, Foxx got to him first.)

By the first week of May 2021, Hines had reconsidered. Maybe it wasn't wise to challenge a fellow Republican incumbent. He had looked around. Ted Budd was stepping down from his 13th CD seat to run for the Senate, so that open district (which also didn't include Hines's condo) looked more ripe for the taking. On May 8th, 2021, Dallas Woodhouse reported that Hines was moving his candidacy to the old 13th, which still at that time looked like this (it's the one in gray, gerrymandered for Ted Budd):

Woodhouse was not critical of Hines in his reporting. He became very critical of Cawthorn.

Bo Hines, Opportunist

Between the congressional map of North Carolina's 13 Congressional districts we used in 2020 (the map immediately above) and the eventual court-ordered map we're now functioning under (seen at the top of this column), the Republican overlords in the NC General Assembly arrived at their own redraw-of-infamy early in December of 2021, which landed with a thud and looked like this below (infamous for the Foxx finger into Watauga) and would become Hines's new playground for district shopping:

Most of the 13th CD where Hines had newly announced had now become a new 7th CD (in bright yellow above), so Bo Hines was mulling what to do and so was Mark Walker, who was also considering changing his plans for the US Senate for a run in the 7th to get back into Congress. Meanwhile, the Club for Growth endorsed Hines for whatever district he chose to run in (not kidding), and Trump came calling, promising to endorse Hines if he'd pick the 4th CD instead and leave the 7th open for Walker (in order to get Walker out of the way for Ted Budd's race for the Senate). The 4th CD, where Trump and incidentally Cawthorn both wanted Hines to land, was farther east yet from Hines's residence.

Law suits and judgments ensued. The map at the top of this column became law, and Hines chose the new 13th, for rationales and consideration (and math?) we may never know. But Hines becomes a featured speaker (and Trump-blessed candidate) at Trump's rally tomorrow in Johnston County in the heart of the new 13th, an anointing that some think will propel Hines past Renee Ellmers (also trying to get back into Congress), his chief rival in an 8-candidate primary.

But the Trump blessing has not papered over Hines's carpetbag for all the Republicans in the new 13th. The Johnston County Republican Men's Club has come out against Hines, and perhaps other Republican  voters are noticing how far from home the boy has roamed.

Modeling Masculinity

 

“A great man is hard on himself; a small man is hard on others.”

Reading about what motivated state Senator Jeff Jackson to bow out of the US Senate race and endorse his rival Cheri Beasley sparks inevitable comparisons with other politicians, some of them right here in North Carolina seeking office right now. Jackson's exit was the honorable thing. He had been told by his consultants that he couldn't win the Democratic primary next year without going negative on Cheri Beasley. Recent polls showed Jackson behind Beasley in a two-person race. The only way to climb back up was to tear Beasley down. That's what the consultants were advising.

Jackson told Michael Graff, “We decided not to do that. Not because I have a particular problem being critical when I think it’s fair, but just in her case, it would not have been honest. She has over a decade of exemplary public service to her name. And the prospect of suggesting otherwise on television ads, was just a non-starter with me.” That is more than honorable. That models a masculinity free -- or damn near free -- of self-interest. Manly self-sacrifice for the good of the many (in this case, "the many" being the NCDP).

Comparisons are odorous (said Dogberry), but also however oh so delicious. Look now at the Ted Budd for Senate faction. You've been seeing how they're treating poor pathetic Pat McCrory, right? I know Ted Budd did not (supposedly) have anything to do with those attacks (which have included TV hit-pieces), but he is said to benefit from them, and he hasn't so far as I know ever distanced himself from them. Ted Budd ... hence and therefore (and this is how comparisons work, chums) not a good man.

Alex Jones wrote a great piece about toxic masculinity, how it blossomed under Trump and swept the old Republican party rudely aside, until what's happened -- see -- is that Mark Robinson is the most popular Republican elected official in the state of North Carolina. Mark Robinson is a giant dick. He plays a swaggering bully with a booming voice who can deliver a sermon tongue-lashing like a tent preacher.

Which brings us to the topic of toxic masculinity. (You know me: I've been reading.) A male gene, present in some and not in others, produces constant anxiety about "gender performance," and not just performance in the bedroom, so that making a show of manly dominance becomes the best medicine for doubts (with emphasis on show; an audience is required). Performative masculinity appears to be a symptom of a psychological bundle of neuroses now defined as "precarious manhood," wherein "men experience anxiety when it comes to their manhood and masculinity, or masculine gender identity." In extreme cases anxiety can lead to acting out, violence, or at least physical aggression. Or he might just refuse to protect even himself and his loved ones by masking up. He can't admit any fear. Trump made fun of people wearing plague-masks, and so did Fox News, and suddenly it was a matter of endangered manhood to comply with any "mandate."

Since we're all here in the theater with our popcorn, here are some other displays of what Alex Jones was writing about:

Congressman Madison Cawthorn once upon a time not so long ago had himself filmed punching out a punky tree, and posted this performance of heroic manhood to his social media:

I can't post here the new Bo Hines for Congress introductory video, but you can view it easily on his Twitter feed. He's proud of it. He spent a lot of money on it. It's a show of aggressive manhood. Alex Jones: "The piece shows him vigorously pumping iron and doing pullups in a gym bedecked with a prominently displayed Back the Blue flag. Over a background of rock music, a tough-guy’s voice says Hines will bring 'North Carolina gridiron values' to Congress. Message: This guy is a stud. Vote for him."

(You remember Bo Hines, right? He's almost as young as Cawthorn and has been a district-shopping itinerant who may have settled finally on running for Congress in the CD 4. Hines is a Madison Cawthorn acolyte. Cawthorn introduced him to Trump.)

Or Ted Budd, the Trumpist choice for US Senate, who's obviously six times the man that Pat McCrory could ever claim to be.

Cawthorn and Trump Settle North Carolina's Hash

 

A couple of days ago we speculated about what was going on at Mar-a-Lago between Mark Walker, Madison Cawthorn, and DJT. Turns out that political novice Bo Hines was there also, and between the four of them, they've divvied up Congressional seats to keep out of each other's way. (Thanks to Jeffrey Billman at The Primer.)

Bo Hines is migrating his political aspirations (yet again!) from the 7th CD to the 4th, where there's already a bunch of announced Republican candidates, including NC House member John Szoka. (Congrats, John! The Trumpists now consider you toast.)

With Bo Hines gone, Mark Walker has a clearer field for the 7th CD. He, with Trump's blessing, intends to elbow aside another clutch of lesser-known Republicans.

Michelle Woodhouse gets the Cawthorn/Trump nod to take the 14th CD away from both Chuck Edwards and Bruce O'Connell. (Memo to Edwards and O'Connell: toast and toast.)

Young Madison is taking the credit for this master plan, seconded by the ineffable endorsements of Trump.

 

The Trump Endorsement Two-Step

 

See the new 7th Congressional District, the yellow blotch smack in the center of North Carolina? Former Congressman Mark Walker, who's been running for the US Senate for two years (Burr seat), is thinking of jumping (migrating) into the 7th CD race ... IF he can get the blessing of Donald J. Trump. Walker is reportedly at Mar-a-Lago right now, groveling.

It's complicated. Madison Cawthorn is also at Mar-a-Lago this weekend.

1. The 7th District includes Alamance, Randolph, Chatham, Lee and portions of Wake, Guilford, and Davidson counties (very different from the old 7th, which used to stretch south of Wake to Wilmington). DavesRedistricting.org rates the "Republican lean" in the new 7th at 56.5%.

1.b. Mark Walker doesn't actually live in the new 7th though he wants Trump's blessing to run there. Walker lives in the new 11th. He used to live in and represent the old 6th CD (keep up!), which Democrat Kathy Manning won in 2020 after Walker stepped down to run for Senate. Manning, incidentally, is now double-bunked with Virginia Foxx in the new 11th (which literally gives the finger to Watauga County and stretches east to Greensboro). Foxx has announced that she's running again in CD11. No word yet from Kathy Manning.

2. The new 7th contains much of what used to be the old 13th CD, Ted Budd's perch before he decided to run for Senate as a gun-toting good ole boy and subsequently received the Trump endorsement (staged, incidentally, by Trump with Mark Walker and Pat McCrory at the rally, so very much present for their official snubbing). 

2.b. The new 13th CD -- Madison Cawthorn 's new main squeeze.

3. Cawthorn's a Trump altarboy. Trump invited Cawthorn to participant in the January 6th sedition rally, and he formally endorsed him for reelection to Congress soon after in March.

4. Turn-abouts (the Trumpist "ripple effect"): Cawthorn took it on himself to endorse Mark Walker for Senate before Trump picked Ted Budd. Oops. Cawthorn has actually endorsed a long list of his own worthies, including Virginia Foxx (and see below # 6).

5. It would ease a Madison burden if Walker dropped out of the Senate race. Cawthorn could then endorse Ted Budd and be in synch with DJT.

6. But Walker's jumping over to run in the 7th CD puts him upstream of yet another Madison Cawthorn endorsement (how prideful is this guy?). Bo Hines (of district-shopping fame) had already settled on using the 7th for his novice political tryout, and Cawthorn promptly endorsed him. (Cawthorn seems to believe he's got the royal touch, like the blessing of a saint or for curing scrofula). 

7. Over 10 other Republicans have already announced campaigns in the Republican primary upcoming in March: Bo Hines, Kent Keirsey, Jennyfer Bucardo, Lee Haywood, Christian Castelli, Peter Boykin, Marvin Boguslawski and Chad Slotta. Walker will make a lot of activists mad coming in suddenly to this fold, especially if he has Trump's blessing 

8. What does Cawthorn say to Trump about Walker? About Bo Hines? And did Cawthorn and Walker bump into each other at the palace of the caesar? And what did they talk about?

9. No Democrat so far has announced a challenge in the new 7th. According to Dave, the "minority" population in the new 7th is over 30%. I bet a lot of those citizens are not even registered to vote.

The Human Cost of a New Map

 

You should already know that Democratic Congressman G.K. Butterfield, who's served in the US House representing the (old) CD1 since the election of 2004, saw his residence moved into the new 2nd, which he recognized would be next to impossible for a Democrat to win. So he's retiring. “North Carolina is the battleground,” Butterfield told The N&O Friday. “I’ve looked at all of this and weighed all of the circumstances and I’ve just decided that I don’t want to run on that map that is gerrymandered. That is unfair ... This map is the most partisan and racially gerrymandered I have ever seen. It is extreme. Every political party pushes the envelope a little with redistricting but this is extreme to have 11 Republican seats out of 14. On a good day 10 out of 14 seats is unlawful, unconstitutional and undemocratic,” Butterfield said.

Meanwhile, former state Sen. Erica Smith, who lost the US Senate primary to Cal Cunningham in 2020 and was an announced candidate again for the Richard Burr Senate seat in 2022, has left the Senate race to run in the new 2nd CD. She wasn't getting any traction in the Senate race. Maybe she can flip what has become a much more Republican district. DavesRedistricting.org scores it 65% Republican, 33% Democratic, and 68.8% white.

Democratic candidate Richard Watkins, a political novice but an accomplished scientist, has also left the US Senate race, where he was completely overshadowed by Cheri Beasley and Jeff Jackson, and says he will now run for Congress in the new 6th CD, where the dean of liberal Democrats David Price has announced his retirement. The new 6th is one of the "safe" Democratic districts, where there's already a pile-on of new candidates. State Sen. Wiley Nickel announced first, followed by Durham County Commissioner Nida Allam, a Muslim woman who made a big splash, followed by state Sen. Valerie Foushee, who instantly became a front-runner.

Former U.S. Rep. Mark Walker, a Republican who has been getting nowhere in the Republican primary for Richard Burr's Senate seat (despite or because of the endorsement by Madison Cawthorn), is rumored to be launching a 7th District race, where state Rep. Jon Hardister, also a Republican, is also considering a run. That's the district where football star and Yale graduate Bo Hines ("the educated Madison Cawthorn"), who once upon a time in the recent past said he was going to challenge Virginia Foxx, has finally landed his nascent congressional campaign. He's a Trumper. The new 7th CD is 78% Republican.

Republicans in the Primary With Madison Cawthorn

 

My curiosity remains boundless, so how could I resist taking a look at the Republicans -- Republicans -- who have announced they'll be running in the new NC Congressional District 13, where Madison Cawthorn has also pitched his tent carpetbag. Would any of these have a chance of beating Cawthorn in the primary?

Karen Bentley, Huntersville

A former Mecklenburg County commissioner for four terms, who after a career as a health-care executive started her own consulting firm, the Bentley Consulting Group. "My career background is in healthcare sales and operations," she writes on Linked In. Her profile on Executive Women of Lake Norman lists an "impressive track record of sales success with a Fortune 100 [sic] pharmaceutical company, building and leading teams in the complex direct patient care healthcare space, and her exemplary record of serving her community through elected office." 

She has no website (yet). But her Twitter feed fascinates me. Though she gives off a queen bee, country club Republican vibe, she shouts "FREEDOM" and "LIBERTY" like another Majorie Taylor Greene. (I now completely understand those words to mean "no masks, no vaccines" to any Republican candidate.) Without naming him, Bentley applied the term "political opportunist" to Cawthorn. She's apparently polling in the district to test her name recognition with the voters.

Here's a thing: She announced on Twitter on November 11th, just hours before Cawthorn surprised everyone with his jump to the 13th and while Tim Moore was still presumably the heir designate for the seat. So it says something about her willingness to take on power that she was actually in effect challenging the most powerful Republican in the NC House to a duel. But was it because she thinks he's too moderate?

I'm a little puzzled about this candidate's core political identity. There's no mention of Trump or stolen elections but there's also no human warmth anywhere in evidence. She filed her statement of candidacy with the FEC on Nov. 5th.

Tyler Lee, Charlotte

He's a very successful house-flipper "Charlotte real estate investor" and a graduate of Liberty University (degree in business marketing). He's on the far Christian right ("FAITH" and "FREEDOM"), and though he looks almost as young as Cawthorn, he's a bit older, with more real-world experience. Plus he's at least educated, as far as it went. His issues are an Easter basket full of the standard right wing zygotes: It's all "good versus evil" with one big new evil stalking our fragile white children -- Critical Race Theory. "Big Tech" is censoring us. "I'm gwine to Back the Blue!" Mask mandates bad, vaccine mandates bad, and I'll never again allow government to shut down our churches for a plague. Et cetera.

At his well-staged announcement rally, and without ever mentioning DJT by name, Lee deliberately invoked the presence of his other god Trump by declaring "the carnage stops here" (echoing the famous line from Trump's Inaugural) and proclaiming himself a soldier of "stop the steal." In the future we must enforce election integrity with a mandatory voter photo ID (because so many thousands impersonate other people at the polls every year? Is that what you're alleging?). In that same announcement video, he's downright creepy about women's bodies and how he's personally going to put a stop to abortions. "God has been preparing me!" Not only that, but God is according to him a full-on political partisan: We have a secret weapon the other side doesn't have, he declares: God's on our side!

More on the candidate at votetylerlee.com.

That "announcement rally" actually occurred last May, when so much subsequent drama had not yet happened. The 13th CD was at that time occupied by Ted Budd, who had announced that he'd be giving up the seat to run for the US Senate. The location of the new 13th wasn't known then, along with so much else. So Tyler Lee was planning to make a splash as "the future of the Republican Party" -- same label they pinned on Cawthorn -- but maybe have an open field to run in. Now Tyler Lee is going to look like a kind of copy-cat Madison Cawthorn -- same age, same political philosophy, same instinct to bully and take no prisoners. Good luck with that!

Richard Speer, Charlotte

A security specialist who's worked evaluating physical site security in the nuclear industry and for Duke Energy for six years and currently has his own consulting business, Shield Group Initiatives. In 2012, Speer challenged unsuccessfully fellow Republican Renee Ellmers in the 2nd CD Republican primary. He got 29% of the vote to her 55%.

I can't find a website nor a Twitter account. He hasn't filed an intent to run yet with the FEC but the NewsAndObserver listed him as a candidate.

Several more Republicans have expressed an interest in running -- including another Cawthorn-lite, Bo Hines, who's been district-shopping for months. He 1st announced his intention of challenging Virginia Foxx in the 5th way back last January, then decided by May that with Ted Budd stepping down in the 13th to run for the Senate, maybe it would be a better Republican move to run for an open seat. Now his website says he's running in the 7th. Ballotpedia still lists him as once or future candidate in the 13th, along with a bunch of other Republican names. We'll see presently what shakes out.

Bo Hines and the Wheel of Fortune

 

Bo Hines, the Madison Cawthorn wannabe who had announced a Republican primary campaign in 2022 to take out Virginia Foxx, has reassessed his chances of taking out Virginia Foxx and his options for a different district to run in, perhaps one without a fellow Republican as incumbent, and he's decided that the 13th CD, where Ted Budd is stepping down to run for US Senate, looks mighty promising.

The map below was in effect last fall. It won't be in effect in 2022, as the Republican majority in the NC General Assembly will be redistricting to squeeze in a 14th CD, the result of population growth. Bo Hines currently doesn't live in the 13th; he doesn't currently live in the 5th either, as he's a student at Wake Forest in Forsyth. It's not illegal to run to represent a US House district where you don't live, but it's rarely a successful stretch.

We regret that Virginia Foxx won't have the most interesting primary of her nine terms in the US House. Bo Hines might have been stronger than most of the leftovers that Foxx faced in her past primaries.

Virginia Foxx Grabs #MadCaw Endorsement

 

Bo Hines (2nd from left), chatting
up the boys in the AppState
Young Republicans club

Virginia Foxx is bragging that immature adult human Madison Cawthorn has endorsed her for reelection to Congress.

Hardly seems like a natural fit, but it's interesting that Foxx bagged herself #MadCaw before her #MadCaw wannabe primary challenger Bo Hines could do so.

Bo Hines would seem much more the likely candidate for Cawthorn's endorsement. Hines is about the same age and casts approximately the same hard-right profile. He's all America First Trumpist and thinks Virginia Foxx has been in Congress past her shelf-life. You might suppose that an unlikely insurgent like Madison Cawthorn would be drawn to unlikely insurgent Bo Hines.

And why the massively studious Virginia Foxx would relish the endorsement of that ignorant man-child is passing strange. Except that Hines is working hard to undercut her with college-age voters.

Virginia Foxx, Too 'Establishment'?

Michael Ackerman of Boone is the newest Republican to announce that he'll challenge Congresswoman Virginia Foxx in the 2022 Republican primary. There's already a 25-year-old, Bo Hines of Winston-Salem, in the race. Both challengers are central casting conservative. There's not a dime's worth of difference between their philosophical positions and Foxx's. Their main beef with Foxx is that she's been in Washington too long.

Moss Brennan reports that "when ... Donald Trump ran for office, Ackerman said he saw the 'curtain' being pulled back on the 'political machine' in Washington, D.C. He said he saw how both Democrats and Republicans were fighting to keep the establishment ways as they care more about 'the power' and 'the money that they’re getting' by being in office."

True dat! About getting rich in public office.

“We didn’t elect them to represent their self interests,” Ackerman said. “They’re there to represent us. Whether they’re Democrat or whether they’re Republican, they should be representing their constituency. I started to see what was really going on up there was that there were too many people who’ve been up there way too long. [They] have really forgotten why they’re there and, they’ve gotten too comfortable.”

Congresswoman has pretty regularly attracted primary challengers, none of whom get very far.

Is the 5th District of NC Getting Its Own Madison Cawthorn?

 

Young Republican Bo Hines has launched a campaign to unseat Virginia Foxx in the NC-5. His video message offers several triggers open to interpretation. He says he wants to fight "against tyranny of mobs and big tech giants looking to take away our God given rights." That word "mobs" might make you think he's aligning against insurrectionists, but we suspect the "mobs" he's talking about are Antifa and BLM. The reference to "big tech giants looking to take away our God given rights" is a trigger for coming to Twitterman's defense against social media platforms who've kicked him off. (Did you know you had a God given right to be on Twitter? Neither did I.) Here's Bo Hines's Twitter account. He's Trumpist, all right.

He incidentally seems most offended by Foxx's turning her incumbency into great wealth. Yeah, we're offended by that too.

The Gaston Gazette says he lives currently in Forsyth County (presumably in order to attend Wake Forest School of Law), but I haven't found him in the NC voter file -- not under the name "Bo," which is no doubt a nickname. The northern part of Forsyth is still in the 5th District, though Wake Forest campus isn't.

The Gaston Gazette reports that Hines "was once a highly touted freshman wide receiver at North Carolina State University .... After a prep career at Charlotte Christian, Hines earned Freshman All-American honors as a wide receiver for the Wolkpack in 2014 before transferring to Yale University."

Madam Foxx has never had a Republican challenger like Hines, and she's always been ripe for the plucking if she got the right opponent. Hines's pointing out that she's mainly made herself rich while in Congress, while doing little for her constituents, could be a winning message.

Here's his Facebook page. His introductory video is posted on both Facebook and Twitter.

CORRECTION

None of Forsyth County is currently in the 5th District.