No Hope that NC Republicans Become Human Beings

The U.S. House just passed a bill, 267 to 157, that would formally repeal the Defense of Marriage Act, the 1996 law against same-sex marriage that was overturned in the Supreme Court landmark Obergefell decision. It would require states to reciprocally recognize marriages that are legal in other states as valid, and would prohibit discrimination under state law in public acts against married couples based on their race, sex, ethnicity, or national origin.

All of the Republicans representing North Carolina voted against it. Specifically...

Dan Bishop (N.C.)

Ted Budd (N.C.)

Madison Cawthorn (N.C.)

Virginia Foxx (N.C.)

Richard Hudson (N.C.)

Patrick McHenry (N.C.)

Greg Murphy (N.C.)

David Rouzer (N.C.)

Astounding, that these "freedom-lovers" and "-defenders" are willing to sacrifice the rights of fellow citizens to satisfy -- what? -- religious fundamentalism and the dictates of an ideology that intends to punish difference. I would say these guys are going to hell, except they're already there. 

Charles Graham Running in the 7th CD

NC House Rep. (Lumberton) Charles Graham announced a full year ago that he would be challenging U.S. Rep. Dan Bishop in what was then the 9th CD. That plan got scrambled by multiple map redrawings. Dan Bishop is now running in the 8th CD, and Graham's home county of Robeson is now in the 7th, where Republican David Rouzer is the incumbent.

When I checked yesterday morning, Graham still had not filed anywhere -- a let-down because he had made himself somewhat famous last October with a campaign launch (still in the 9th) that included a really smashing video biography titled "The Battle for Hayes Pond." That video got some viral play and led to a money-raising bonanza. Jeffrey Billman referred to Graham as "the new progressive darling."

Dan Bishop, dragging a personal steamer trunk of racist history, was going to make a worthwhile target for Graham. Will David Rouzer, a much more low-key if not outright anonymous conservative congressman, serve as well? Because late yesterday Graham filed to run against Rouzer in the 7th where there are already three other Democrats on the primary ballot.

Rouzer is low-profile when compared to other North Carolina conservatives. A few things stick out like a smashed thumb. While in the NC General Assembly, he was a proponent of outlawing scientific talk of sea-level rise. After he was elected to Congress, he wanted to repeal the Affordable Care Act. Early in 2021 he voted with other Trumpists to overturn the 2020 elections, and then he voted against the American Rescue Plan which brought $35 million in pandemic relief to his own district.

What gave Charles Graham great pause before filing was likely the partisan lean of the new 7th. It's now considered "safe Republican." But the new district does have a minority population of some 35%, a large proportion of which -- I'm willing to bet -- are unregistered and unengaged from politics, and Charles Graham might be the candidate to ignite them like no other.

Virginia Foxx Votes To End the Confederacy

 

We did a double-take when we discovered this morning that Congresswoman Virginia Foxx actually voted with the (vast) majority of House members to "remove all Confederate statues from public display in the U.S. Capitol, along with replacing the bust of former Chief Justice of the United States Roger Taney, author of the 1857 Dred Scott decision that declared that people of African descent were not U.S. citizens."

In taking that surprising vote, Foxx broke with most other Republicans in the North Carolina delegation. The following members voted to keep the memorials, along with their odor of white supremacy, while decrying "critical race theory" as a threat to their collective smugness:

Dan Bishop

Ted Budd

Madison Cawthorn

Patrick McHenry

David Rouzer

Belly Dancing for Donald Trump

I count 37 North Carolina Republicans who want to go to Washington, or who want to remain in Washington -- Republicans who have filed for either the US Senate seat currently held by Thom Tillis and Republicans who have filed in one of our 13 Congressional districts (including seven Republican incumbents). I went looking to see which ones wrap themselves most theatrically around Donald Trump, and which ones keep a more antiseptic distance. This is a survey based on cursory evidence -- a quick tour of candidate websites and/or social media feeds.

We know Senator Thom Tillis as a conspicuous Trump toady, a lickspittle who's been trying to take back that one moment of independent thought he had about Trump's state of emergency at the southern border, but the one person you don't see on Tillis's website is Trump. Nor hear his name. However, the Tillis Twitter feed is a different story -- littered with little coos of @RealDonaldTrump and pictures of Dear Leader and links to articles about how deaf, blind, and dumb the Democrats are for failing to recognize the greatness of Trump. His Twitter feed looks like a burlesque act for an audience of one. He puts tassels on his tits and twirls them for Trump.

In the Republican primary for Congressional District 1 -- and the privilege of getting to lose to Democratic incumbent G.K. Butterfield -- Republican candidate Sandy Smith, who likes to refer to herself as the "Little Red Firecracker," is in a pro-Trump class all to herself. She had intended to run against Thom Tillis in the senatorial primary, but -- well, I'll let her explain:

Why not continue to primary Thom Tillis? I originally ran against Thom Tillis for the US Senate in order to defeat him for his horrible anti-Trump rhetoric, opposing the border wall, supporting gun control, among other liberal positions.

It was not long after I filed for Senate that he began to change his tune and passionately support President Trump. He even changed his vote in support of the border wall, even though he publicly said he would not support it previously.

Then, President Trump endorsed Thom Tillis for reelection. Like many of you, I am skeptical of Tillis’ “newly found support” and my entire reason for running was to hold Thom Tillis accountable for being a roadblock to the America-first agenda. Then last week President Trump reaffirmed his endorsement of Tillis. President Trump very clearly wants Thom Tillis to be reelected.

Thom Tillis now owes President Trump for helping him clear the field, and honestly, Tillis can’t win reelection against the Democrats without President Trump’s help. So I have a feeling he will remain a supporter of the president, at least until November. By 2020, there should be more conservative senators in office to counter Thom Tillis if he decides to go back to his old ways.

The Little Red Firecracker has some competition in the CD-01 primary from Michelle Nix, who says she's running against Butterfield because he voted to impeach Trump and brags that she was a Trump delegate to the Republican National Convention in 2016 and says she traveled the state on Trump's behalf. "Trump" is all over her issues page, along with his photograph.

Greg Murphy was only just elected to Congress in CD-03 last year, so I was curious how he would play Trump. He's a medical doctor, and what I see on his website looks like a quarantine to lessen infection. Under the heading "Greg Murphy on the issues," he headlines this: "SUPPORT PRESIDENT TRUMP." The wording of what follows is equivocal while ostensibly kissing ass:

President Trump is one of the few Presidents in recent memory who is attempting to do exactly what he said he was going to do on the campaign trail. If Senate Republicans had supported him, Obamacare would have been repealed. I will support the Trump agenda because it is the people’s agenda, especially Eastern North Carolina that voted so overwhelming in his favor."

Short version: When the people cease to support Trump, so will I.

For a celebrity hound who is famous for photo-bombing President Trump, Congresswoman Virginia Foxx (CD-05) stays strictly separate from the Prez and never mentions his name on her website and social media accounts. Go figure. She's been photographed multiple times standing practically in his armpit.

David Rouzer in the CD-07 is adamant on his official website: "Rouzer Lays Out Case Against Impeachment Sham." On Facebook he has been a warrior against Democrats over impeachment, for which he sometimes suffers significant anti-Trump blow-back from his constituents. Rouzer is constantly defending Trump on his Twitter feed.

Big contrast on Trumpiness between Congressman Richard Hudson (CD-08) and newly installed Congressman Dan Bishop (NC-09). Bishop on his Twitter feed obviously feels his Trumpy oats, adding to the echo chamber that anyone who supports the impeachment is disloyal to America, while Hudson nowhere mentions Trump -- ever.

Congressman Patrick McHenry (CD-10) rivals Thom Tillis for coochee dancing for Trump's benefit on Twitter, though, like Foxx, he clearly doesn't have a use for Trump on his campaign website.

Here ends this survey, because there's only so much punishment a body can take in one morning, and I'm out of coffee.

Frustrated Trumpist Toadies Yesterday: "Please Arrest Us To Prove How Much We Love Twitterman!"

Yesterday's mob-stunt in the halls of Congress when 20-something Republican members of the Freedom Caucus (including at least four North Carolina congressmen) forced their way into the secure room where the impeachment depositions were being conducted, and then ordered pizza while they man-spread all over the hearing room and ran off the woman who was supposed to be testifying, was evidently a feint toward getting themselves arrested by Capitol police with the hoped-for viral pop on Instagram to be titled "Brave and Upstanding Ass-Kissers of Trump Being Turned Into Martyrs for the Cause."

The Democrats didn't take the bait, let the boys have their pizza and scratch their balls, and when they were finally down to only pizza bones, the boys all left, the woman witness came back, and the deposition continued.

It wasn't exactly the Boston Tea Party nor even the Defenestration of Prague (when furious Protestants threw three stubborn Catholics out of the 3rd floor window of the Prague town hall and thus started the 30 Years War).

Two NC congressmen were prominent in the mob -- Mark Walker and Mark Meadows -- but someone said Ted Budd and David Rouzer were also there. Where the hell was Virginia Foxx? Was the mob action too butch for her?

Red-To-Blue in the 7th Congressional District

The Cook Political Report rates the 7th Congressional District of North Carolina as solidly Republican, and maybe it was and maybe it still is, or maybe something's afoot down there in 2018 that might wring the smugness out of incumbent Republican Congressman David Rouzer.

Back in March Rouzer faced a gale of protest from hundreds attending a town hall event in the town of Bolivia. (We have to give Rouzer props for at least holding an open event, unlike most of the Republicans representing North Carolina in Congress like Virginia Foxx.) The natives were restless, and if anything is true for 2018 it's that the pressure is only growing against the Trump agenda, which Rouzer has slavishly supported.





The first Democrat who announced a challenge to Rouzer is medical doctor Kyle Horton, who got profiled yesterday by Elisabeth Almekinder on PoliticsNC.com. According to Almekinder, Dr. Horton is one of eight women physicians who are entering congressional races this year: "There has been only one female physician in Congress to date, and there are none presently serving."

Horton comes from a military family and has a particular passion for providing health care for veterans and their families. She worked for Veterans Affairs in Richmond, Va., as a doctor, "and it’s

Dr. Kyle Horton

really the delays I was having with my patients that first made me get engaged in politics.”

“After I moved back to North Carolina to take care of my mother’s health issues, I was no longer bound by the Hatch Act, and receiving a government paycheck from Veterans Affairs, so I could engage directly in legislative advocacy and campaigns unrestricted. I was going back and forth to the Hill over the last few years, working on provisions of bills, and even grassroots work for integrated veteran suicide prevention, homelessness and female veterans’ issues. I’ve also been working on raising awareness for veterans exposed to burn pits in Iraq and Afghanistan, so that we don’t repeat the mistakes of agent orange in Vietnam,” said Horton. “I have devoted all my time and energy to doing volunteer advocacy work, and now, running for Congress.”

Horton will likely face a May primary election with another young Democratic professional, a prospect that can make her a stronger contender in November if she's the top vote-getter. She's just one of a nationwide new wave of dedicated young women who intend to make a difference.

Kyle Horton's website (where you can make an on-line contribution): http://www.drkyleforcongress.com.

2018 North Carolina Congressional Races--Lay of the Land

Keep in mind that filing for office in 2018 doesn't end until the last day of February, so there will be flux to come in the races below, both primaries and -- hence -- general elections.


District 1
Incumbent Democrat G.K. Butterfield [safe]
Solid Democratic district.


District 2
Incumbent Republican George Holding [?]
Holding already has a primary opponent and a wave of Democrats who want to take him on. The Cook people put Holding in the "Competitive Races" category, but leaning Republican decidedly.

Allen Chesser, his Republican primary opponent, attacks Holding for not holding town halls (ping Virginia Foxx). He doesn't return phone calls. He ignores his constituents. He's never accessible. Chesser is a younger Iraq war veteran and a pretty standard foot-soldier for conservative talking points. He's a Steve Bannon wet dream, is what he is.

Sam Searcy

The Democratic primary could get even more interesting with the entry of Linda Coleman, a high-profile African American public servant and former candidate who ran twice statewide for lieutenant governor. She'll get big backing and can raise money. But the district is 74% white. Dunno if that means anything necessarily, not in a wave year.

The entry of Coleman may have persuaded ASU alum Sam Searcy, who had previously announced for the seat and was raising money, to drop out and run for an NC Senate seat instead. (Searcy has become an entrepreneur businessman and a manufacturer of a local brand of Vodka, and he might beat Tamara Barringer, the incumbent Republican state senator. He looks like a wave candidate to us.)

Other Democrats running in the 2018 primary: businessman Ken Romley and transgender veteran Wendy Ella May. (Scoff not. Remember what happened recently in Virginia?) "Romley, 52, was the CEO of Zift Solutions, a marketing software company based in Cary that employs about 200 people, until he stepped down last month to run for office."

District 3
Incumbent Republican Walter Jones [safe]
Solid Republican district. Jones, a total fuck-you maverick and hence admirable in doses, is safe unless he gets knocked off in a primary, of which there will certainly be one. Put your money on Jones.


District 4
Incumbent Democrat David Price [safe]

Richard Watkins

David Price will have a loser Republican opponent in November (whichever of at least two candidates wins the Republican primary), but he'll have his own primary too.

Richard Watkins, a young African American Ph.D. in microbiology and immunology, is challenging Price. Looks like a generational contest to me, and a potentially important one. Watkins probably can't beat David Price, but I'm glad he might be a once and future candidate. We need more young scientists on the ballot.

District 5
Incumbent Republican Virginia Foxx [safe]
Yuck. The consensus is always "she can't be beat." Anyone can be beat. Anything can happen in a wave.

Two Democrats, both impressive women, are vying in the primary to take Foxx on next November. We'll know come middle of May who the candidate will be.

District 6
Incumbent Republican Mark Walker [safe]
The district is solid Republican, but there's a small gaggle of Democrats massing to challenge Walker. Walker is a charismatic Baptist preacher and the slayer of Phil Berger Jr. in the Republican primary of  2014, for which he will always be memorialized.


District 7
Incumbent Republican David Rouzer [safe]
Rated solid Republican district.

Jonah Gardner

Two Democrats so far have gotten in the race. Dr. Kyle Horton, an internal medicine doctor and a woman, announced way back in May, followed in June by Jonah Gardner, a computer programmer and IT professional. This 2018 crop of young activists of both sexes (thank you, Donald J. Trump!) inspires new confidence and old hope.

District 8
Incumbent Republican Richard Hudson [safe]
Solid Republican district (but it's a lot of suburbs, bro, and the suburbs is where the turn will come). No considerable Democrat has stepped forward yet.


District 9
Incumbent Republican Robert Pittenger [?]
Cook calls this district competitive but "likely Republican" (a moment which may be slipping away).

Pittenger may not make it through his primary with Baptist firebrand Mark Harris (who knows a special place in hell for those who disagree with the Lord him and who almost beat Pittenger in the primary of 2016).

Dan McCready

On the Democratic side: Front-runner Dan McCready, along with Christian Cano, who ran for the seat in 2016,  and Maria Warren, an attorney, will face off in May. All the smart money's on McCready, who could beat Pittenger and will beat Rev. Harris, should he prevail in the primary.

District 10
Incumbent Republican Patrick McHenry [safe]
Despite being high up in leadership in Congress, McHenry usually draws a primary opponent, and 2018 will be no different. But he also hasn't drawn a stand-out Democrat yet.


District 11
Incumbent Republican Mark Meadows [safe]
Meadows has made a name for himself in Washington as The Man Who Shut Down Government in 2013, a badge he wears happily among the conservative voters of the 11th District and unhappily among the Republican leadership in Washington. He's a pain in the ass tool of ALEC.

Meadows has a dark horse Republican by the name of Christopher Money running against him in a primary.

For awhile two Democrats wanted to run against Meadows. Matt Coffay, a leader in the Asheville chapter of Our Revolution, got into the race with a splash back in April but pulled out in July. Scott Donaldson announced in September. He's a 53-year-old urologist from Hendersonville who has made "a name for himself in certain circles with a series of YouTube videos, radio show appearances and even a published book."

District 12
Incumbent Democrat Alma Adams [safe]
Safe Democratic seat. But Adams does have one Republican announced against her. Yawn.


District 13
Incumbent Republican Tedd Budd [?]
Cook rates this district "competitive" but "likely Republican." Democrats are massing to challenge

Adam Coker

the relatively indistinctive Budd.

Adam Coker also ran for this seat in 2016 in a crowded field but lost the primary. His big issue is health insurance and he wants to win by getting Republicans to vote for him (a fool's errand). His Democratic opponents include Kathy Manning, "a former immigration lawyer who is well known in her district for her philanthropy," and Beniah McMiller, a 36-year-old African American teacher at Mitchell Community College in Statesville.