North Carolina Democratic Party Chair Bobbie Richardson released the following statement on the results of the North Carolina Republican U.S. Senate primary: 

“Ted Budd is a Washington insider who is wrong for North Carolina. He’s supported tax breaks for big corporations and oil companies that are making record profits, while backing plans that would make middle class families pay higher taxes and higher health care costs. Throughout his time in Congress, Budd has consistently put his own interests ahead of North Carolina’s working families, and that’s exactly why voters will send a battle-tested and independent leader like Cheri Beasley to the U.S. Senate this November.” 

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT TED BUDD

Club for Growth dragged Budd over the finish line, spending more than $15 million to boost his campaign.

• WRAL: Editorial: Have outside forces taken over North Carolina’s GOP? — “What have these groups been able to buy – in return for the more than $10 million that’s already been pumped into the state to promote their hand-picked candidates — from the North Carolina GOP establishment? Pretty much anything and everything.”

• WRAL: Why a group from outside NC is spending millions to influence the state’s US Senate race — “The PAC is making the largest investment of any outside group in the North Carolina primary—a bet that could determine the ideological direction of the Republican Party.”

Even members of Budd’s own party have said that Budd is a “weak general election candidate” and “a bad choice” who is “wholly owned and operated” by dark money groups like Club for Growth.

• Politico: Nasty N.C. Senate primary tests Trump’s sway over the GOP — “If Republicans nominate a weaker general election candidate in a single state like North Carolina, they could end up blowing their shot at taking back the Senate. Walker compared the situation to Republicans’ debacle in the 2017 Alabama Senate race, where Democrat Doug Jones prevailed over the beleaguered and Trump-backed Republican nominee: ‘This, to me, is kind of a Roy Moore situation if you’re not careful.’…The former GOP lawmaker also accused Meadows of pushing Trump to make a bad choice in another North Carolina primary.”

• Charlotte Observer: ‘Election being bought’: Budd’s outside support consolidates GOP Senate candidate criticism — “‘And there is no other candidate in this race that is wholly owned and operated by and dependent on a group like Ted Budd is on the Club,’ Shaw said. ‘They bought him his first race and they’re trying to do it again because he does whatever they tell him to do.’”

• Mark Walker: “But (his choosing Budd) was an example of endorsements and backroom deals in Washington. North Carolina doesn’t want to be told what to do.”

• Mark Walker: “Budd is banking on record DC dark money. If he’s afraid to face Republicans, how do you think he’ll do with the Democrats?”

• North Carolina Republican strategist: “He picked a losing horse…he’s going to have a problem in the general.”

• Pat McCrory: “Ted Budd has done nothing during his six years in the U.S. Congress. No one knew him. He had no record of accomplishment.” 

Budd’s record is wrong for North Carolina and out of step with general election voters in North Carolina. 

• Budd would support raising taxes on the middle class. He recently revealed that he “agreed with the major points” of Senate Republicans’ plan that would raise taxes on 40 percent of North Carolinians. That would mean an average of almost $1,500 less in families’ pockets each year. 

• When asked his stance on reproductive rights, Ted Budd admitted to fully ban abortion, without any exceptions – not even for rape, incest, or to save the life of the mother. Previously, he praised the “legal creativity” of the Alabama and Texas abortion bans court cases and reaffirming his commitment to rolling back North Carolinians’ reproductive rights, stating he would “push it all the way back to the point of conception.” 

• Budd opposed efforts to lower costs, tackle inflation, and get the pandemic under control, opposing the American Rescue Plan and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law that provided critical relief for North Carolina small businesses and families, will expand access to high-speed internet, repair and rebuild roads and bridges, create jobs, and more.

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