A report by Spectrum News exposes NC GOP leaders, including Lt. Governor Mark Robinson, House Speaker Tim Moore, and Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger, for receiving max contributions from the NRA, further cementing how beholden North Carolina Republicans are to the gun lobby.
Just days after a gunman murdered 21 people in Texas, including 19 children, Mark Robinson spoke at the NRA convention in Texas. 760 parents across North Carolina released a letter addressed to North Carolina’s highest ranking Republican, Mark Robinson, to demand answers on why he and the North Carolina Republican Party are beholden to the NRA instead of protecting our children and called on him to withdraw from the event.
Spectrum News: NRA gave max allowed to top N.C. Republican campaigns, records show
The power of the gun rights lobby and organizations like the National Rifle Association in Washington, D.C., is well-known, where groups opposed to tighter gun laws spend millions to support mostly Republican candidates.
The National Rifle Association’s NRA Political Victory Fund also donates to powerful Republicans in North Carolina.
During the 2020 elections, the NRA’s political action committee spent more than $25,000 in North Carolina, according to campaign finance records from the North Carolina Board of Elections.
The group donated the maximum allowed by state campaign finance law to the campaigns of Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, gubernatorial candidate Dan Forest, House Speaker Tim Moore and Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger, campaign finance records show.
During the 2020 elections, which included races for governor and every seat in the General Assembly, the maximum one person or group could donate was $5,400.
Robinson is on the NRA board and spoke at the group’s annual meeting in Texas days after the shooting in Uvalde.
During the first quarter of this year, the NRA donated $1,000 to both the North Carolina House Republican Caucus and the North Carolina Senate Republican Caucus to help support their candidates, records show.
A review of campaign contributions from 2016 through the first quarter of 2022 shows the NRA Political Victory Fund spent more than $51,000 on state-level races in North Carolina.
The NRA also spent tens of thousands supporting North Carolina’s Republicans in Congress. In the 2020 election cycle, North Carolina Rep. Richard Hudson received $9,900 from the group, according to Open Secrets, an organization that tracks campaign finance.
Rep. Dan Bishop received $6,950 from the NRA, and Sen. Thom Tillis $7,450, Open Secrets data shows. The three were in the top 20 recipients for all federal candidates in 2020. Every member of North Carolina’s Republican delegation to the House received contributions from the NRA that year, according to Open Secrets.
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