Rep. Ted Budd, former Chief Justice Cheri Beasley win NC’s Senate primaries
An endorsement by former President Donald Trump and $11 million from a conservative political interest group proved just the ticket for Rep. Ted Budd to win the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate.
In unofficial results, Budd, 50, defeated former Gov. Pat McCrory, former Rep. Mark Walker and 11 other Republicans on Tuesday. Budd will face former N.C. Chief Justice Cheri Beasley in the general election Nov. 8.
Beasley, 55, dominated with more than 80% of the votes and won the Democratic nomination for Senate, becoming the first Black woman to do so in North Carolina.
The battle between Beasley and Budd, to represent North Carolina following the retirement of Sen. Richard Burr, is expected to be contentious and costly.
There’s a lot on the line.
Republicans hope to take back the majority in the Senate. North Carolina has not elected a Democrat to that chamber since 2008.
Trump’s endorsement
Budd gathered around 200 supporters Tuesday night close to his home in Davie County. They met at WinMock at Kinderton, the site of a former tobacco estate turned event venue, set between Winston-Salem and Mocksville in Bermuda Run.
Loud cheers went up from the crowd as Fox News flashed Budd’s victory across the screen.
Budd’s wife, Amy Kate, and the couple’s three children joined Budd during his victory speech.
“When President Trump endorsed me, he said, ‘Ted, I’m endorsing you because you never wavered on America First policies,” Budd said. “The party is united and it is poised to take back the Senate and save this country.”
Trump’s endorsement of Budd last June, followed by the Club for Growth’s spending supporting him and attacking McCrory, set him up for success.
“We’re confident going into the general election,” said Jonathan Felts, a campaign advisor for Budd. “In 2018, we couldn’t win with just the base turnout. It comes down to this: Trump’s message turned out the Republican base. And Trump’s policies — record-setting economic growth — that turned out the unaffiliated vote. It turned out mean tweets didn’t bother them. A working economy? They really liked that. So I think we’ll do fine across the state based on those same principles.”
Pat McCrory concedes
Two hours south of Budd’s victory party, McCrory held an event of his own at Selwyn Pub in Charlotte.
He described the vote as a watershed moment for the GOP, pinning his first inkling of a loss to the moment last year when Trump endorsed Budd.
“We’ve got to do an evaluation in this party,” McCrory told the audience, who cheered when he described them as “common sense Republicans.”
But whether it’s private sector work or a different political role, McCrory says he’ll keep working for North Carolinians.
”Life is a full circle,” he told supporters.
McCrory said he started his political career just a few blocks from the Selwyn Pub, and he’d close this chapter in the same spot: disappointed in the results, but never in his choice to run.
As for endorsing Budd in the general election, McCrory insists it’s not an issue of whether he wants to support a former competitor, but of whether the other campaign moves to repair ties.
”I’ll be asking them if they want me,” McCrory said.
He said he hopes that the GOP will reconsider the tone of its candidates, and that politicians will begin paying more attention to issues and less to endorsements. “I look forward to my supporters being reached out to,” he said.
McCrory’s sister, Linda Sebastian, said the large gap in early results came as a shock.
“I think the voters have made a clear mistake,” Sebastian said.
McCrory served 14 years as mayor of Charlotte before becoming a one-term governor of North Carolina in 2013. Despite being known for the controversial House Bill 2, which required transgender people in schools and other government buildings to use the bathroom of the gender on their birth certificate, he became known as the most moderate Republican in the race.
In his own speech, Budd thanked McCrory, saying he served North Carolina well. “This party is united and it is poised to take back the Senate and save this country,” he said.
Who is Ted Budd?
Budd is in his third term representing North Carolina’s 13th Congressional District, which includes Davie County, where he grew up on a 300-acre cattle and commercial chicken farm.
Budd’s father, Richard Budd, was one of the people celebrating with him at WinMock.
“I’m proud of him,” he said. “We live on a farm with three family homes: Ted’s, ours and his brother’s. People don’t realize how hard he works. But I get up early, 5:30 in the morning. And I see those headlights leaving at 6 o’clock in the morning. I see them coming home 9:30, 10 o’clock at night — six days a week.”
Budd first ran in 2016 as a businessman — he owns a gun store and range in Rural Hall — and a political outsider. He said he wanted to bring the knowledge from his business into the U.S. Capitol.
Budd currently serves on the House Financial Services Committee, two subcommittees and a task force.
The Club for Growth took an instant liking to Budd and helped fund his 2016 campaign — and then all of his following campaigns.
Budd has aligned himself closely with Trump, and voted against certifying the election of President Joe Biden following the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
He has appeared at Trump rallies and mimicked Trump’s flattery of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s intelligence as he raided Ukraine, though Budd also says that Putin is “evil.”
Bobbie Richardson, chairwoman of the N.C. Democratic Party, said Budd is a Washington insider and wrong for North Carolina.
“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,” Richardson said.
Democratic primary
Beasley’s nomination came much easier than Budd’s.
The former Supreme Court chief justice went from having two fierce competitors in state Sen. Jeff Jackson and former state Sen. Erica Smith to become the presumptive nominee for the Democratic Party almost overnight.
In mid-December 2021, Jackson announced he would bow out of the race, just weeks after Smith made a similar announcement.
Both candidates went on to focus instead on U.S. House campaigns, leaving Beasley able to campaign without vitriol from opponents in her own party.
That will change in the general election. In his victory speech, Budd called Beasley one of the most radical, liberal candidates to run for U.S. Senate in the state’s history.
Budd said he heard the same issues in every North Carolina county during his campaign. High grocery prices, “skyrocketing” gasoline costs, baby formula shortages and crime were constant complaints across the state, he said.
Budd cited Biden’s “woke and broke” policies for inflating prices and hurting Americans. In response, several in the crowd raised “Bidenflation” signs with a red slash through the word.
At the Democrats’ election night party in Raleigh Tuesday night, Beasley said Budd would continue to further his own ambitions and protect special interest groups instead of working for North Carolinians.
“We know my opponent and his allies will continue to distort and demean and pour millions of dollars into disgraceful attacks intended to trick voters rather than fighting for the people or working to make our lives better,” Beasley said.
Who is Cheri Beasley?
Beasley also focused on the things she wants to do, like lowering prescription drug costs, continuing the growth of renewable energy and supporting smaller businesses.
“If you don’t have affordable health care, it doesn’t matter whether you’re a Democrat or a Republican. If you don’t have schools that will educate your children, that have the resources they need to do so or have access to the ballot box, it doesn’t matter whether you’re a Democrat or a Republican,” Beasley said.
Beasley is a trailblazer for Black women in North Carolina.
She’s the first Black woman to serve as N.C. Supreme Court chief justice and the first Black woman to be elected to a statewide office in North Carolina without first being appointed to the position by a governor. She’s been a public defender, a District Court judge, a Superior Court judge and served on the N.C. Court of Appeals.
In 2020, Beasley lost her reelection bid to N.C. Supreme Court Chief Justice Paul Newby by just 401 votes.
This story was originally published May 17, 2022 at 7:52 PM with the headline "Rep. Ted Budd, former Chief Justice Cheri Beasley win NC’s Senate primaries."
