Two North Carolina Republicans stood up for the election. Thank you

They probably don’t want to be singled out for standing up to Donald Trump, but we have a message today for Patrick McHenry and George Holding, two Republican members of Congress from North Carolina:

Thank you.

This week, seven U.S. House Republicans representing our state — Reps. Dan Bishop, Ted Budd, Virginia Foxx, Richard Hudson, Greg Murphy, David Rouzer and Mark Walker — added their names to an amicus brief supporting a Texas lawsuit that falsely claims the 2020 presidential election was tainted with fraud and should be overturned. (Walker’s name was initially excluded but was added to the list Friday.)

“Our constitutional republic has endured for nearly two-and-a-half centuries based on the consent of the governed,” the amicus brief says without irony. “That consent is grounded in the confidence of our people in the legitimacy of our institutions of government.”

McHenry and Holding declined to join their North Carolina colleagues or the 120 other Republicans members of Congress who support the incredible and unconstitutional notion that one state can tell others how to conduct their elections. The U.S. Supreme Court rejected the Texas lawsuit, as expected, but that doesn’t mean McHenry’s and Holding’s choice won’t be costly. The president, whose legal team filed to intervene in the Texas lawsuit, has made clear he’s monitoring who supports his effort to overturn the election. Those who defy him might face his social media wrath, the ire of his supporters and, quite possibly, a primary opponent next election.

McHenry won election to a ninth term in November. Holding chose not to run, but any future political aspirations he might have are threatened, as Republicans in Georgia and Arizona know well this month after standing up to the president. Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, who refused to play along with Trump’s election fraud fantasy, has been a frequent Trump target, including a tweet Thursday that declared “He is finished as governor!” When Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey signed off on his state’s election victory for Joe Biden, Trump tweeted: “Republicans will long remember!”

We’ve written frequently these past four years about party versus country, about choosing principles over political future. That choice has never been as stark as in recent weeks, and too often, Republicans have failed. Some have done so loudly, openly cheering the president’s evidence-free attacks on the election. Some have done so with a cowed silence as the president desecrated his office with wild, unfounded accusations about rigged voting machines and “massive dumps of votes.”

Some Republicans, however, have had enough. In Texas, Republican U.S. Sen. John Cornyn, a longtime Trump ally, said of the Texas lawsuit: “I frankly struggle to understand the legal theory of it.” Idaho Republican Attorney General Lawrence Wasden, who declined to join 17 other GOP attorneys general supporting the lawsuit, said pointedly: “As is sometimes the case, the legally correct decision may not be the politically convenient decision.”

We could say something similar about North Carolina’s two U.S. senators, Richard Burr and Thom Tillis, who have spoken so often about duty and service but failed our country in this moment when principle was needed most. North Carolinians should forever remember their cowardice.

But our state also should acknowledge Republicans who made a different calculation this week — even if such a choice should be expected. We should applaud those who didn’t bow to pressure and lend their name to lies. We should recognize those who’ve recognized that supporting the Texas lawsuit is about more than this president. It’s about encouraging the millions who wrongly believe the election was stolen. It’s about the dangerously deteriorating trust in our fair elections.

It’s about country. Thank you to the Republicans who chose it.

This story was originally published December 11, 2020 at 1:14 PM.