Wednesday Morning Quarterback
Well, it’s over. For all the talk about the Trump Revolution and a desire to send The Establishment a message — we got very little action to support ANY of that.
TURNOUT. A whopping 7.68 percent of registered North Carolina voters (505,687 out of 6,584,959)
bothered to take time to vote on their candidates for Congress or for a crucial North Carolina Supreme Court seat. People got the crap kicked out of themselves in the 60s fighting for a chance to vote. People are dying around the world for a chance to have a say in electing their leaders. And look at the level of interest we got.
Some could argue it’s an Atlas Shrugged-type reaction. Dropping out to let the corrupt system collapse. Others can argue its an end-result of the dumbing-down efforts of the driveby media and the public education system. Anyway, ,we were given a system by our Founding Fathers where the people make all the rules about how they are governed. We’ve hung our heads and surrendered it all to a powerful, but small, group of elitists who we entrust to get us our checks, keep us happy, and run our lives.
HOUSTON, THE SHREW HAS BEEN TAMED. Renee Ellmers was a bitch to the very end. On the day she lost her reelection, she got caught on camera calling a female poll worker FAT. It’s all par for the course for people who have been dealing with this woman. (I’ll always fondly remember her eye rolls, sneers, and sarcastic comments from our first public encounter in Southern Pines many moons ago.)
Lest we forget her tirade against a group of constituents concerned about amnesty for illegal aliens. She should have gotten the hint that she’s worn out her welcome when the legislators in Raleigh dumped her in a redrawn district mostly made up of George Holding constituents, family members, and friends. Not only did she get trounced 2-to-1 by Holding, but — if Greg Brannon had racked up just 208 more votes — she would have finished in THIRD PLACE.
Tuesday brought a lot of lessons for Nee-Nee. One wonders if her arrogance will allow her to learn from the experience. She should have kept “dancing with the one who brought her” to the big dance in DC. The Tea Party. Her district is conservative enough to where she would have been wholeheartedly backed up. There’s an old saying about being nice to the waiter or waitress before they bring you your food. If you’re not, there might be some rather unpleasant additives to the recipe. Many politicos will tell you that (1) being haughty and nasty at a meet-and-greet with new constituents, (2) screaming abuse at constituents who disagree with you on policy, and (3) getting caught on camera telling someone she’s FAT are not exactly part of the recipe for political success. 
REPORTS OF WALTER’S DEMISE GREATLY EXAGGERATED. The chattering classes were CONVINCED this was the year Taylor Griffin was going to finally get Walter Jones. Yet, Griffin finished a distant third behind Jones and rookie Phil Law ( who had neither the name ID nor resources Jones and Griffin had). I had some insight into this race early on. Folks in the know told me that Jones learned from 2014 and took steps to make sure he would not be caught off guard in 2016. Looks like his precautions paid off.
JESUS. HE’S VOTING FOR ME. In 1990, Genesis had a hit song called ‘Jesus, he knows me’ that took a swing at the televangelist scam artists that were all over the TV. That song could very well apply to campaign 2016 in North Carolina. It seemed EVERYBODY was talking about their FAITH and their babies and grandbabies.
Richard Hudson sent out mailers and ran TV ads featuring smiling images of him, his new bride, and new baby talking about the importance of family values and faith. Meanwhile, he continued to tout a business that was PROVEN in 2012 to be non-existent and fabricated. He also sent out a grossly-exaggerated mailer containing pieces of his opponent’s TWENTY-YEAR OLD divorce records and FORTY-YEAR OLD legal problems — neglecting, of course, to mention the age of the information.
Mark Walker is an actual preacher. Yet, he and his supporters made a point of disseminating dirt about his opponent’s decade-old divorce and questioning said opponent’s Christian faith.
And Mark Harris. During his 2014 Senate race, and his 2016 congressional run, he’s spent quite a bit of time speaking in church facilities and accepting “love offerings” from various congregations.
Harris’s opponent, Robert Pittenger, spent a lot of time telling us how much HE loves Jesus too. Yeah, with the FBI and the IRS all up in his business, I bet he and Jesus are having an awful lot of talks.
BIG WINNERS? CLUB FOR GROWTH & ROBIN HAYES. The Club targeted Renee Ellmers for defeat. That happened. They raised Ted Budd from obscurity in NC-13 and promoted the hell out of him. He won. So, it was a pretty good day in NC for this bunch from DC. Robin Hayes had a pretty good day too.. 
The new chairman of the NCGOP co-sponsored a fundraiser for Budd, a close family friend, and he ended up winning. His protégè, Richard Hudson, dissed the GOP presidential nominee and outright LIED to his constituents — and STILL won. Mark Harris, another Hayes advisee, came close to knocking off Robert Pittenger — and may end up doing so after a recount.
I’m very satisfied with central and eastern NC’s choices yesterday.
Thank you to all those who helped put an end to the contemptuous Wicked Witch of Dunn. Goodbye nee-nee! She is the poster child for everything that is wrong with Washington. A special shout out to Jim Duncan and all those who helped make that possible (and the Haymaker, of course).
We must continue to hold them accountable for their actions. This is the beginning of our work, not the end. Keep it up NC!
So Ne-ne is one to talk about the barbeque. Looking at the video she is none too svelte herself. Guess she has litterally gotten fat on the pork barrel
The 3rd district solidly stood by our state’s most conservative Congressman, Walter Jones and relegated the special interest carpetbagger of the establishment to a humiliating third place out of three candidates. I call that a resounding success for conservatives.
The 13th is also a conservative success. I thought, everything considered, that the second place finisher, Rep. John Blust, was the best bet, but the winner is endorsed by the Reaganites of the Club for Growth and by the solid second amendment crowd at National Association for Gun Rights. Both of them bested the establishment candidates who were running.
The 2nd was clearly a victory in sending Renee Ellmers packing, although we would certainly get a better voting record out of Brannon than out of Holding.
Yes, it was a mixed bag, but we could not realistically expect to take every primary race for conservatives.
I hope the recount does not put Mark Harris in play as he is the jerk that helped give us Tillis.
While I agree totally with you on Harris’ role in the 2014 Senate race and sticking us with Toll Road Thom, which he deserves distain for, the biggest issue here is getting rid of Pittenger who is worse. Pittenger is openly pro amnesty, while Harris has been anti-amnesty as a politician. I am aware that in Harris’ past, he has not always been as solid on this issue as I would like, but he is much preferable to Pittenger on that critical issue.
It was shocking how many pro-amnesty establishment candidates that NC Team Trump came out for. That does not send the message we want to hear from the Trump campaign.
The NC team Trump Twitter account is just a random guy on Twitter who has nothing to do with the Trump campaign. In an interview yesterday Pittenger still seemed to be claiming the Trump endorsement. I’ve never seen anybody more delusional than Pittenger.
Then why did the national Trump campaign not disown it when they were asked?
Holding is a Rino. And just a little better than Nee Nee. Conservatives don’t matter in N.C. until they elect democrats in order to throw them out at the next election, voting for Dick Burr just ensures a 6 year term of liberalism then it’s up to dick on his next term. These rinos once in office can not be removed. Just look at the scorecard.
I don’t even know who is running against Burr, but he or she has my vote sight unseen.
There is nobody running for the Senate in North Carolina that any conservative would want as a Senator. Too bad that there is not a line for ”none of the above”.
Foxx will screw us again, along with DH Burr & Thom Thom. WoW, can’t wait for the next sheeeiiit storm.
Looking at the turn out, it seems the good citizens of North Carolina would be satisfied with a benevolent dictator.
I think that has a lot to do with the timing of this primary, sepertaed from all the other primaries.
I would rather have a primary with a smaller number of serious voters than a larger one with a lot of low information voters.
I can tell you that Randolph County did a miserable job getting out Early Voter information which I have been taking advantage of.
Sounds good, but had serious voters turned out, Pittenger would have finished third, Virginia would’ve finished her long stay in DC, and Hudson would be trying to figure out what his “small business ” actually did so he could pay the light bill.
Another reason for low turnout was the GOP-rigged “no runoff provision” which turned too many races into an incumbent freebie. Pittenger could not have survived with only one opponent, or a run-off. The 13th was a bad joke from the beginning. (Keep an eye on those registration numbers, the unaffiliated army is outpacing both the RINOs and the Dems)
These RINOs are protected by a Party that won’t hold them responsible for failure to advance a conservative agenda. That won’t change until a lot of District Chairs are thrown out next year and replaced with dedicated conservatives.
Impressive results from Matthew McCall. Never would have thought he would ran that well with George Rouco also in Iredell.
I expected Rouco to run much better.
Man, district six got what they deserved with Walker. Now he can put his Bible away for 2 years until he needs to campaign again. Maybe by then he will have bought a house in the district and stop bouncing around rentals. Now that he begs his living from special interests instead of poor widows he should put down some roots.