A STRAW POLL ???
The big news coming out of this weekend’s NCGOP state convention was President Trump’s endorsement of congressman Ted Budd’s 2022 US Senate campaign. A lot of establishment types were shocked at the announcement — moreso its timing.
In his endorsement remarks, Trump took a shot at former Gov. Pat McCrory — saying “we don’t need to vote for a two-time loser.”
As the applause over the Budd endorsement began to die down, someone sitting rather close to the stage proclaimed,”But I won the straw poll.”
Observers identify that speaker as none other than ‘Public Official A’, aka “former congressman Mark Walker.”
The results of the straw poll — open to all delegates — were Walker in 1st, Budd in 2nd, and McCrory in 3rd.
Any political veteran can tell you straw polls don’t have much credibility. Candidates usually get their supporters in the room to pony up cash to vote multiple times.
Still — the only candidate in the race who has won statewide couldn’t motivate enough of his supporters to get him above THIRD PLACE?
(For what it’s worth, most of the voting occurred BEFORE the surprise Trump endorsement of Budd.)
For what it’s worth, I believe the announcement was done to clear the field for Ted Budd, who has proven to be the most conservative and in-line with President Trump’s values. It was done to prevent McCrory from benefitting from a Conservative split and probably to also deter too many others from throwing their hat into the race.
If you’ll recall in 2014, there were nine Republicans in the Primary, most of whom were some version of Conservative and Thom Tillis. What is now widely recognized as the Establishment Republican Splitter Strategy, their preferred candidate (in 2014 it was Tillis and now in this case McCrory) is distinctly different than the other candidates – most of whom are far more conservative.
As happened in 2014, you get Conservatives fighting with each other over a large group of candidates diminishing their chances. That leaves the more Establishment candidate who has statewide name recognition and they usually end up with the nomination leaving conservatives in the dust again. We all knew that Mark Harris was asked to run for this reason. I recall it getting really nasty among conservative voters.
Although Budd and Walker declared their candidacy early, more were contemplating a run and we would likely end up with another large field of candidates. I was told by a long-time GOP person last week that whether we liked it or not, McCrory would be the Republican Nominee.
I’m not sure Lara Trump was truly ever considering a NC run. For all we know, it may have been a strategy to get candidates to declare early and they did. As a voter, it reminded many of us of Elizabeth Dole. While I loved her as a person, she was a lousy Senator. We have a right for our candidate to actually still live in North Carolina.
The NCGOP is now distancing themselves from the announcement (since they are supposed to remain neutral), the move by President Trump surely bolstered Ted Budd and pulled the rug out from under both Walker and McCrory. Walker having his own issues and being endorsed by the widely despised Paul Ryan, will probably fade pretty quickly.
President Trump is now the Kingmaker and I believe he consciously knew that we’d end up with McCrory if he hadn’t and I don’t know anyone who wants McCrory as our Nominee. We still might, but I believe Ted Budd’s chances just increased exponentially.
I had already chosen Ted Budd so I was thrilled.
The DemoncRATS would love for McCrory to be the nominee.
I didn’t vote in the Straw Poll.but like you, I am supporting Budd.
Considering the straw poll was only open to delegates who paid the ridiculous convention fees of $75, the conventional wisdom of “weighting the room” with supporting is a bit out of place in this instance. Walker had the most grassroots support of paid convention attendees.
“the ridiculous convention fees of $75”
The average NCGOP convention attendee who does anything more than go into the hall (where there were not enough seats for all of the attendees) will spend over $1000 for the weekend. The NCGOP has intentionally priced the little guy out of participating. It’s all for the VIPs and the Whatleyites.
You’re right. The little guy is being intentionally priced out. Also, the work last and everything else first trend is trending worse and worse. In Greenville the actual convention center was only used for the VIP like functions while the delegate ‘work sessions’ were crammed over to the hotel side for those simulated work sessions.
It appears the gulf between the NC GOPe and the grass root MAGA movement is growing larger and larger.
Jim: As someone who staged those conventions, I can promise you, the $75 is a break-even charge. The Convention is extremely expensive to put on. The only money raised is from the dinner events.
The NCGOP convention which avg 1000-1500 delegates, requires double the floor space of a normal convention with the same number of people. Add in printing, staff costs it is really expensive. Just FYI
it could be done cheaper it is ridiculous to make excuses that you cannot
$20 for SC Dallas you just lack talent but many people already know that https://www.eventbrite.com/e/2021-south-carolina-republican-party-state-convention-tickets-153347455367#
McCrory’s dismal third place finish showed that those who know him and his policies best have little use for him. Those who did cast straw poll votes for him were probably mostly newbies who were not politically active during the fiasco of his governorship and are voting on name recognition. Most attendees recognized the same thing President Trump pointed out. McCrory’s status as a two time loser, snatching defeat out of the jaws of victory in two of the three statewide races he has run. That is not what we need in a Senate nominee.
What I don’t get is some still trying to contend that Mark Walker is a conservative. A stake should have been driven through the heart of that piece of nonsense when Walker did a mass mailing touting the endorsement of the stridently anti-conservative and anti-Trump Paul Ryan. Paul Ryan endorses establishment swamp creatures (Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, for example), NOT conservatives. Walker was never invited to join the conservative grouping in the US House, the Freedom Caucus. Instead he took a leadership roll in the establishment’s playground, the Republican Study Committee (yes, the RSC was once upon a time a conservative body, but that was before John Boehner engineered an establishment takeover). A Paul Ryan Republican is NOT a conservative. Period.
There’s still some people out there who ought to know better but still think McCrory (and Tillis) walks on water. Looking at you, NCFRW leadership.
I absolutely agree with you. My antenna went up as soon as I received the notice of Paul Ryan’s endorsement of Walker. You need to consider the candidate AND the people he/she associates with.
Is there ONE Republican in NC that is NOT that way, Reaganite? HOW did we elect Truitt??? WHERE did she come from and HOW did she get missed? What were her credentials. 1st hire, major, lib/Dem from Bladen Co that was KNOWN to be a left-wing zealot. I swear, we elect so-called Republicans and so-called Conservatives and what do we get? FOOLED!
I believe we have the real deal in Ted Budd. As a member of the Freedom Caucus, he has stood strong against the swamp. We have had some great Senators from NC in the past like Jesse Helms, John East, and Lauch Faircloth, but lately they have been moderate-liberal weasels like Burr and Tillis. We have the opportunity to change that in 2022 and get at least one Senator with both principles and a backbone, Ted Budd. Walker reminds me so much of Richard Burr when he was first running for the Senate, talking a good game and with a record not as bad as it could be, but we saw how he rapidly drifted left. McCrory actually reminds me more of Terry Sanford running for the Senate. He is a RINO version of Terrible Terry.
Oh I like the way you just framed it. Walker is just another Richard Burr!
Walker will sink fast if that gets attached to him and sticks. Hmmmm.
The very fact that she came out of academia, should have been the red flag for everyone that it was for me. I voted for Craig Horn.
Maybe McCrory could find work with his good friend and cohort Barack Hussein Obama.
Truitt is a disaster, another RINO weasel. She is every bit as bad as the RINO weasels the GOP legislature appointed to the UNC trustee board. How much longer are the conservative grassroots faithful going to keep working the polls for these traitors?
Exactly how is she is “weasel”?
Truitt hired a far left Democrat activist as her chief deputy, which just stinks. Then she went along with the radicals on the state Board of Education and their salting the Social Studies curriculum with a heavy dose of 1619 project and critical race theory, although not calling the actual name of either in doing it.
Truitt has a lot to make up for or she is one and done.
Truitt is just like the stupid RINOs the Republican legislature appointed to the UNC trustee board. That says it all.