By jove, I think Ted’s got it! (Or at least, he’s getting there.)
I was pleasantly surprised to see Ted Budd’s NO vote off-setting Therrible Thom’s awful YES on the recent foreign aid giveaway to Ukraine, Israel, and all points between. (The package overwhelmingly passed the Senate with the gleeful help of Tillis and his quisling quasi-GOP comrades. And, of course, it could not find one dime to help control the disaster at our southern border. * I’m not talking about Rock Hill or Dillon, mind you.*)
I will be voting against the foreign aid package.
We must secure our own border before we help other countries protect theirs.
In order to be a strong nation, we first have to have a strong border here at home. pic.twitter.com/qJXC2ooUVR
— Sen. Ted Budd (@SenTedBuddNC) April 23, 2024
I was pleased with Budd during his time in the House. For the most part, he was a good soldier for The House Freedom Caucus. Quite often, he followed the lead of his colleague (and soon-to-be-AG) 
Dan Bishop.
During his campaign for Senate and the early part of his Senate tenure, Budd began to noticeably snuggle up to Therrible Thom. They were issuing joint statements and co-sponsoring bills. Budd even hired a top Tillis aide over onto his staff. It wasn’t looking good.
This was from my first-ever meeting with Budd at a GOP event in Lee County. Ol’ Ted sure sounded like he had hopped onto the “Ukraine Train” – and might even have been riding up front with the locomotive engineer.
For most North Carolinians — most Americans even — the fallout from the southern border mess can be seen in every one of our communities. (The Ukraine mess has been reduced to grainy CNN or BBC footage.) It sounds like Budd is hearing quite an earful, and is beginning to understand the message.
Ted Budd needs to understand he has a hell of a lot more political 
capital in the bank than Therrible Thom does. Most of the base would rather see him more often with JD Vance, Mike Lee, Rand Paul, and/or Ted Cruz and a lot less with Therrible Thom. Ted doesn’t need Thom. It’s the other way around.
I believe most of us would be just fine seeing Budd consorting more often with JD & the gang, while Thom slithers behind them in their dust — like any good reptile would.
I was afraid that Ted was going to follow the leader, Thom. Thank goodness it’s not the case. Stand strong Ted and Vote for the American Citizens!
It was good to see Ted Budd on the right side of this one by voting against it. This bill not only failed to do a darn thing to help secure the border, but also contained $471 Million to pay for flying illegal aliens from the border to places in the interior and even worse, $3.5 Billion to bring Middle Eastern migrants (probably mostly Palestinians) to the US. Anyone who voted for those things is a traitor to America and to the Republican Party.
Our House delegation crapped out even worse than our one Senate traitor from NC (Tillis) with only Dan Bishop standing up for Americans by opposing this bill. Greg Murphy stabbed us in the back on this bill, just a couple of weeks after he stabbed us in the back on the police state FISA monstrosity. It almost looks like Murphy is trying to motivate conservatives to vote for his Libertarian challenger.
I don’t mind military asssitance to Israel, Ukraine, or Taiwan, but there was so much other crap in this bill that it badly needed to be defeated, and the GOP needed to get some meaningful border security out of the deal which we did not. Mike Johnson has now proven just how useless he is on FISA and this sellout
Steve Bannon (like him or not) DESTROYED Ted Cruz, Jim Jordan, Conner, et als this wk. Said, ALL they do is hold hearings and what becomes of these hearings, ZILCH. Called OUT ALL the gop for ‘do nothing’ minions.
Bannon called them by names and Id’d all the hearings held the past 8-10Y and the results, NOTHING. Only Trump impeached from hearings. ALL other hearings resulted in NOTHING.
They are all worthless including NC’s rank and file and delegation.
Time to call a spade a spade. We have NO representation from NC from the gop.
You are telling the truth. To go a bit further, where we do have elected representation locally, the local GOP is working overtime to destroy those choosing to represent their constituents rather than play ball with the GOP hierarchy. I’m hearing local GOP officers complaining publicly that conservative school board members “are disrupting everything” and that ” something has to be done about them.” At any rate, that’s the situation in Beaufort County.
When you said:
“the local GOP is working overtime to destroy those choosing to represent their constituents rather than play ball with the GOP hierarchy. I’m hearing local GOP officers complaining publicly that conservative school board members “are disrupting everything” and that ” something has to be done about them.”
I thought you were talkign about Beddow & the Boys at the Moore County GOP. It blew me away when I reached your last sentence which revealed you were talking about Beaufort County.
It seems like the Uniparty Swampers have control of at least two county level GOPs in NC.
I have a rough understanding of what you folks in Moore County are dealing with because I come on TDH and also because of my network of associates. I’m short on a lot of specifics. I’m a bit closer to the action in Beaufort County. I get a lot of that first-hand. I wouldn’t be surprised if this Uni-party Swamper method isn’t being used by way more than two counties. Perhaps other counties could share their situations.
It is frustrating as hell when we finally get someone willing to represent and then in their next election cycle have to face opposition from the established GOP and then the established Democrats. In our school board elections, both of those establishment groups (Repub & Dem) are pretty much the same thing – a two headed monster.
Craven County ran into that on their school board, too. They thought they had elected a conservative majority, but the outgoing liberal Democrat chairman roped in two newly elected Republicans and formed a coalition that excluded the conservatives. Now, however, the conservatives have gotten those two back in line and their new chairman is a conservative, Jennifer Dacey. This year’s election will probably end with a solid conservative majority on an all-Republican board. There seems to be only one seat where the Democrats have any possibility of winning.