Campaign 2024: The Autopsy
I don’t know about you. But — once you look past Trump’s win nationally and in North Carolina – there is not a whole hell of a lot for conservative and Republican voters to celebrate.
Democrats had a net gain of ONE seat on the ten-member Council of State. State Republican $$$ got wasted on things like the Rockingham County board of commissioners race while Republicans in two winnable Council of State races (DPI, AG) got pounded with dishonest attack ad after attack ad. (If you’re going to be little more than a glorified money-laundering operation, cycle that money through to everybody.)
Republicans lost their veto-proof majority in the state House. So, there will be a lot of groveling before Governor Josh. Republican elected officials – i.e., Catherine Truitt and Thom Tillis — publicly bad-mouthed GOP candidates they didn’t like who were locked in general election battles with Democrats.
In DC, a lot of the same senators and congressmen who were in place for Trump and Biden will be back. (I’m old enough to remember Thom Tillis telling Fox’s Tucker Carlson that we don’t need Trump’s border wall.)
About 1/4 of Republicans in each body have quite dependably voted with Democrats on many issues. It looks like there will be a 52-seat GOP majority in the 100 member Senate. Things are still too close to call in the House. Lots of room for double-crossing Trump there.
Our state’s congressional delegation has been overrun with un-principled weaklings who recite portions of the GOP platform during campaign time, but forget about all that after the election when they return to Washington. (All of our House Republicans – except one – vote to the left of other House Republicans.).
Our only conservative congressman got tricked into leaving DC and running for statewide office. Despite promises he would be “take care of” by the Raleigh leadership, he got left hanging out there.
Raleigh Republicans will attempt to claim credit for Trump’s win in North Carolina. All of the calls I got — all of the mailers I got — for Donald Trump came from out-of-state. There was much more significant, hard work done for Trump outside the Raleigh beltline.
Communication breakdown. Republican forces could not hold a candle to the communications operation run by the lefties. Far too many candidates were left hanging out there while lefty attack ads produced by lefty dark money beat them senseless. Meanwhile, countless *consultants* were bagging six figure fees while their candidates got pulverized on-air. On most nights, Dan Bishop got pounded on Fox News during every commercial break.
Democrats marketed a *ticket.* Republicans got attacked as *violent* and *extreme.* Never mind that the Democrat Labor commissioner nominee was an actual, literal rioter. We heard next to nothing about it, and he ran a surprisingly respectable race. But the stupid news media bent over backwards crowing about *violent* suburban soccer mom Michele Morrow. (Neither the Secret Service nor the FBI showed any concern over Morrow’s years-old comments. If they’re not worried, I’m not worried.)
Mark Robinson, however, was a scandal with arms and legs. We tried to warn everyone before the primary got started. Balanced Nutrition could quite possibly turn into a criminal situation. (There are similar situations all over the country that have led to prosecutions.) Mishandling federal tax dollars is so much more serious than anything you could type into a stupid website.
Robinson clammed up on the matter for way too long. WRAL and The N&O sat on Balanced Nutrition in favor of all of the goodies they found on Robinson on social media. Again, screenshotting social media posts is sooooooooo much easier than having to interpret and understand financial documents. (I hear it can hurt *some* heads. At least *sources* tell me so.)
We weren’t the only people in the state who knew about the problems with Balanced Nutrition. Didn’t Raleigh leaders have some responsibility to demand some answers from him – at least in exchange for their public support?
If Robinson had somehow been elected, the investigation into Balanced Nutrition would have been really embarrassing for the NCGOP and the state of North Carolina.
The lieutenant governor’s post is useless and of little to no importance. The attorney general post was crucial. We had a good candidate who got – at best – mismanaged. Winning that race could have evened the playing field in Raleigh over the next four years.
Our stupid, useless drive-by media: School violence. Poor academic performance. DEI and CRT. Outrageous gas and grocery prices. Those are just some of the things nagging at voters’ everyday lives.
Reporters love to paint themselves as objective observers of the days events. Then, they run to #ncpol on X and post nonsense like this:
These two geniuses fled the N&O newsroom to continue their mischief in the WRAL newsroom, in the tradition of *GIANTS* like Travis Fain and Laura Leslie. These two guys have led the transformation of the age-old practice of reporting into screenshotting Facebook and X-feeds. *Pure freaking laziness.* We can all troll Facebook and X on our own. Why in the hell do we need these two clowns?
Randy Andy is a special kind of weenie. (He loves to hop on Twitter / X and gloat over any and all misfortune besetting the GOP and / or its elected officials.) Though, he has a gift for photography that has clearly elevated him to the esteemed post of The Capitol Press Corps’ selfie-queen.
Specht’s ‘fact-checks’ almost exclusively smack Republicans. And they use leftist sources to *disprove* GOP talking points. Many a GOP candidate got targeted with his scam.
The road ahead for the NCGOP. Once again, the NCGOP election team underperforms and certain operatives receive a fiscal windfall. We’ve had party bigwigs publicly bad-mouthing (and privately working against) certain Republican candidates they don’t like. Senator Phil Berger endorsed a Democrat judge running against a Republican lawyer. We’ve also seen the state party doing a solid for Berger’s son and cronies in a local Rockingham County race.
All of the same people keep their state posts and keep reaping the rewards. How much longer will grassroots folks outside the Raleigh beltline continue to tolerate this stuff? How much longer will folks continue to allow the GOP to be used as a certain clique’s private sandbox?
There’s no evidence of there being any interest in promoting principles or any kind of agenda. It’s apparently all about preserving power for certain people and keeping the $$$ *gravy train* rolling for those same people.
With the loss of the veto-proof majority, there’s a ready-made and easily-available excuse for backing off of conservatism. (*Gotta get something past Josh. Get stuff done.*) The honorables on Jones Street have demonstrated time and again they have no problem with doing just that.
Many other places across the country are celebrating great GOP electoral success. For us, the much smaller Raleigh-based celebration is all about big paydays for certain people who have purposely screwed up great electoral opportunities.
At what point will enough be enough?
First, we must remember our neighbors in WNC who all of the aforementioned just truly F$CKED, ushering in a radical governor who has not even set foot in the mountains and will be perfectly content to let them all perish. It is up to us now.
Second, there must be a purge. I really do not know, nor do I care, about how the NCGOP party apparatus works but every single one of these people including and especially Simmons and his shadow “power brokers” of Tillis, Berger and Moore have to be stripped of their power. We need folks like Mashburn, Kane and Woodhouse to rise.
Third, we must look inward. Our best candidates (Folwell and Bishop) ran horrible campaigns. I honestly do not know how or why but nothing they said resonated anywhere. The irony is that our truly grassroots candidate Morrow ran the BEST campaign. Seriously, look at what that fierce mama accomplished in the face of the most damning headwinds.
Fourth, while this platform is the best, keyboard warriors will get us squat. Either you get off your big fat ass and get engaged or you can say adios to your state.
Especially you weak as F men. You, my
good men, have let this state go to sh$t.
NCGOP CANNOT WIN elections.
Trump didn’t PULL any candidate to victory.
Robinson TROUNCED down balloting.
HOWEVER, as I posted yesterday and you’ve outlined here. EVERY RACE TIED the R to Robinson, abortion and IT WORKED!. Dems KNOW HOW. GOP KNOWS HOW TO HELP THEMSELVES, period.
Establishment WANTED Folwell OUT. They TRASHED him. They ALSO want Causey out, but he somehow scraped by.
Jefferson may, just may survive Court race….
NOTHING in the state WORKS, republican-wise. And IF you dare be a conservative, YOU ARE WORSE than any far left, demonic, extremist, militant, liberal democrat!!!
Stein, like Coop, WILL RUN this state and berger, moore and their pals will give him any votes needed. For the next 4Y, NC is AGAIN hand-tied to liberal rule. And yet we voted overwhelming for a republican president.
Many gop county parties are divided and WILL NEVER come together. The factions are a 180 from each other, hate each other and will never work together. Therefore, we have divided candidates each on their own.
The state party has destroyed this state. Goes back to McCrory, Tillis, Burr, Murphy, McHenry, Foxx…NONE are worth one dam***.
The state GOP convention sees lies, deceit and cheating take place. WHO wants to be part ?
Moore Co doesn’t have the hold on disenfranchisement. It’s EVERYWHERE.
SOS Elaine Marshall is 70? 80? and WE CAN’T defeat her?
Coop and party will CONTINUE to run this state with Stein, Hunt, Jackson, et als.
DISGUSTED. Your sentence nails it. We can CELEBRATE Trump; that’s about it. I do find favor in Causey winning and hopefully Jefferson defeating extremist Riggs…. otherwise, how was the opera, Mr Lincoln? We should all be in mourning and wearing black for our state.
When I SAY DONE, I’m DONE. Run all the robinson’s, tillises, et als the party desires. WE WILL LOSE anyway; so I won’t be wasting my vote… 3rd party in NC does nothing and has nothing to offer. Can’t win any race. Actually, may have pulled out a race or two if those candidates not on the ballot. Oh, well, We have really smarts at the gop to figure that out and they’ve done so. well. Trump was wise to stay arm’s length away from the NCGOP.
NC GOP – doing more harm than good.
AMEN! By the way — how many bets that Thom Tillis will suddenly veer to the right for the next few months? He’s up for reelection the next time around (2026).
Take advantage of that duplicitous fraud’s political instincts and CALL his and junior loser Budd’s offices today to get them to vote for Scott and NOT Thune for Majority Leader. The vote takes place in less than a week!
We must protect Trump.
Very concerning reading posts that Mark has a future in NC?
Have we learned nothing?
It’s OVER for him. WHY would any think he has a path forward?
Certainly, we WON’T have THIS fight among conservatives, grassroots?
Folwell-2028!!!
Nearly a decade ago (December 2014), Brant wrote:
“Are you frustrated with the current state of the NCGOP? Start organizing your like-minded friends to take over — or at least build a sizeable contingent within — your precinct and your county party organization. The county party organization makes the decisions about who goes to the state convention. That’s where the platform AND the party chairman are decided on. He who shows up, wins. That’s how it works.”
https://dailyhaymaker.com/want-change-in-2016-start-now/
The most concerning loss was Bishop. The AG slot has a better track record of leading to the Governor’s office than the lieutenant Governor’s office. Jackson is a young face that will be around for a while. Robinson is done in North Carolina. This loss and his personal history will keep him from any meaningful comeback. He should have run for re-election and not governor.
The NCGOP was missing in action. In the past, we have had state party chairmen who would hold press conferences to blast Democrat misrepresentations like Frank Rouse, Dave Flaherty, and Jack Hawke. We never heard a peep out of Simmons.
The NCGOP has a Judicial Campaign Fund. Where in the heck were they when all that out of state money came in to pound Jefferson Griffin? We almost lost that critical race to a radical leftist due to our own party failing to engage.
Our state party operation was not up to speed this election. We need new leadership going forward.
The most important race in 2026 is replacing “Undocumented Democrat” Thom Tillis with a genuine Republican. We need to start working on a primary opponent now. Dan Bishop or Dale Folwell would be my choices. But first, we need a total housecleaning in party leadership in 2025.
A concerted effort needs to be made now and clear WHO is the candidate and begin the work, county by county.
Last thing needed is a divided faction/region.
We need to recognize not only the long term impact of a Stein/Jackson reign. We need to recognize the long term impact of losing the veto-proof super majority in the NC House.
On the ground, we need to take a page out of the Dems playbook. Election Day and 19 days of early voting poised the same issues across counties. Dems had 1000’s of volunteers and we have to beg people to take a 2 hour shift. They are a well oiled machine. The Meck County Democrat Party raised $2m and has 5 paid staffers!! And our losing statewide candidates lost there 2:1.
NC11 turned out over 236k Trump voters and delivered for all statewide candidates less than 6 weeks after Hurricane Helene.
The NCGOP is a Pay to Play Club! Period!
They don’t give a damn about your conservative values or what you bring to the table, unless it’s cash. I refuse to volunteer or give a contribution to the state. I would rather throw my money out of the window than to give it to them.
Moore and Berger are bullies. If they don’t like a bill that you wrote or an idea that you have, you are put on the sideline. Time Out. Or…Or..OR, You can sell your soul and be the favored Moore/Berger puppet. ( it happened to Mark)
Needless to say, Folwell and Causey has not and will not bow to the dictates of Moore and Berger. This is why the General Assembly attacked them. Took away some of their duties and commitments as punishments. Hats off to these two men, they did not break. Causey just won his reelection, Praise God. Folwell wasn’t as fortunate. I pray that we see Folwell on the Ballot in 4 years. A great loss to NC.
So here we are….ONCE AGAIN in a damned hot mess for 4 years. 4 years! Lay this garbage at the feet of Moore and Berger. Moore doesn’t care. He will be laughing all the way to DC. He and RINO SELLOUT Tillis will be wreaking havoc for us on the Federal Level. Yay. #NotWinning
I am sick. Angry. Why didn”t the NCGOP have the backs of Morrow and Bishop? Could it be because they were TRUE CONSERVATIVES? NC desperately needed their Leadership! I pray to see these 2 on the Ballot again.
Side note: The local GOP parties have in- fighting. This bickering is very concerning and unattractive to potential new members and often leaves a sour taste in their mouths. Not very encouraging. I have found that the old guard doesn’t exactly embrace new ideas. I have also found that the GOP party, at least the ones that I know, about are getting up in age. We are in desperate need of new blood. Youth!
That’s my two cents.
The local GOP parties have in- fighting. This bickering is very concerning and unattractive to potential new members and often leaves a sour taste in their mouths. Not very encouraging.
Bev, the above statement is accurate, beyond means. It will NOT improve nor fix itself. The identical issues you name as for berger, moore are just as indoctrinated by some at the county level. I see no resolve and I won’t join the ones I know and see.
Bishop and Morrow WERE DROPPED, purposely, by berger/moore. And yet Robinson was elevated and now the posts are going out yesterday and today that he WILL BE BACK?
Learn from Trump. BUILD own network, grassroots and funding. By-pass the NCGOP. IF you are conservative, they aren’t going to help and will DESTROY you. Get and build grassroots regionally and state-wide.
How the Gov, LG, Ag and DOI candidates were pushed aside, not funded and UNSUPPORTED, knowing Trump was going to carry state is a show of how unconcerned, greedy, deliberate and evil these party officials are. You will see MORE OF THE SAME at the next state convention.
President Trump winning in convincing fashion is pure JOY. My biggest disappointment was Attorney General.
Getting Allison Riggs off NC Supreme Court was satisfying as well. Control of 2 of the 3 branches of Govt in North Carolina is a good thing. And the 2 most important. The dems “ sue til blue “ strategy isnt an option in North Carolina. And anyone who knows NC politics knows the power in this state is over on Jones Street…. always has been.
You realize Stein will appoint Riggs to Jefferson’s vacated seat!!!!!!!
YET, another REASON why losing Gov mansion and position is vital and important. Yet, we’ve now pi***ed it away for 12Y.
A local DA in eastern NC just elected to a judgeship. Conservative as all get out. His county DA vacancy gets APPOINTED BY WHOM? Yep, another Stein appt….and best believe it WON’T be a CONSERVATIVE. LIBERAL as Stein or worse..
Again, consequences for we, not thee. Berger/moore don’t give a rat’s A**…
A party has to arise out and from these ashes and ruins,,,,,
Times a Lt. Gov. ran for governor and lost
2000: Lt. Gov. Weaver
2012: Lt. Gov. Walter Dalton
2020: Lt. Gov. Dan Forest
2024: Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson
The only one to buck the trend was Bev Perdue in 2008. I think this trend happens because Lt. Gov is a low budget, low visibility seat that does not prepare you for a large budget, high visibility gubernatorial race.