Mark Walker walks away from governor’s race
And then there were FIVE.
Team Robinson – the operatives running that scandal-on-two-legs – wants you to think they have the only Republican choice in the race. But Andy Wells, Dale Folwell, Bill Graham, and Jesse Thomas might have something to say about that.
It was pretty clear that Mark Walker, the former preacher-turned-congressman, was in the race to rough up his former friend and ally, the lieutenant governor. Walker was instrumental in Robinson’s political rise and eventual electoral success. Robinson thanked him by endorsing Walker’s opponent in the 2022 GOP primary for US Senate.
Vengeance appeared to be the name of the game.
But Walker clearly never was cured of Potomac Fever. He retired from Congress when he realized his congressional seat was being redrawn to favor Democrats. Even while out of Congress, Walker spent an inordinate amount of time around Capitol Hill and other old DC haunts.
Current redistricting maps appear to make the going a little more GOP-friendly around Walker’s old district. So – as a distant third place in the GOP gubernatorial primary – Walker took the opportunity today to launch an effort to return to DC.
Who is Jesse Thomas? Never heard of him.
As to Bill Graham and Andy Wells, they are non-starters. Graham is think with Shumaker and Stewart, who are establishment political whores who will sell their souls to the far left if the price is right, like them have to the wind and solar grifters. Might as well have a Democrats as a Shumaker / Stewart “Republican”. Andy Wells has conservative Carter Wrenn as a consultant who may try to teach him a thing or two, but as a state senator Wells was a Chamber of Commerce establishment hack and I would not count on Carter teaching him too much. Wells went full woke when he voted to repeal HB2, and that is just not acceptable to conservatives. He also put his name on op-eds supporting the wind and solar grifters that were ghost written by said grifters.
Robinson is a do nothing, but what Graham and Wells do is not conservative. Any of these three would be a repeat of the worthless Pat McCrory,
That leaves one clear choice, State Treasurer Dale Folwell, who has proven both his conservatism and his competence time after time. Dale Folwell is the only game in town.
How exactly right you are, on all counts! Dale is the only viable candidate. If Robinson wins the Primary, the left will come after him–every newspaper–every news channel, etc. He will lose to Stein–who I served with–and who will make Cooper look like a conservative.
The “ the press will come after him “ theory is useless. Having the Goodman Family and WRAL , the Charlotte Observer etc come after you is a badge of honor as a Republican. The media never let up on Trump and he has won North Carolina TWICE ! Robinson will be fine. Folwell , Wells etc would be CRUSHED by Stein. Robinson will ride Trump endorsement/ Sen Budd endorsement and Trump coattails to the Governor’s Mansion.
The real question is whether those are the types of attacks that Robinson could successfully defend himself against. I have my doubts.
But assuming he could, what would we be left with? Robinson has shown himself utterly useless on fighting for policy, even his core issue of gun rights. Robinson sat twiddling his thumbs while RINO Senate leader Phil Berger killed Constitutional Carry in North Carolina this legislative session. At best, Robinson would be Pat McCrory 2.0 and I am not sure he would even make that very low bar. Many of us had great expectations for Mark, but he has totally disappointed us.