#NC-02: Club for Growth bets it all on Jim Duncan
The Club For Growth — arguably DC’s premier free-market, limited-government political action committee — has never been much of a fan of Renee Ellmers. They’ve issued some harsh criticisms over the years. But this year, they’re upping the ante and actually endorsing one of her primary opponents: 
The Club for Growth PAC today announced its endorsement of businessman Jim Duncan for the U.S. House from North Carolina’s 2nd Congressional District. The seat is currently held by incumbent Congresswoman Renee Ellmers.
“Jim Duncan is a principled constitutional conservative who will fight against the big-spending insiders in Washington,” said Club for Growth President David McIntosh. “Jim has been active in local politics in North Carolina, and his own life experience has laid the foundation for his work to protect the American Dream through pro-growth policies that shrink the size and scope of government.
“Jim Duncan will have to defeat Washington insider Renee Ellmers. She campaigned as a Tea Party candidate, but sided with Nancy Pelosi in reauthorizing the corrupt Export-Import Bank, and in supporting the wasteful trillion-dollar spending bills of 2014 and 2015. During her time in Washington, Ellmers has taken
pride in following the lead of Speaker Boehner and the Republican leaders in Congress. She has an abysmal lifetime 61% voting record from the Club for Growth, having voted against conservative spending plans, and for budgets that break the spending caps. Ellmers’ constituents deserve better, and the Club for Growth PAC is proud to endorse Jim Duncan as the true economic conservative in this race.”
Congresswoman Renee Ellmers voted:
· YES on the 2011 debt ceiling increase (#690, 2011)
· YES to reauthorize the Export-Import Bank (#576, 2015, #224, 2012)
· YES on the bad Ryan-Murray deal that broke the sequester (#640, 2013)
· NO on the conservative RSC budget (#275, 2011; #86, 2013)
The race for the second congressional district is likely to be one of the nation’s most-watched. Insiders are expecting as many as SEVEN total candidates in the GOP primary. There has been no word yet if there will be a Democrat or Libertarian candidate. Due to the conservative nature of the district, the winner of the GOP nomination is a sure-thing for November.
How much campaign cash comes with the endorsement? That will be important in the stretch.
Hurray for the Club for Growth! They not only put their own money into races, they have quite a following among conservative contributors who use their endorsements to make contributions. This is a huge boost for Jim Duncan.
Outstanding endorcement.
This is a real big deal. Duncan is among a select few.
So far Jim Duncan is the only candidate who has filed to run in District 2. Maybe the others rumored to run should think twice.
So proud of Jim. This is a big deal endorsement!
Excellent news! Hopefully Club For Growth will then turn their attention to the only NC Republican with a score lower than Renee Ellmers: Walter Jones.
You are an idiot.
Walter Jones has the HIGHEST conservative score among NC congressmen and Senators.
The two with scores LOWER than Ellmers are RINO US Senators Richard Burr and Thom Tillis. Burr is even lower than Lindsay Graham.
Oh really? What’s Jones’ lifetime Club For Growth score?
Hertiage Action is the most respected score, since it is a full spectrum conservative group, and Jones is at the top with them, and Burr at the bottom, with Thillis second from the bottom and Ellmers third from the bottom.
As to economic issues, the main focus of Club for Growth, Walter Jones is a consistent vote against deficit budgets and debt limit increases, the most dependable votes against those in the NC delegation. Jones was one of only two NC Congressmen to vote against CRomnibus and the only one with the ‘nads to rule against the rule on CRomnibus, the place it could have most easily have been stopped.
Walter Jones is also one of only two NC Congressmen to have come out in favor of dumping John Boehner.
One of Jones’ primary opponents, Taylor Griffin, is a beltway hack who is the front man for the Boehner / Ryan liberal establishment.
Ah, a wonderful demonstration of deflection. Since you refuse to answer, allow me to educate:
Renee Ellmers has a lifetime score of 61. Walter Jones has a lifetime score of 59, which has only risen from his score of 46 in recent years because people began to realize that he is not a good conservative and he received primary challengers. Jones has consistently received low scores from the American Conservative Union, Citizens Against Government Waste, and the American Taxpayer Union. He has a mediocre score with Conservative Review at 74. Jones has the lowest lifetime score of any North Carolina House Republican with Americans For Prosperity. Jones has the second lowest lifetime score with FreedomWorks, second only to Ellmers; even Burr has a higher score than Jones.
The fact that you completely ignore the other scores and focus solely on Heritage means you are either shamefully ignorant of Jones’ record or willfully complicit. It can’t be both. Thanks for playing.
You pick and chose ratings. I look primarily at the most respected, Heritage Action, which is a full spectrum rating. If you read the major conservative blog RedState, it is the Heritage Action score that their system automatically places beside the name of any Congressman or Senator.
To cite one of your example, the American Conservative Union used to be one of the most respected ratings, up until Florida Bush ally and open borders supporter Al Cardenas became chairman, and after that it became a joke. Under Cardenas, they should have changed the name to American Establishment Union.,
A good example of the corruption under Cardenas was when Mitch McConnell got a conservative primary challenge, ACU manipulated the issues they rated on to manufacture a rating that showed McConnell the most conservative member of the US Senate with a 100% rating. That was just a fraud.
Walter Jones has been endorsed by Congressman Dave Brat, the guy who beat Eric Cantor, which tells you a lot about how this primary shakes out in DC factions.
It was interesting to listen to Taylor Griffin dance all over the place to avoid answering Henry Hinton’s question about Boehner when Griffin was on Hinton’s show on WTIB. What a con man.
Other scores?
Walter Jones has an A rating from Numbers USA, the leading anti-amnesty organization, the only A rated Congressman from NC. Jones also has an A rating from National Right to Life, the NRA, and Gunowners of America.
Walter Jones is rated a Taxpayer Hero by Citizens Against Government Waste.
With Freedom Works, Walter Jones rated 94%, tied for first place in NC, in 2015, 100% in first place in 2014, and 95% in first place in 2013.
As to Americans for Prosperity, I find it hard to give any credence to an organization that hired Dallas Woodhouse and ranks Ellmers at 90% and Burr at 100%.
On the most recent Congressional scorecard of the Club for Growth, for the 2014 Congressional session, Jones scored 88% which was tied for second highest with Congressman Mark Meadows for key votes in that session..
I don’t pick and choose ratings. I’m simply reporting what other conservative organizations are saying. You are picking one rating and sticking with it, supporting an simplistic view of the entire picture. Heritage is the outlier when it comes to the scores and ignoring everything you don’t like. Pathetic.
If you want to talk about a con man, all you have to do is look at Jones’ vote record and his complete lack of ineffectiveness. He hasn’t had a bill he’s written pass since 2005. He’s never chaired a subcommittee. With his latest talking point of having co-sponsored a career-record 86 bills dealing with veterans, only 9 became law. Out of those 9, only two actually help veterans with more than a medal or naming a building. Out of those two, Jones voted against one of them.
It’s utterly laughable that you call Griffin a beltway hack when Jones has been inside the beltway for almost 21 YEARS. You continue to demonstrate your shameful ignorance of Jones’ true record. Sad, but not unexpected.
Griffin has been inside the beltway since he graduated from college, working as either a congressional bureaucrat or an operative promoting the issues of the special interests. Jones had least had a real job in the real economy.
As to not chairing committees, that just shows that Jones is not an establishment brownnoser. The Boehner / Ryan mafia in the House and the McConnell mafia in the Senate are a big roadblock to conservatives getting committee chairmanships. Griffin, on the other hand, is a Boehner / Ryan flunky.
A real job? Being a career politician is a real job?! Hahahaha that’s classic. The only flunky in the race is Jones, who is beholden to liberal special interests like unions, crony capitalists, and trial lawyers. It’s all there in black and white, or as is the case of Jones’ campaign bank account, in green.
Your pathetic excuse for Jones’ lack of leadership is irrelevant since multiple members of the House Freedom Caucus hold subcommittee chairs. Jones simply wants to remain inside the beltway because the only “job” he’s ever had is a politician since 1982. As the Haymaker stated not too long ago, Walter is out for what’s best for Walter.
Unlike Taylor Griffin who went to DC right after college graduation and worked first as a legislative bureaucrat then as a mouthpiece for the special interests, Walter Jones actually worked in the private sector before running for Congress. As a Congressman, he listens to the citizens, not K Street.
As a state legislator, a part time position, Jones was one of the conservative Democrats who helped advance the legislative agenda of GOP Governor Jim Martin. Then, Jones was one of the handful of conservative Democrats led by Joe Mavretic that formed a coalition with the Republican caucus and ousted liberal Democrat House Speaker Liston Ramsey. Jones was a fighter for conservative principles even when he was still a Democrat.
Jones is still there fighting for conservative principle. He and Mark Meadows were the only North Carolinians with the backbone to stand up to establishment Obama-enabling House Speaker John Boehner. Taylor Griffin is a Boehner / Ryan flunky.
How the establishment handles conservatives on committee positions is illustrated by Boehner’s attempt to remove conservative Mark Meadows from a subcommittee chairmanship. Meadows ended up outmanuvering Boehner in the end, but it was touch and go. Another example form the Senate is the way conservative Jeff Sessions was in line for a key committee chairmanship until Mitch McConnell pulled some strings to get someone with slightly more seniority to challenge him, blocking him from that chairmanship.
The score that matters most is the NumbersUSA grade as it is a reflection of the candidate’s true values in putting the welfare of Americans first and above those who are trying to immigrate here.
Walter Jones gets A+, meaning he’s consistently against any type of amnesty, wants reduced legal immigration, wants to make sure Americans are prioritized for both high and low-skilled jobs rather than importing guest workers, etc.
There is NOTHING more important than immigration, both legal and illegal, and Jones has fought long and hard to represent and protect Americans rather than the multinational corporations and radical ethnic open borders lobbies, unlike Chamber of Commerce hacks like Ellmers.
The Haymaker dug out some interesting info on where Taylor Griffin’s money comes from – most of it from either the New York City area or the Washington, DC area, not North Carolina, but the most interesting part is that almost a third can be connected to controversial New York bundler Paul Singer. The two biggest issues that Paul Singer promotes are 1) Gay RIghts (he was the biggest funder in the country to the campaign for homosexual marriage) and 2) amnesty for illegal aliens. With Paul Singer so engaged with Taylor Griffin, there is no doubt which side he will be on in immigration, even if he does not tell you that. Paul Singer is also a big backer of pro-amnesty presidential candidates, first Jeb Bush and now Marco Rubio.
Mr. Steed, would you care to discuss Jones’ donations from AFL-CIO unions, liberal trial lawyers, or crony capitalists? Or would you care to defend Jones’ use of the same donation engine that Planned Parenthood uses, whose founders started Act Blue and worked at the DNC?
Back to Jim Duncan! An outstandcing candidate for the 2nd Congressional District!
I agree. Jim is the real deal. I had a very in-depth discussion about all aspects of immigration with him and one of his campaign staffers a month ago. He and his campaign get it. More importantly, they understand how profoundly detrimental Obama’s immigration actions (both legal and illegal immigration) and efforts to overwhelm the country with foreign workers have been for Americans.
His positions on immigration are pretty close to being 100% aligned with Jeff Sessions. We couldn’t have a representative who more earnestly represents the interests of Americans than Jim.
I have noticed from our local Democrat leaning newspaper Congresswoman Elmers is running her campaign in the Editorial Page. Elmers will not come into the District, hold public meetings, or meet the issues head on. The Congresswoman’s role in the recent election of Paul Ryan is also somewhat dubious at best.
OK. Time to be the adult in the room. This post is about Jim Duncan and Renee Ellmers. (Oh, and the Club for Growth.) We need to stay on topic here. If you want to debate Walter Jones, wait for a relevant post to do so. (Or you can trade email addresses and discuss it off-site to your hearts’ content.)