NCGOP outsider candidate outperformed NCGOP’s ENTIRE statewide ticket

Posted on by

Michael Byrne was not one of Paul Newby’s Chosen.  The Raleigh clique worked hard to keep him out of the Court of Appeals race. Newby picked a foursome of candidates that did not include Byrne, and the state GOP began marketing that Byrne-less slate.

Then, the primary vote happened.  Byrne knocked off one of Newby’s Chosen foursome.  Begrudgingly, the Raleigh crowd started acknowledging Byrne.

The most interesting part of this story happened on November 3:

 

Yes, you read that right. Outsider Court of Appeals candidate Michael Byrne – shunned by the clique that tries to run the GOP show from Raleigh – got a higher vote total than US Senate candidate Michael Whatley and each of the other three statewide judicial candidates.  He even outperformed all fourteen GOP candidates for US House combined. 

Of course, Whatley, Byrne, and the other three judicial candidates still all got slaughtered by their Democrat opposition last week. (Some of the congressional candidates got their feelings hurt, as well.) 

But the powers-that-be fought harder than the Marines at Iwo Jima to keep Byrne off the ticket and out of the race.  And he still pulled more votes than any of the other statewiders.

Combine that with how clueless many of our congressional candidates were about the approaching blue wave and you have to ask: Is there anyone on the GOP side in Raleigh who has a clue about what’s going on outside the beltline?