Speaker Hall: Let DC pick our next US senator FOR US

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Here are those words of wisdom from the boy speaker himself:

That’s *interesting* advice coming from a guy who made it to the NC House via a “messy” primary against an incumbent House member.  Destin Hall ran a grassroots, low-budget campaign against the incumbent — who was loaded with lobbyist money and had Tim Moore in-district campaigning for him.  (Just imagine if the GOP nominee choice in Hall’s House district that year was left to GOP leaders.  That RINO would still be in office and lil’ Destin would still be running his mom-and-pop storefront law firm.)

It didn’t take long for lil’ Destin — once he made it to Raleigh — to shift on over to Tim Moore, Jason Saine, and *the dark side.*

I’m not a big fan of Donald Trump or anyone else in DC picking our senator for us.  Trump is doing a lot of good things for the country, but his efforts to meddle in North Carolina politics have been sketchy and disappointing to say the least.

In 2002 — in the wake of Jesse Helms’s retirement — DC picked Watergate Hotel resident Elizabeth Dole to replace him in the Senate.  Dole had not lived in North Carolina since she left after college to go work in LBJ’s administration in DC.  She went down in 2008 during the Barack Obama groundswell  against a weak, little-known state senator from Greensboro. 

In 2020, Trump helped run off a substantive primary challenger to Tillis by endorsing Tillis for reelection.  (*How did that work out?*)

In 2017, Tillis was on TV attacking Trump’s border wall proposal.  And he STILL got endorsed.

In the 2022 race for US Senate, Trump endorsed Ted Budd — who even now is running away from his Freedom Caucus heritage as fast as he can.

In 2024, Trump elevated under-achieving political hack (and Tillis protégè) Michael Whatley to the chairmanship of the Republican National Committee.  Whatley had about as little impact on Trump’s North Carolina victory as my dog did.

That same year, Trump endorsed Mark Robinson for governor — calling him “Martin Luther King on steroids.”

Trump also endorsed the empty-suit, unknown kid brother of a former Phil Berger aide turned lobbyist for the 6th congressional district seat in the US House.

In 2025, Trump endorsed Whatley lieutenant Jason Simmons, another under-achieving and unaccomplished hack, to a full-term as state GOP chairman.  Like Whatley, Simmons had little to no impact on Trump’s 2024 performance in North Carolina.

My point?   Most of Trump’s political / campaign-related decisions here in-state have been frustrating, to say the least, to Trump’s most devoted supporters.  Clearly, some — as Trump says – bad hombrès are whispering in his ear regarding North Carolina.

Thom Tillis barely squeaked into office in 2014 and 2020 against weak general election foes. He survived the 2014 primary by arranging for the conservative vote to be split. His general election Get Out The Vote strategy appeared to be “Hey, he’s better than a Democrat.”  

Folks apparently bought that then, but weren’t ready to do it again in 2026.

(Thom’s allies in the General Assembly have reduced the percentage of vote in a party primary needed to avoid a runoff down to 30 percent. *Anything to help a brutha out.*)

This is a plea for DC to please not put their collective thumb on the scale for the 2026 GOP primary. I need more than the Trump last name to get pumped about a Lara candidacy. You only have to look back at the Reagan years to see how far apples can fall from the tree. 

If she wants this job, she needs to tell us why, what she stands strongest for,  and what she plans to do if we bless her with an electoral victory.

Her father-in-law is only going to be at 1600 Penn for 3.5 more years.  The Senate term is for six.  Is she going to want to hang around our state for THAT long, or longer?

Another big question: Will she be able to tell her father-in-law NO, or that he’s wrong? 

So far, congressman Pat Harrigan is looking pretty good.  An impressive military record and a successful business to boot. From what I’ve seen, his voting record has been acceptable. The only problem I’ve found with him was THIS. 

Granted, the quote was from his run in a Democrat-leaning district against Jeff Jackson.  He was trying to appeal to his then-audience.  Hopefully, he’s learned and grown a bit.

Maybe there is someone else out there – from outside the elected / political world – who has had some success and might want to use his / her talents to benefit us and the rest of the country.

Let US figure it all out.