STILL meddling in party primaries …
If you thought the arm-twisting, threats and outright lying to prop up Mike Whatley in the US Senate primary was bad, get a load of what’s going on with the GOP candidates for state judicial races this year.
The pattern was established in the 2024 GOP gubernatorial race, got tweaked in the 2026 GOP US Senate race, and is being expanded in the GOP race for state judicial posts.
This is how it, um, *works* : (1) Pretend there is NO primary race at all. One candidate, that’s it. Even if there are eight of them. (2) Lean on donors, campaign vendors, the stupid drive-by legacy media and party activists to “remind” them that there is only ONE choice – and ONE CHOICE only – for party nominee. Even if there are six filed for the primary. (3) Rinse and repeat.
This routine saddled us with Mark Robinson in 2024. It’s trying to saddle us with that schlub Whatley this year. And it’s’ trying to burden us with four absolute losers in the state judicial races. Who knows how much better things could have turned out if we had been allowed choices and an honest vetting in real primary races.
In this latest version of *Pretend*, we’re being force-fed a statewide judge *slate* consisting of state rep. Sarah Stevens for Supreme Court, and Craig Collins, Matt Smith and George Bell for Court of Appeals. I’ve heard of Stevens and Collins. (Collins is most famous for losing spectacularly in a state GOP chairman race against underdog Hasan Harnett, despite being endorsed by a Who’s Who in the NCGOP. ).
I haven’t heard of any of those other clowns. To the Raleigh clique, that doesn’t matter. We’re supposed to blindly toss them votes because they have an (R) at the end of their names. Screw qualifications and records.
This *Fearsome Foursome* is being marketed all over the state as THE NCGOP Judicial ticket for 2026.
The problem? There is ONE primary race for Court of Appeals on the GOP ballot. Michael Byrne, a Wake County attorney and current North Carolina Office of Administrative Hearings (NC OAH) judge, is challenging Matt Smith for one of the Court of Appeals seats. The state party doesn’t mention him when it markets this *slate.* Neither do all of the county parties around the state hosting fundraisers and meet-greets for GOP judicial candidates. Just like Dale Folwell, Bill Graham, and Don Brown, Michael Byrne does not exist. (At least, we’re supposed to pretend that he doesn’t.)
Check out what the Cleveland County GOP has coming up:
Yep. There we have it. A fundraiser for the NCGOP “ticket” that touts the “Fearsome Foursome” but not fellow Republican Michael Byrne.
Our choice of candidates is being made FOR US by elites in Raleigh and other folks who have access to certain smoke-filled back rooms. We get stuck with the duds they pick for us, and then we’re told: “It’s THIS, or these Democrats. What are you gonna do, pal?”
Byrne, for his troubles, is also getting smeared by Raleigh insiders for daring to crash the party. He’s been declared a ‘counterfeit Republican.’ Never mind that he got hired over at the NC OAH by Donald Van Der Vaart — certainly nobody’s idea of a shrinking leftist violet.
Full disclosure: Byrne and I used to work together. It was more than three decades ago in the Washington, DC area. Our boss was none other than Brent Bozell, founder of The Media Research Center, NewsBusters, and other conservative institutions. Bozell, by the way, is also the nephew of William F. Buckley, Jr. — who, like van der Vaart, was clearly no shrinking leftist violet. ( For those who don’t know, Buckley is best known for founding The National Review magazine. ) At the time, some of Bozell’s closest political associates included Rush Limbaugh, Pat Buchanan, Steve Forbes, and now-Trump pollster John McLaughlin.
As long as I’ve known Byrne, ideas — such as limited government, the free market, conservatism — have mattered more to him than political parties. He’s not into creating new rights. He’s into abiding by what The Constitution actually says. Unfortunately, that’s a rarity among today’s judges.
In other words, you’ll win Byrne over with your logic and your ideas, not your party registration. In all honesty, he’s the kind of judge many of us on the right yearn for.
Party officials need to allow all comers their time before the party’s voters. It’s good practice for the general election. It creates goodwill by making the “little people” out there believe they actually have a say in who governs them.
In all honesty, this game of *Pretend* we find ourselves trapped in is starting to smell a wee bit Soviet and authoritarian. It needs to be moth-balled.
Michael Byrne spoke at Moore Republican Women last week. His record is impressive. I know nothing about the other candidate. Michael has my vote.
ALL of Michael Byrne’s decisions have been upheld by appellate courts.
He is a STAUNCHLY conservative, fair, and knowledgeable Constitutional attorney.
AND he comes with 272 cases’ worth of experience spanning decades, including some that were in defense of NC LEOs and state employees. In other words, worlds more experience than Matt Smith, and proven feighty to conservative values. For all of the above reasons, Michael easily wins my vote, hands down.