Ahead of NC visit, some Republicans say Trump made wrong endorsement in Johnston race
Ahead of President Donald Trump’s return to Johnston County Saturday, some local Republicans have a message for the former president: They’re thrilled he’s coming, but they can’t support the candidate he is endorsing to represent them in Congress.
Bo Hines, a 26-year-old political newcomer who is running in the 13th Congressional District, secured Trump’s endorsement within a few weeks of filing. The swing district encompasses southern Wake County, all of Johnston County, and parts of Wayne and Harnett counties.
Hines is among a slate of other Trump-endorsed and high-profile Republicans, including Reps. Ted Budd and Madison Cawthorn, who will be joining him at his rally in Selma on Saturday.
In Trump’s endorsement, he touted Hines, who played football at N.C. State before transferring to Yale to study politics, as a “lifelong resident” of North Carolina, a “proven winner both on and off the field,” and an “unwavering America First patriot.”
But according to the Johnston County Republican Men’s Organization, a new conservative political organization, Hines is not qualified to represent Johnston County in Congress because he hasn’t lived in the district.
Linwood Parker, the organization’s founder and chairman, says residents need someone who’s part of the community to serve them on Capitol Hill, and that there are plenty of other “viable” candidates running in the district who have local ties to the county.
“Since the president was coming, we supported the president, and we wanted to say, ‘Well, we’re glad to see you, but the truth of it is we just don’t need a congressman from the western part of the state,” said Parker, a former Four Oaks mayor and longtime GOP figure in the county, in an interview. “We need somebody that knows about our farmers and about our businesses, our small businesses, and our desires to create new jobs.”
Hines most recently lived in Winston-Salem, about two hours west of the 13th district. Rob Burgess, senior advisor to Hines, said the candidate is in the process of moving to Fuquay-Varina, a town in southern Wake County within the district. Burgess also said Hines is updating his voter registration in time to vote in the May 17 primary.
Candidates do not need to live in the district which they represent, according to the U.S. Constitution.
Hines faces seven other opponents in the GOP primary: former U.S. Rep. Renee Ellmers, who served in Congress for three terms; Chad Slotta, a former pastor from Cary; Kelly Daughtry, a divorce attorney from Smithfield; Kent Keirsey, a military veteran who graduated from West Point and served in Iraq; as well as candidates DeVan Barbour, the head of an employee insurance benefits firm who lives on his farm outside Benson; Jessica Morel and Kevin Wolff.
Parker said his opposition to Hines isn’t personal, and said that the men’s group, which is independent of the Johnston County Republican Party, isn’t endorsing any of the other GOP candidates running in the May 17 primary.
“This is not about being mad with anybody,” Parker said, adding that he only wants to make voters aware that “Mr. Hines just moved here to run, he didn’t move here to build a house or start a business or start a farm, he just came to run.”
Ads against Hines in local newspapers
This week, Parker’s group has been running an ad in local newspapers with a message addressed to Trump, expressing their opposition to Hines.
The ad mentions Johnston County’s track record of voting for Trump by lopsided margins in past elections and says the reason for the GOP’s success in the county is its history of paying attention to local issues. (Trump won the county with 63% of the vote in 2016, and with 61% of the vote in 2020.)
“The Republican Party has been fortunate to be able to provide sound leadership and conservative government to the people of Johnston County over the past 34 years,” the ad states. “The reason has been our unity and the support of local candidates who campaign on issues important to the citizens of Johnston County.”
In large letters at the bottom, the ad states: “We can’t support Bo Hines, a candidate from Western N.C. for our congressman.”
The ad has already appeared this week in the Four Oaks-Benson News in Review, and the Johnstonian News, in which Parker’s group paid for a full-page spread. Parker said the group is also looking into the rates of running the ad in other newspapers in the district.
Hines defends against criticism
Burgess said in a statement that Hines “is a lifelong North Carolinian” and pointed out that Hines lived in Wake County for close to two years while he was a student at N.C. State.
Burgess said Hines is “the only true America First, social conservative” running in the 13th district, adding that Hines “completely understands what it means to not only hold but also fight for our North Carolina values.”
This isn’t the first time Hines has drawn scrutiny for his decision to run in the 13th district. In an interview with WRAL last month, Hines defended himself from criticism that he was “district shopping” during the months-long dispute over the congressional districts drawn by Republican state lawmakers last year.
The state Supreme Court struck down the original map they drew as an unconstitutional gerrymander. The high court ordered lawmakers to redraw the map, along with maps for state House and Senate districts, and in the end, adopted a congressional map drawn by outside experts.
“The reality is that no one could have forecasted what this map was going to look like,” Hines told WRAL.
When the influential Club for Growth PAC endorsed Hines in mid-February — before the new congressional map was finalized — the organization said Hines would announce which district he would run in once new district lines had been determined. Club for Growth is also supporting the Budd’s campaign. Budd, another Trump-endorsed candidate, is running to replace retiring U.S. Sen. Richard Burr.
The powerful conservative organization has spent millions of dollars in negative attack ads against one of Budd’s main opponents, former Gov. Pat McCrory, and on Thursday, announced it will spend $1.25 million on digital, TV and radio ads highlighting Trump’s endorsement of Hines up until the primary.
Parker said he doesn’t think voters will be influenced by the Club for Growth’s ads to promote Hines.
“What it’s going to require to be the candidate on the Republican side is the support of the people in the 13th district,” Parker said, adding that “all the money spent by any candidate, and all the advertisements don’t change anything” and that “on Election Day, it’s the people that go out and choose their congressman.”
Opponent with long history in Johnston criticizes Hines
Hines is also facing criticism from his opponents in the GOP primary. One of them, Barbour, says there is a lot of support for Trump throughout the 13th district, and that the “general consensus” he’s heard while campaigning over the last few weeks is that “people agree that Trump’s getting bad advice from somebody” when it comes to his endorsement of Hines.
Barbour said his family has lived in Johnston County for several generations, but that he knows people “who love Johnston County just as much as I do, that moved here last year.”
“It’s not so much that you have to be from here, it’s just that you are here, that you have an investment in the community,” he said in an interview.
Barbour said he had been endorsed by Citizen Advocates for Accountable Government, a local group based in North Carolina, which sent surveys to each of the GOP candidates running in the 13th district, and then had its members vote for which candidate the organization should support.
That group is also using its resources to challenge Hines’s campaign, by sending members to knock on doors and talk to voters about Hines, Politico reported on Thursday.
The group’s founder, Dale Lands, did not return a request for comment.
Trump rally details
The “Save America” rally is at The Farm at 95, 215 Batten Road, Selma. Doors open at 2 p.m. The event is scheduled to start at 4 p.m. and Trump is scheduled to speak at 7 p.m.
For more North Carolina government and politics news, listen to the Under the Dome politics podcast from The News & Observer and the NC Insider. You can find it at https://campsite.bio/underthedome or wherever you get your podcasts.
This story was originally published April 8, 2022 at 2:02 PM.
