In GOP primary, Grange says she has better chance than Forest to beat Gov. Cooper
Updated Jan. 31 with developments.
Republicans will choose from two candidates for governor in the North Carolina primary who are already serving in state government: one who has been expected to run since Gov. Pat McCrory was in office, the other a little-known lawmaker who says she’s the better candidate to defeat first-term Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat.
Lt. Gov. Dan Forest is finishing his second term as lieutenant governor, a job which former lieutenant governors acknowledge is often a stepping stone — but with no guarantee — to higher office.
For the past seven years, Forest has been in a higher-profile position than N.C. Rep. Holly Grange, a state lawmaker from Wilmington who is now fighting uphill in a race dominated so far by Forest. His many endorsements include dozens of sheriffs and — added before Grange entered the race — the vast majority of Republicans in the state House.
She’s running because she thinks she can defeat Cooper, she said.
In an interview with The News & Observer, Grange said Forest has made divisive comments and she was worried about his electability versus Cooper.
Forest said Grange is a former supporter of his, and that he’s not divisive, blaming the news media for taking his comments out of context.
The candidates don’t differ much on policy positions — both oppose abortion, for example — or in their support of President Donald Trump. Forest is an architect and Grange is an Army veteran.
“The number one difference between me and Dan Forest is I’m not a career politician. I don’t come from a political family; I come from a military family,” she said.
In an interview with the N&O, Forest said he always expected a primary opponent. He didn’t criticize Grange.
‘I own the things I say’
Forest has received national attention for comments he made on Martin Luther King Jr. Day about Planned Parenthood and last summer about multiculturalism.
He said both times a sentence was taken out of context and twisted around.
“I own the things I say, we all own the things we say ... I would never say anything intentionally insensitive,” Forest said.
His comment about multiculturalism was made during a speech about unity and bringing people together, Forest said, and that when multiculturalism turns into “identity politics,” it is bad for America.
“So there was one half of one sentence that was taken out of context from an entire half hour presentation ... The media likes taking half of a sentence and twisting it around and making it the opposite, which was the exact same thing that happened [at the MLK event],” he said.
Grange told a story to explain why she thinks Forest is “divisive.”
Grange said that when her husband, a retired Army general, was on top of a mountain in Iraq, someone asked him where he was from. When he answered “North Carolina,” the person said, “Oh, that bathroom place,” referring to House Bill 2, she said.
HB2, which Forest supported, required people in government buildings to use the restroom that corresponded to the gender on their birth certificate. Most of the bill was repealed in 2017, after national criticism and boycotts of the state.
Grange said that HB2 was “a bit of an overreach.”
Military and political families
Grange grew up an Army brat. Like her father, she went to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. The family visited campus one summer when she was a child.
“I said, ‘Daddy, I want to come here, and he said, ‘Well, Holly, they don’t let girls come here,’” Grange said.
That changed.
She was in the third class of women to attend West Point, from 1978 to 1982. About half of the women in her class were there at graduation. Grange said while classmates were assaulted and mistreated, she was not one of them.
She spent several years of her Army career in the Corps of Engineers stationed at Fort Bragg, where she met her husband, who was in Delta Force. Later, with two kids in elementary school and the Army not guaranteeing she and her husband, also an Army officer, would be stationed at the same place, Grange left active duty for the Reserves. Now she works for the company her husband started, Osprey Global Solutions, which offers classes and training in security, armament, risk and medical situations. It also sold arms domestically and abroad, though Grange said that has stopped.
Forest also went into the same line of work as one of his parents. His mother is former U.S. Rep. Sue Myrick, who served in Congress from 1995 to 2013. Forest said that he saw the toll a political career can take on a person and said it’s grueling for a family when their lives are 24/7 politics.
“I really didn’t want to be anywhere near it,” Forest said, and went into architecture. Even so, “one day I felt called to jump in and do it.” He said that everybody who gets into politics believes they can make a difference.
As lieutenant governor, Forest said he worked to build influence and trust in the General Assembly. He chose education as his focus, and promoted alternatives to traditional public schools such as charter schools and voucher programs. He’s also championed other education initiatives such as broadband internet access in schools and a new required finance course for high school students.
Second Amendment support
As both candidates have acknowledged, they aren’t split on policy positions.
Grange and Forest are both staunch Second Amendment supporters.
Grange was one of the House Republican Caucus signers of Rep. Keith Kidwell’s letter supporting “Second Amendment sanctuaries” in North Carolina and Virginia, where a Democratic majority legislature plans to pass new gun laws. The sanctuaries are largely symbolic resolutions passed by counties, which must follow state law.
“I’m very concerned about taking away the rights of law-abiding citizens,” Grange said of gun regulation legislation. She said stricter laws aren’t the solution to gun violence, including a “red flag” bill proposed by Democrats in 2019 which would allow family members or law enforcement to petition a judge to restrict a person’s access to firearms if there was evidence of them posing danger to themselves or others.
“I just have a problem with people not having due process and being able to represent themselves,” Grange said about the red flag bill.
Another bill included multiple gun regulations along with requiring insurance for gun owners. Grange said that should be a personal decision, and she has NRA insurance. Grange and her husband own a shooting range in Bladen County.
Forest said proposed gun bills in North Carolina, including gun insurance, are ridiculous.
“I think our gun laws are great,” he said, and the state should be fighting illegal gun ownership.
“The reality is gun laws work fine ... There’s a system in place; sometimes the system breaks,” Forest said.
He said policy changes aren’t the answer to mass shootings. Contributing factors are evil, mental illness and the breakdown of the family, he said.
Forest said that people need to have a moral compass and something to give them hope.
“For me, it’s my Christian faith,” he said. Forest is a member of Christ Baptist Church in Raleigh.
Both are anti-abortion
While Grange and Forest are both pro-life, Grange thinks there should be some “very limited” exceptions. Grange said her sister was born very early to their mother, who had a difficult pregnancy and was encouraged to abort. Their mother did not, and her sister was born weighing less than 3 pounds, she said. Today she is 38, said Grange.
Grange said limited exceptions to abortion would be to save the life of the mother, and possibly in cases of rape and incest.
Forest said he is “staunchly pro-life” and questioned exceptions to abortion.
“I’m pro life, I’m going to stand on the life of the baby, and technology is getting better every single day and we’re finding less complications,” Forest said.
“It’s very rare the life of the mother is ever an issue with the child, and when those kinds of situations come up the doctors are wise to be able to make the appropriate decisions, so I don’t think we have to get too embroiled in that kind of nebulous debate,” he said.
GOP primary voters
Mitch Kokai, senior political analyst for the right-leaning John Locke Foundation, said that Forest already has a lot of support in the Republican Party. Kokai said it was fairly clear when Forest was elected lieutenant governor that he would run for governor after that.
With Forest’s second term ending — lieutenant governors are limited to two terms — there are 15 candidates vying in the primary for his job.
A primary winner can come down to “who gets their troops out” and who voters have most likely heard of, Kokai said. He said that Grange has a good track record as a state legislator and may appeal to voters because she is a military veteran, but some Republicans view her as getting in Forest’s way.
“I think a lot of people would like Holly Grange as a candidate for something else this time around,” he said.
Donald Bryson, president and CEO of the conservative think tank Civitas Institute, said that the impeachment of Trump is sucking the oxygen out of the room when it comes to the Republican primary.
“Not some of it, all of it. It’s just difficult here to find any oxygen,” he said.
Bryson said that Forest has the statewide name recognition that Grange doesn’t unless something changes like television ads and direct mail.
Campaign fundraising
Major political campaign donor Greg Lindberg, who was indicted on bribery charges, contributed to a political action committee supporting Forest’s campaign. Lindberg gave $1.4 million to the North Carolina Republican Council of State Committee, chaired by Forest, the News & Observer previously reported.
Forest said the money was given legally and received legally, and he considers it a non-issue for him as it is for other recipients. Lindberg also donated to Democrats.
Forest’s campaign had raised more than $2.7 million through mid-2019 and had $1 million in cash on hand at that point, according to state Board of Elections campaign finance reports. Grange did not announce her campaign until July.
Finance reports through the end of 2019 are due Jan. 31.
Whoever wins is expected to face a well-funded opponent in Cooper, who is not likely to spend much money in his Democratic primary race against Ernest T. Reeves. A Libertarian, Steven J. DiFiore, and a Constitution Party candidate, Al Pisano, are also running.
Cooper’s campaign announced Friday it raised almost $4 million in the second half of 2019 and now has $8.2 million in cash on hand. His campaign said that 90% of its donors are from North Carolina.
Cooper for North Carolina spokesperson Liz Doherty said in a statement that: “With more than three-quarters of our contributions $100 or less, it’s clear North Carolinians are chipping in whatever they can to make sure Governor Cooper is re-elected so he can continue his mission of moving North Carolina forward to a place where people are better educated, healthier, and have more money in their pockets.”
The state primary is March 3. Early voting starts Feb. 13. Visit ncsbe.gov/index.html to look up your polling place.
For more North Carolina government and politics news, listen to the Domecast politics podcast from The News & Observer and the NC Insider. You can find it on Megaphone, Apple Podcasts, iHeartRadio, Stitcher or wherever you get your podcasts.
This story was originally published January 30, 2020 at 12:03 PM.
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