Outside group spending big to tell NC voters that Trump endorsed Budd in Senate race
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North Carolina U.S. Senate race
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President Donald Trump endorsed Ted Budd three months ago in North Carolina’s 2022 U.S. Senate race.
Now one of Budd’s biggest political backers is spending $3 million to make sure Republicans in the state are aware of Trump’s endorsement.
Club For Growth Action, which backed Budd in his first congressional bid in 2016 and has lined up behind his Senate campaign, will run a television ad promoting Trump’s endorsement for the next eight weeks in the Raleigh, Charlotte and Greensboro markets and statewide on Fox News.
The spot will start Tuesday and end Nov. 1.
The 30-second ad uses audio from Trump’s surprise endorsement at the Republican state convention in June, where the former president announced his choice at the top of his speech and made veiled, disparaging remarks about former Gov. Pat McCrory, another top candidate in the race. Former U.S. Rep. Mark Walker, another Republican running for Senate, was also in the audience.
They are the top Republicans running to replace Republican U.S. Sen. Richard Burr, who is retiring at the end of his term. Budd, from Davie County, is in his third term in the U.S. House and is a member of the House Freedom Caucus, but is not a high-profile congressman and not that well known outside of his district, which stretches to the Virginia border between Durham and Greensboro and then dips south of Greensboro to the west as far as Rowan and Davie counties.
But Budd does have two powerful allies in his Senate bid: Trump and the Club For Growth.
In June, Club for Growth Action President David McIntosh announced his group had raised more than $5 million — and planned to raise more — to support Budd’s Senate run. Club For Growth put $500,000 into Budd’s 2016 U.S. House race, helping elevate the gun store owner in a crowded 17-candidate field.
Club For Growth is a conservative political committee. Club For Growth Action is its election spending arm, which pays for advertisements and direct mail campaigns. Club For Growth Action spent more than $65 million in the 2020 election cycle, all of it to help elect Republicans.
The ad hits the same theme as a Budd campaign radio ad earlier this summer. Both Budd and the Club for Growth are betting that Trump’s support will elevate him over the better-known McCrory in a Republican primary in a state Trump twice carried in his presidential runs.
A June poll, commissioned by Club For Growth, points to the potential impact. The poll of 509 likely Republican primary voters showed McCrory with a big ballot edge, but pollsters said after voters “become fully aware of Donald Trump’s endorsement,” Budd grabbed a majority of the vote.
More than half of Republicans (54%) in a new Quinnipiac poll said they would be more likely to vote for a candidate endorsed by Trump. Just 6% said an endorsement from the former president would make them less likely to vote for the candidate with 34% saying it would not make a difference. Among all voters, the poll found, Trump’s endorsement is a net negative.
The ad and its focus on Trump’s endorsement comes after The Washington Post published a story about Budd and his family’s role in a bankruptcy that cost farmers millions. Budd declined to comment to The Post, but said in a local television interview this week that the company AgriBioTech, run by his father, had nothing to do with him.
Both Budd’s father and Budd’s campaign adviser told The Washington Post that Budd was not involved, though he signed a $10 million loan to the company at the heart of the lawsuit brought by other creditors.
McCrory and Walker were deeply critical of Budd.
“North Carolinians deserve for him to tell the truth about his direct involvement in fraud, lawsuits, bankruptcies, and farmers losing millions. Do we really need another Washington politician like this representing North Carolina in the United States Senate?” McCrory said in a statement.
Said Walker in a statement: “The report around Ted Budd’s agriculture business bankruptcy and allegations of defrauding farmers is unsettling but confirms the Budd record: follow big money and you always find Ted Budd.”
BEHIND THE STORY
MOREWho is running for US Senate in 2022?
U.S. Sen. Richard Burr, a Republican, is not running for a fourth term in 2022. North Carolina’s primary is May 17, 2022.
Who’s in?
Republicans (in order they will appear on the primary ballot): Marjorie K. Eastman, David Flaherty, Benjamin E. Griffiths, Kenneth Harper, Jr., Pat McCrory, Charles Kenneth Moss, Lichia Sibhatu, Debora Tshiovo, Mark Walker, Jen Banwart, Ms. Lee A. Brian, Leonard L. Bryant, Ted Budd, Drew Bulecza
Democrats (in order they will appear on the primary ballot): James L. Carr, Jr., Robert Colon, Alyssia Rose-Katherine Hammond, Constance (Lov) Johnson, Tobias LaGrone, B. K. Maginnis, Rett Newton, Marcus W. Williams, Greg Antoine, Cheri Beasley, Chrelle Booker
Libertarian: Shannon Bray
Independents (must gather signatures to qualify for November ballot): Kimrey Rhinehardt, Adrien Meadows
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 link.chtbl.com/underthedomenc or wherever you get your podcasts.
This story was originally published September 2, 2021 at 10:51 AM.
