Republican feuding shaping the North Carolina Senate primary made national news last night as CNN detailed the infighting at play in the wake of the Capitol riots, Senator Burr’s vote to impeach Donald Trump, and the NC GOP’s unanimous vote to censure him: “North Carolina, a battleground state at the center of the fight for the soul of the Republican Party.”
NCDP Chair Wayne Goodwin said: “The GOP is in a civil war, and North Carolina is ground zero.” As CNN notes, after the Capitol insurrection thousands of Republican voters changed their party affiliation. One Trump voter said he was disgusted with what he saw: “I voted for Trump, and I was mad at myself.”
Despite changing tides among voters, Republican candidates are already racing further and further to the right. Catawba College Professor Michael Bitzer told Spectrum News this week that the NC GOP has sent a clear message that the “Trump power base within the Republican Party is very much in control” and “may dictate” the 2022 Senate Primary. One North Carolina Republican strategist has concerns that Republicans are “going to lose the seat because we get the Trumpiest guy of the bunch.”
With Mark Walker already in the race to the right primary, Lindsey Graham all but endorsing Lara Trump for the nomination, Pat McCrory “likely” to enter the race, and even GOP Chair Michael Whately not counting it out, according to CNN — it’s an “open season.” CNN’s Ryan Nobles said “there could be as many as 10 Republicans running for the GOP nomination for Senate in 2022.”
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