This week, Congressman Budd’s U.S. Senate campaign garnered even more bad media coverage about his “silent” campaign, “off the rails” voting record, and political “deflections and distractions” around the Capitol insurrection. 

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NC Policy Watch: Beasley vs. Budd: With 12 weeks to go, Democratic Senate candidate finds surprising momentum

• There’s a noticeable difference, he added, in the way the two campaigns have been operating since the May 17 primary. “Ted Budd has run a quiet campaign. It’s almost bordering on silence,” he said.
• What Budd is not doing is looking for a middle ground on hard core GOP social issues. Earlier this month, he voted against the Right to Contraception Act, a bill that would protect same-sex and interracial marriages, and a bill to codify Roe v. Wade.

Triad City Beat: EDITORIAL: Ted Budd makes Thom Tillis looks like AOC

• Rep. Ted Budd is off the rails.
• But Budd, who rose to prominence in North Carolina by posting obnoxious billboards for his gun shop and then winning a crowded primary in a stacked district for his Congressional seat, has been leaning even harder into extreme positions that, simply put, North Carolinians do not like.

Charlotte Observer: Look! Ted Budd wants the ‘full truth about what went wrong last year.’ Oh, wait.

• Ted Budd has never really seemed to take the Jan. 6 insurrection seriously. 
• He clings to Donald Trump like a barnacle, still struggles to acknowledge Joe Biden’s victory and once said the attack at the U.S. Capitol was “just patriots standing up.” 
• Nor does Budd seem willing to take accountability for his own actions — which include echoing Trump’s lies about the 2020 election and being one of 147 Republicans who voted against certifying the election results. 
• As the case against Trump builds, his allies seem increasingly desperate to come up with deflections and distractions. This feels like just another example — and it landed flat.

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