July 15, 2022/Media, Press

Bad News Budd: Special Interest Ties Define Budd As Corrupt, Bankrolled Politician

Congressman Budd’s record is under scrutiny with new reporting over the last week showing he “took advantage of his position” in Congress to cozy up to corporate special interests and reap the benefits  – from Club for Growth to Big Pharma. And in a new op-ed this morning, End Citizens United President Tiffany Muller is slamming Budd for putting the interests of his wealthy donors ahead of North Carolinians. 

What North Carolinians are reading about Ted Budd: 

American Independent: GOP Senate nominee Ted Budd voted against bill to lower drug prices as he took Pharma cash

  • Rep. Ted Budd, who recently won the Republican nomination to run in November for the North Carolina Senate seat being vacated by retiring incumbent Republican Richard Burr, voted in 2019 against H.R. 3, the Elijah E. Cummings Lower Drug Costs Now Act, which would have lowered the cost of prescription drugs.
  • Within days of that vote, he had received thousands of dollars from pharmaceutical industry political action committees.
  • The House passed H.R. 3 on Dec. 12, 2019, by a vote of 230-192. Like nearly all congressional Republicans — and the pharmaceutical industry that helps bankroll them — Budd opposed it.
  • The same day, Budd received a $2,500 contribution from the political action committee of pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline, which as of May 16 of this year now goes by the name GSK. Five days later, Pfizer’s PAC gave him a $1,000 check. By the end of 2020, he had received a total of $3,500 from each company’s PAC.

WGHP: Senate candidate Ted Budd’s expensive trips paid for by benefactors draw criticism from Democrats

  • During his early years as the representative of North Carolina’s 13th Congressional District, Rep. Ted Budd, like most of his colleagues, took advantage of his position to take several trips funded by outside groups.
  • But now those sometimes lavish trips that were paid for by his benefactor Club for Growth and other conservative organizations are drawing new scrutiny after members of his own party attacked him during the Republican US Senate primary, which he won, for the outside money his campaign had received.
  • “The same special interests that spent millions to get Congressman Budd through the primary also paid for his luxury trips around the world,” she said in a statement for WGHP. “It’s the latest example of how Congressman Budd is another corrupt politician who wants power at all costs and plays by his own rules to help himself.”
  • Said NC Democratic Party Chair Bobbie Richardson in a statement for WGHP: “Congressman Budd is a corrupt Washington politician who took tens of thousands of dollars in special interest money to go on luxury trips while failing to deliver results on the critical issues facing North Carolinians.”
  • Chris Cooper, a government professor and elections expert from Western Carolina University, said that “when politicians talk of ‘the swamp,’ this is exactly the kind of thing they’re referring to. 

Indy Week: Op-Ed: Ted Budd Travels on the Special Interest Dime

  • The more we learn about Congressman Ted Budd, the more clear it becomes that he is a corrupt politician who plays by his own rules to help himself and his wealthy donors—at the expense of North Carolina families.
  • North Carolinians who turned on the TV over the spring saw first hand how cozy Ted Budd is with his special interest allies. His dark money allies like Club for Growth dragged him across the finish line of the nasty GOP Senate primary with over $14 million in ads.
  • Now, new reporting reveals that Budd “took advantage of his position” in Congress and is even more personally indebted to corporate special interests than we thought. Last week, North Carolinians learned that in Congress, Budd took a series of trips worth over $30,000 to destinations like Miami, Palm Beach, and Oslo, Norway—all funded by corporate special interests. He stayed at luxury resorts where rooms cost minimum $900 per night, while taking thousands of campaign dollars from corporate special interests and voting to pad their bottom lines in Washington.
  • Election experts called it the epitome of the DC “swamp” and agreed voters should be concerned about where their politicians like Budd’s loyalties lie.

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