In an unanimous vote Monday night, the North Carolina Republican Party censured Senator Burr for his vote to impeach Donald Trump for his role inciting the insurrection at the Capitol, highlighting “growing fractures” within the party and another “sign that party leadership is still showing fealty to the exiled king.” 

In the wake of the attacks on January 6th, thousands of North Carolina Republican voters have changed their party affiliation because they “could no longer bear to represent the party.” A national Republican operative questions the decision to censure Burr: “What message does this send at a time when the party is hemorrhaging voters?” A WRAL editorial may have the answer: “The pyrrhic vote by the state GOP’s central committee to censure Burr speaks more to the extremism, isolation and rigidity of the party’s leaders.”

Looking ahead to the 2022 midterms, North Carolina Republicans are “in an all out civil war,” out of touch with North Carolinians while racing further and further to the right. A political analyst made clear: “Going forward, that’s the kind of party they want to be, is the party of Trump.”

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News & Observer: NC Republicans censure Burr for Trump guilty vote, previewing fight over GOP’s future

• “What message does this send at a time when the party is hemorrhaging voters?”
• Nearly 6,000 North Carolinians changed their party affiliation away from Republican in the two weeks after the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, The News & Observer previously reported. The state was not alone. Nearly 140,000 Republicans in 25 states changed their affiliation, according to an analysis by The New York Times.
• “Censuring one of your own because you didn’t like how he voted on one thing isn’t going to win back any of those voters,” Heye said. “It sends a sign that party leadership is still showing fealty to the exiled king. This isn’t about any policies, isn’t about anything that has to do with conservatism. It’s all about loyalty to one man.”
• But the censure, in its swiftness and level of support, demonstrated just how much influence Trump — who carried North Carolina in 2016 and 2020 — holds over the party even after his electoral loss.
• North Carolina Democratic Party chairman Wayne Goodwin, though, sought to frame the battle over Trump as a “civil war.”
• “It says a lot about the fractures that have been exposed by the Trump trial vote,” Goodwin said in a telephone interview. “The 2022 primary election and more and more of the general election itself is going to be a vote on whether the Republican Party itself is going to become even more aligned with Trumpism or shed that.”

WRAL: Editorial: N.C. GOP censure only elevates Burr’s principled stand

• The pyrrhic vote by the state GOP’s central committee to censure Burr speaks more to the extremism, isolation and rigidity of the party’s leaders than it does about duty to all the North Carolinians he represents and obligation to the Constitution.

WNCN: NCGOP to vote on censuring Sen. Burr over impeachment vote

• I think it’s a statement of the Republican Party if the censure passes that they don’t want any kind of pushback on former President Trump,” said Meredith College political analyst David McLennan. “Going forward, that’s the kind of party they want to be, is the party of Trump.”
• “There is a growing fracture within not only the national Republican Party but certainly well within the North Carolina Republican Party,” said North Carolina Democratic Party Chairman Wayne Goodwin. “It’s a shame and disgrace that you have the GOP turning on what Mitch McConnell said was going to be a vote of conscience. And here they are attacking their own.”
• Since the election, about 20,000 formerly registered Republicans have switched to become Democrats or unaffiliated.

WTVD: ‘Sad day’: GOP has abandoned core principles, Sen. Burr says after being censured

• The North Carolina Democratic Party sought to portray the censure as a sign of the division in their party rivals.
• “The North Carolina Republican Party is in an all out civil war,” NCDP Chair Wayne Goodwin said in a statement. “Today’s censure vote against their senior Senator for a vote of conscience in the most bipartisan conviction of a president in history proves this is the Donald Trump Party above all else. North Carolinians are already fleeing the party by the thousands, donors are closing their checkbooks, and political leaders are withdrawing their support after North Carolina Republicans helped incite a dangerous attack on our Capitol, and the fallout is only growing. It’s clear — North Carolina Republicans are already in a bitter civil war that will shape not only the messy primary to replace Senator Burr but also the party for years to come.”

The Hill: North Carolina Republican Party votes to censure Burr for vote to convict Trump

• The North Carolina Democratic Party blasted the censure, with Chair Wayne Goodwin saying in a statement that the state’s GOP is “is in an all out civil war.
• “Today’s censure vote against their senior Senator for a vote of conscience in the most bipartisan conviction of a president in history proves this is the Donald Trump Party above all else,” Goodwin said in a statement. “North Carolinians are already fleeing the party by the thousands, donors are closing their checkbooks, and political leaders are withdrawing their support after North Carolina Republicans helped incite a dangerous attack on our Capitol, and the fallout is only growing.”

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