February 23, 2021/Media, Press

ICYMI: Washington Post Details “Nightmare Scenario” For GOP As Intraparty Fissures Expose “Inherent Challenges In Rebuilding A Coalition” To Win In A Swing State Like North Carolina

Republican infighting ahead of the North Carolina Senate race continues to draw national spotlight. In a new article, the Washington Post positions North Carolina as a “test” for Republicans in the post-Trump world. In the wake of the Capitol insurrection, “the early jockeying ahead of the 2022 race to replace Burr is exposing the inherent challenges in rebuilding a coalition that can win in closely contested states.”

The North Carolina Republican Party’s race to the far-right is pushing independents and moderates farther and farther away: “It’s another sign of the party signaling to unaffiliated voters” or the thousands who have left the Republican Party in the weeks following January 6th, that the GOP “isn’t interested in their vote.” 

That includes former elected officials, voters, and GOP’s financial backers. 

  • North Carolina Supreme Court Justice Bob Orr recently announced his decision to leave the Republican Party: “With these people leaving, it really just reinforces that it’s a Donald Trump cult, and most people don’t want to be a part of it.” 
  • Voters say they are considering leaving the party after the vote to censure Senator Burr: “The GOP must recalibrate and leave the Trump orbit. Let Trump crash into the sun. He charted the course.” Another voter compared Republican Senators that failed to hold Trump accountable in the impeachment trial to a jellyfish, “an invertebrate (without a backbone).” 
  • And it’s threatening GOP fundraising as “big donors in the state are also going to ground.” 

In a swing state like North Carolina, the fealty to Trumpism could jeopardize an open Senate seat: “it scares off voters and the party gets smaller.” 

Republicans are looking at a potential “nightmare scenario” of going full Trump in a state like North Carolina. A Republican consultant warns that “[t]he new growth here in the state of the unaffiliated voters is a concern.” But after the unanimous vote to censure Senator Burr, lighting a fire in the Republican Senate primary, there’s no sign that the party will attempt to distance itself from the former president: “Everyone believes this is going to be the most exciting and entertaining Republican primary season in modern history.”

Read the full article here and more about NCGOP’s messy civil war: 

 

###

Back to news