Heading into the July 4th weekend, GOP candidates for North Carolina’s open U.S. Senate seat have been putting on a fireworks show of their own as primary opponents and their allies all continue to go on the attack in an increasingly chaotic battle for the nomination. 

Check out the latest: 

• Former President Donald Trump dove headfirst into the primary, endorsing Congressman Ted Budd and taking a jab at former Governor Pat McCrory, saying: “You can’t pick people who have already lost two races and do not stand for our values.” 
• According to Budd’s top political adviser: “McCrory’s disconnect with Trump and Trump voters will be a significant problem for him in this primary.” And one of Budd’s top allies, Congressman Dan Bishop was less than subtle about using his endorsement of Budd as an opportunity to assail McCrory as a career politician entering the “fourth decade of [his] career in politics.” 
• Senators Thom Tillis and Richard Burr have both attacked and dismissed former Congressman Walker, who contemplated a primary challenge to Tillis last cycle, as a weak candidate. Tillis said he had “no support” for Walker and told a reporter that “he left Walker off his list of viable candidates.”
  
• Walker welcomed McCrory to the Senate race by saying: “why would we gamble on Pat McCrory – a career politician who has lost more statewide races than he’s won? McCrory has routinely attacked conservatives including President Trump… If Pat wasn’t good enough for Trump’s administration, he’s not good enough for NC.”
• Both Walker and McCrory are speaking out about why they think Trump’s endorsement of a “Washington insider” like Ted Budd was a mistake orchestrated behind closed doors by Mark Meadows, the former North Carolina congressman and White House chief of staff.

“Since the start of this Trump-fueled Senate primary, all three of the Republican candidates and their allies and enemies have been putting on a combative fireworks show of their own,” said Kate Frauenfelder, a spokeswoman for the North Carolina Democratic Party. “As we kick off the holiday weekend, this Republican circular firing squad continues to give North Carolina voters an epic display of primary brawling defined by an explosion of nasty infighting and a colorful display of personal attacks.”

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