The latest development in the “divisive” Republican primary for the North Carolina Senate seat proves that Congressman Ted Budd is in the pocket of his insider donors. A new report found that Congressman Budd’s campaign is “heavily fueled by the insiders he claims cannot buy him.” 

“Congressman Budd says he ‘can’t be bought by the swamp,’ but his list of donors and far-right voting record prove otherwise,” said Kate Frauenfelder, a spokeswoman for NCDP. “In an escalating Republican primary, Rep. Budd’s blatant hypocrisy is sure to become additional fodder for his opponents to exploit.”

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American Independent: GOP Senate candidate funded by lobbyists says he ‘can’t be bought by the swamp’

• Rep. Ted Budd (R-NC) is running for his party’s nomination for an open Senate seat as a self-proclaimed “outsider.” But already his campaign is heavily fueled by the insiders he claims cannot buy him.
• The three-term representative announced last Wednesday that he will run for the seat of retiring Republican Sen. Richard Burr in 2022. “I am a political outsider who can’t be bought by the swamp and I don’t give a rip about their Washington game,” he said in his kickoff video. “I’ve shoveled a lot of manure on my family’s farm, and it’s not the dirtiest job I’ve had now that I’ve been in Congress.” He vowed to be a “liberal agenda crusher.”
• But a review of his campaign’s first-quarter financial filings with the Federal Election Commission conducted American Bridge 21st Century, a Democratic opposition research organization based in Washington, D.C., casts doubt on that claim of independence from powerful monied interests.
• The review finds that this year alone Budd has received thousands of dollars from lobbyists and lobbying firms.
• Budd has record of voting for far-right interests during his time in Congress.
• According to a FiveThirtyEight analysis, he voted with Donald Trump more than 91% of the time.
• In 2019, he refused to say whether he thought a president asking foreign countries to interfere in U.S. elections was OK, saying it was a “tricky question,” after news emerged that Trump had asked Ukraine and China to dig up dirt on Joe Biden, the man who would ultimately defeat him in the 2020 election.
• In April 2020, Budd opposed emergency stay-at-home orders designed to curb the spread of the coronavirus, accusing Democratic politicians of having a “socialist bent” and warning about such restrictions, “Let’s not destroy things.”
• In February, he argued that instead of passing Biden’s $1.9 trillion pandemic relief legislation, the “best stimulus” would be for Congress to pass a liability shield for businesses and take away the right of workers to sue if their employers caused them to get sick.

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