By Burgess Everett, Melanie Zanona and Olivia Beavers | June 21, 2021
Key Points:
- “Three Republicans are already turning on each other in the race, where the sitting senator and the former president disagree over who can win.”
- “Donald Trump has endorsed conservative Rep. Ted Budd in North Carolina’s critical Senate race, the former president’s first foray into an open primary in a battleground. That state’s retiring Republican senator has other ideas.”
- “One Republican senator said [Sen. Richard] Burr is ‘telling everyone that McCrory is the only one that has a chance to win.’”
- Meanwhile, “[GOP Senate candidate and former Rep. Mark] Walker compared the situation to Republicans’ debacle in the 2017 Alabama Senate race, where Democrat Doug Jones prevailed over the beleaguered and Trump-backed Republican nominee: ‘This, to me, is kind of a Roy Moore situation if you’re not careful.’”
- “‘I don’t see how [Budd] can win a general election,’ Walker said in an interview. He had only slightly kinder words for McCrory, who lost his reelection race for governor in 2016 to Democrat Roy Cooper.”
- “Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has not indicated whether he will pick a favorite in the race,” which “could also put McConnell on a path to war with Trump.”
Read the full article here.
Published: Jun 21, 2021 | Last Modified: Jun 29, 2021