Rep. Ted Budd, left, and Cheri Beasley
On Tuesday, North Carolina Republicans selected Rep. Ted Budd (R-NC), a far-right extremist who has pushed false claims about the 2020 election, to be their Senate nominee. He will face Democratic nominee Cheri Beasley, a former chief justice of the state's Supreme Court.
As of Wednesday morning, Budd had received more than 58 percent of the GOP primary vote. Former Gov. Pat McCrory received just below 25 percent of the vote, while former Rep. Mark Walker received about nine percent of the vote.
Budd was a vocal backer of efforts to overturn President Joe Biden's victory over former President Donald Trump, baselessly claiming that Americans had no faith in the results due to "legitimate concerns over voter fraud, machine irregularities, and mail-in ballots."
Budd voted to overturn North Carolina's Electoral College results, citing "irregularities & constitutional violations" and defended that move as recently as Monday.
Though Budd did once admit that Biden was the legitimate president, Trump endorsed Budd anyway, telling supporters he was "someone you’ll be very proud of. He'll fight like hell."
Since getting elected to the U.S. House in 2016, Budd has repeatedly embraced extreme positions. He joined the far-right Freedom Caucus, voted to repeal the Affordable Care Act, urged the Supreme Court to reject LGBTQ nondiscrimination protections, and praised Russian President Vladimir Putin as "a very intelligent actor."
In 2019, Budd refused to say that it was inappropriate for a U.S. president to ask other countries to meddle in American elections, calling it a "tricky question."
The following year, he suggested that stay-at-home orders to curb the COVID-19 pandemic were being pushed by Democratic politicians with a "socialist bent."
Last June, Budd pushed to cut $111 million in transportation funds earmarked for his own state, calling it "pork-barrel spending."
As a candidate, Budd has presented himself as an outsider who "can't be bought by the swamp," despite receiving significant funding from lobbyists and lobbying firms.
Democratic voters selected Beasley as their nominee. After years of working as a public defender and a judge, she was appointed to lead the North Carolina Supreme Court in 2019 — becoming the first Black woman to hold that post.
Her campaign has focused on justice for all, affordable health care, women's rights, and safeguarding the right to vote. Unlike Budd, she strongly supports codifying Roe v. Wade.
North Carolina has been a swing state in recent elections. The state narrowly voted for Trump in 2020 (49.9 percent to 48.6 percent), while also re-electing Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper (51.5 percent to 47 percent).
The seat is open because Sen. Richard Burr (R-NC) is retiring. The Cook Political Report and Sabato's Crystal Ball both list the seat as leaning Republican in November.
Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.
Rick Santorum’s Family Provocation
WASHINGTON — Lost in the hubbub over Herman Cain’s love affair with the number nine during last week’s Republican debate were some compelling observations by Rick Santorum about “the breakdown of the American family” and its relationship to poverty. His comments deserved more attention than a wacky tax plan or Newt Gingrich’s proposal to jail two Democratic foes.
“You want to look at the poverty rate among families that have … a husband and wife working in them?” Santorum asked. “It’s 5 percent today. A family that’s headed by one person? It’s 30 percent today. We need to do something.”
Noting that “the word ‘home’ in Greek is the basis of the word ‘economy,'” the former Pennsylvania senator argued for “a policy that supports families, that encourages marriage, that has fathers take responsibility for their children.” He added: “You can’t have a wealthy society if the family breaks down.”
Santorum is broadly right. According to Columbia University’s National Center for Children in Poverty, 5 percent of married family households were poor at some point in the last 12 months, compared with 28.8 percent of single-parent households. Something important is going on.
Interestingly, one politician who agrees with Santorum is named Barack Obama. “We know that children who grow up without a father are more likely to live in poverty,” the president said at a Father’s Day event last year. “They’re more likely to drop out of school. They’re more likely to wind up in prison. They’re more likely to abuse drugs and alcohol. … They’re more likely to become teenage parents themselves.” Growing up without a father, he added, “leaves a hole in a child’s life that no government can fill.”
Before we ask what is to be done, what we shouldn’t do is blame gays and lesbians for disrupting the heterosexual family. We straight people have done a fine job of this all by ourselves.
Santorum takes a somewhat different view. He has argued that if same-sex marriage becomes the norm, “marriage then becomes, to some degree, meaningless.” This I don’t understand. Neither my marriage nor Santorum’s is rendered “meaningless” because a gay or lesbian couple decides to make a lifelong commitment.
On the contrary. Jonathan Rauch, a friend and one of the ablest champions of gay marriage, has argued that the demand for gay marriage could be seen as a conservative turn within the gay community, involving as it did a “communitarian and family-minded” emphasis on “civic responsibilities.”
Beyond the gay marriage battle, we need a bargain: Liberals should acknowledge, as Obama has, that strengthening the family is vital to economic justice. Conservatives should acknowledge that economic justice is vital to strengthening families.
For example: Our national policies on sick leave and family leave are among the most anti-family in the developed world. When faced with a choice between the needs of the family and the needs of employers, we nearly always tilt toward employers. Western European nations, influenced by both pro-family Christian Democrats and pro-labor Social Democrats, have done far more to make work compatible with family life.
Conservatives often say that tax policies should be more helpful to families raising children. I agree. But this can’t be yet another excuse for cutting taxes on the wealthy. New tax benefits for families with kids have to be concentrated on those in the middle and the bottom of the income structure, where modest amounts additional relief could go a long way.
The impact of the single-parent family on the well-being of children has sometimes been an explosive matter because it is often discussed in relation to the African-American community. Obama himself has made this explicit link. And young black men do face a crisis. Rather than avoid the issue (a temptation for liberals) or pretend that public policy can do little about it (a temptation for conservatives), we need to make their plight a high national priority. Scholars such as Harry Holzer and Peter Edelman have suggested a variety of work and education policies that could improve the economic situation of young men who are poor. This, in turn, could enhance the chances of family formation, which has been deteriorating among poorer whites as well.
It does not demean the heroic work of dedicated single mothers to say that two-parent families have a better shot at prosperity. So I’m glad Santorum brought up the issue. But let’s focus on practical ways to make the family stronger. Using pro-family slogans to divide us against each other won’t do much for any sort of family.
E.J. Dionne’s email address is ejdionne(at)washpost.com.
(c) 2011, Washington Post Writers Group