Have outside forces taken over North Carolina's GOP?

Is North Carolina’s Republican Party vanishing? Has it been bought out and swallowed up by former President Donald Trump and organizations backing his endorsed candidates? These are groups such as the “Conservative Outsider PAC” which shares many of the same donors as the Club for Growth that, with Trump, seems to be dominating this state’s GOP primary season.

What have these groups been able to buy – in return for the more than $10 million that’s already been pumped into the state to promote their hand-picked candidates -- from the North Carolina GOP establishment? Pretty much anything and everything.

*     What do those state GOP leaders get in return?
*     What has been promised and to whom?
*     What’s expected?
*     Who’s in control?

These are crucial questions – not just for the state’s Republicans, but for all North Carolina voters. Is political control being co-opted by big-dollar donors with no stake the state's welfare?

Election laws prohibit outside political action groups from coordinating activities with candidates or political parties. In this case it appears outside groups have simply co-opted the candidates and parties. They seem to have recruited candidates and and financed the campaigns.

 The state’s most powerful Republicans have -- in a party primary environment where the etiquette for such endorsements is usually to avoid overt recommendations and especially attacks -- openly lined up behind the PACs’ hand-picked candidate for U.S. Senate Rep. Ted Budd.

It is remarkable that this roster of endorsers includes the top state GOP leaders -- the most powerful member of the General Assembly state Sen. Phil Berger and foremost statewide elected official Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson. Of course, David MacIntosh was on hand. Trump introduced MacIntosh as “a very powerful man. … A fighter.”

Not only have they captured endorsements – but the Club for Growth has Robinson participating in a $1.5 million attack, openly going after former GOP Gov. Pat McCrory.

“Pat put liberals in charge of state textbooks and supported Democrat judges,” Robinson says in the commercial – parroting an earlier attack ad the Club for Growth’s affiliate School Freedom Fund has been airing around the state.

So much for former President Ronald Reagan’s famous “11th Commandment: ‘Thou shalt not speak ill of another Republican.’”

The millions spent in this primary has given North Carolina voters more complaints and assaults on the character and experience of candidates than affirmative information on why anyone should support a particular office seeker.

At a recent rally in Johnston County, where President Trump reiterated his support for Budd, Lt. Gov. Robinson offered an endorsement as state GOP Chairman Michael Whatley watched on. Never mind the fact the clear perception that leader of the state’s party was taking side his party’s primary.

North Carolina may be the most significant target right now for the Club for Growth – but not the only one. It is working in GOP primary efforts in West Virginia, Texas to boost hand-picked congressional candidates.

North Carolina is one of the most politically competitive states in the nation. Republicans have maintained control of the General Assembly and a lopsided majority of the state’s congressional delegation, not by offering up candidates that attract broad support. They have accomplished it through gerrymandering — so extreme that courts on the state and federal level almost routinely reject and modify the initial election districts that have been drawn. Along with that, they relentlessly seek to impose voting rules and restrictions that have the greatest impact on segments of the voting population that are not generally a part of the party’s natural base.

What has Berger been promised in return for his endorsement in the Senate race? An infusion of cash to help bankroll GOP candidates in vulnerable districts? Independent attack-ad campaigns against targeted Democrats?

What has been promised to Mark Robinson, who has already openly declared his candidacy for governor in 2024? Will he get a Trump endorsement, akin to what Budd received? Has the Club for Growth promised to launch a campaign of attack ads against any of his potential GOP rivals — or against any potential Democratic candidates.

This is not idle speculation. This is the kind of real politics North Carolinians are witnessing at play right now — in North Carolina’s GOP primary.

Should North Carolina be led by officeholders who are more beholden to outside forces with an agenda that has little to do with what’s best for the state and its people?

The state’s primary voters should make their choices based on what THEY view as best for North Carolina and the nation and NOT on what big-spending outsiders want to impose.