New Dem Kathy Manning ran for Congress in NC-13 in 2018 and lost to Republican incumbent Ted Budd by around 6 points but when the state Supreme Court ordered an un-gerrymandered map she moved next door to the open and very blue 6th district and won in a landslide. A mediocre backbencher, she was reelected in 2022 with a comfortable margin against Republican Christian Castelli. And then a new right-wing state Supreme Court took over and gave the GOP legislature the green light to gerrymander the state up again. The 6th district went from D+21 to so red that Manning decided to retire and there isn’t even a Democratic candidate running! (Under the new lines, Trump would have beaten Biden there by over 16 points.)
Six Republicans ran in the primary and split the vote so thoroughly that it has led to a May 14th runoff. Castelli ran again— as did Bo Hines who had moved from another district— but they were edged out by former Ted Budd staffer Addison McDowell and far right former congressman Mark Walker. Hines put over $600,000 of his own into the race and raised another $462,000. Castelli put $500,000 of his own into the race and raised another $325,000. Walker raised $689,000 and did no self-funding. McDowell didn’t put any of his own money in and raised only $219,000, but he had something more valuable than money in North Carolina Republican politics— an endorsement from Señor Trumpanzee.
The results belied the finances? Not exactly. About a week ago, we looked at two groups of conservative billionaires determined to keep MAGAts from winning seats in the 119th Congress. Conservatives For American Excellence spent $877,768 in negative ad against Hines. They also spent $170,155 against Harris and were joined by America Leads Action PAC, which spent $1,829,252 against Harris. OK, so let’s say they knocked Hines out of contention. And perhaps they held Walker back from first place. But if their preferred candidate was Castelli, not the Trump-backed McDowell… all that spending was for naught.
And… there’s even more to this sordid story about how democracy can be undermined. Yesterday it was announced that Trump got Walker out of the race— by giving him a job on the campaign doing outreach to faith groups and minority communities.
Trump, Walker said, told him he would offer his “100 percent endorsement” if Walker decided to run for an open seat in 2026 or 2028, but told Walker he suspected the former House member would “prefer to be directly working with him in the White House,” where Walker’s new job will continue if Trump is elected in November.
“We’re delighted to go and do something that I feel like is in our lane,” Walker said, employing his often-used plural language to refer to himself and his wife, Kelly, a flight trauma nurse. The former Baptist pastor said his work will likely begin in the southern swing states of North Carolina and Georgia, though details are still being finalized.
The former chair of the Republican Study Committee and vice chair of the House Republican Conference, Walker left Congress in early 2021, going on to launch campaigns for Senate, governor and House. But Trump endorsed other candidates over him. Trump backed now-Sen. Ted Budd in North Carolina’s 2022 Senate race. And after Walker initially launched a bid last year for governor, he switched to running in a House primary in which Trump later endorsed Addison McDowell. Walker and McDowell were set to go to a runoff later this spring, though Walker said he is no longer continuing his campaign and will not request the runoff election.
McDowell [pictured on the right] had already begun to consolidate endorsements from other Republican candidates who ran in the state’s Super Tuesday primary.
A political consultant working for McDowell, granted anonymity to freely discuss the situation, said McDowell’s campaign was not involved in negotiations to get Walker out of the race. Walker called McDowell on Wednesday afternoon to concede, the consultant said.
Walker’s confirmation Wednesday of his new job on Trump’s staff also served as Walker’s first endorsement of Trump in the 2024 presidential race. Citing his relationships with Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Walker declined to endorse during the Republican primary.