Lara Left North Carolina Many Years Ago; Now She Thinks Trump's Name Will Win Her A Senate Seat

Roy Cooper, Lara Trump

With Republican incumbent, Sen. Thom Tillis, not running again and popular former Gov. Roy Cooper (D) leaning towards jumping into the race, North Carolina Republicans are looking towards Trump’s daughter-in-law, Lara, as their best shot to keep the seat red. Last year, Trump held the seat against Kamala Harris by slightly better than 3 points, after Biden had given him a much closer race in 2020:

• Trump- 2,758,775 (49.9%)

• Biden- 2,684,292 (48.6%)

  
  

However, on the same day last year, Trump's strongly endorsed candidate for governor didn’t feel any coattails. In fact, Democrat Josh Stein crushed Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson (R)— and drew significantly more votes than Trump did himself.

• Josh Stein- 3,069,496 (54.9%)

• Mark Robinson- 2,241,309 (40.1%)

Lara Trump, wife of Eric, doesn’t live in North Carolina, although she was born there and went to school there before moving to NYC to go to cooking school and work at the Trump family charity which was shut down because of the Trump family stealing the contributions. She hasn’t had any relationship with North Carolina since leaving for New York and lives in Florida now... and nearly ran for the U.S. Senate there, but was rejected by Gov. Ron DeSantis who appointed a crony of his own when Rubio gave up the seat to join the Trump cabinet. All this after her singing career flopped and after Trump appointed her co-chair of the RNC.

Yesterday, Jared Gans reported that, for no discernible reason, at least one Republican strategist, who presumably wants to work for her campaign, said she’s “earned the right of first refusal.” Señor TACO pushes her when he can even though she doesn’t live in the state. “She’s a great person, Lara Trump. I mean, that would always be my first choice, but she doesn’t live there now,” Trump said. “But she’s there all the time, her parents are there. You know, she really knows North Carolina well.” 

Most of the other Republicans who have been hoping to run for the seat, have said they won’t if she gets in. Others who have floated their names include little known freshmen Congress Members Pat Harrigan, Addison McDowell, Tim Moore, former Congress Members Dan Bishop and George Holding plus Rep. Greg Murphy, former NRC co-chair Michael Whatley, MAGA-psycho Michele Morrow, who was defeated last year when she ran for state Superintendent of Public Instruction, a former ambassador to Denmark and some random people.

Lara Trump could have some potential vulnerabilities if she runs. Despite playing an active role in campaigning for her father-in-law and other candidates previously, she has never run for office herself. 

North Carolina Democratic strategist Morgan Jackson said her candidacy would solve a problem Republicans had with Tillis, who was increasingly unpopular with the Republican base. But she could turn off the critical 1 percent to 3 percent of voters who swing in the middle. 

“I think Thom Tillis had a better shot at those voters than Lara Trump does because he did not come across to those voters as a partisan warrior,” Jackson said. “And frankly, I think the last thing voters are looking for is a partisan warrior right now, and I say that as either a Democrat or Republican nominee.” 

“What is clear is with Thom Tillis being run out of the race by [President] Trump is that they’re going to get a partisan warrior,” he added. 

[GOP strategist Jonathan] Felts said he’s not concerned about Lara Trump being untested as a candidate because she showed her strength while campaigning for others. He said she “had audiences eating out of her hand” speaking at the state GOP convention in 2021, demonstrating her grassroots appeal. 

“I know she’s told Ted, she’s all in for Ted,” Felts recalled thinking at the time. “If she were to announce right now [she’s running], I mean, the place would just go insane.” 

One other attack she could face is a perceived lack of loyalty to North Carolina. Despite being born and raised there, she and her family live in Florida. Accusations of carpetbagging have been a common attack in key Senate races in recent years. 

…Jackson stressed that the result in the battleground state will likely be close regardless of the candidates, though analysts agree candidate quality will matter considerably. 

“North Carolina is a very big state. It’s big. It’s hard to win. I don’t care which side of the aisle you’re on,” he said. “You’re going to have a close race, and it’s going to be a tough race.”