{"id":33985,"date":"2022-01-28T02:16:14","date_gmt":"2022-01-28T02:16:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/?p=33985"},"modified":"2022-01-28T02:16:14","modified_gmt":"2022-01-28T02:16:14","slug":"walker-defies-trump-says-hell-stay-in-n-c-senate-race","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/?p=33985","title":{"rendered":"Walker defies Trump, says he\u2019ll stay in N.C. Senate race"},"content":{"rendered":"

Source: Politics<\/p>\n

Former Rep. Mark Walker says he is staying in North Carolina\u2019s open Senate race, a decision that rattles the GOP primary in one of the nation\u2019s most competitive contests.<\/p>\n

His decision to remain in the contest defies former President Donald Trump\u2019s offer to endorse him for a House seat \u2014 an offer that was designed to clear the Republican field for Trump\u2019s chosen candidate, Rep. Ted Budd.<\/p>\n

As Walker spoke to a crowd of hundreds of supporters in Greensboro, N.C. on Thursday night, a crew dramatically lifted a tarp from his campaign bus, revealing a Walker for Senate logo.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we\u2019re basically saying is we\u2019re going to stay on that path, and we\u2019re going to keep working at this,\u201d said Walker, who remains a distant third in a primary with former Gov. Pat McCrory and Budd.<\/p>\n

Trump last summer endorsed Budd in the primary. But the congressman has failed to secure a significant lead over McCrory, despite the Club for Growth\u2019s super PAC pledging at least $10 million to boost his campaign.<\/p>\n

Walker in early December attended a meeting at Mar-a-Lago<\/a>, where Trump offered his endorsement to Walker if he exited the Senate primary and instead ran for a House seat similar to his old district. The meeting, attended by Club for Growth president David McIntosh, was organized in an attempt to smooth Budd\u2019s path to the party nomination. Walker announced afterward he would take the holidays to come to a decision about his plans.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur polling shows he is already out of the North Carolina Senate race, so what\u2019s the difference?\u201d McIntosh said Thursday, referring to Walker\u2019s decision to remain in the race.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for Trump did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n

On Thursday, Walker touted the diverse coalition behind his Senate campaign, including Black pastors and other people of color seated on stage behind him.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am the only candidate endorsed by everybody from Freedom Caucus members, Sen. Tim Scott, Mike Huckabee, minority community leaders who are registered Democrats,\u201d Walker said.<\/p>\n

Budd\u2019s campaign quickly criticized Walker after the event. In a statement, Budd adviser Jonathan Felts said \u201cit\u2019s a bad sign when a candidate has to re-announce that he\u2019s still an actual candidate\u201d after more than a year of campaigning.<\/p>\n

Walker\u2019s announcement comes as uncertainty looms over North Carolina\u2019s newly drawn congressional map, which is mired in a court challenge and could be redrawn, with the possibility of the House district in question becoming heavily Democratic. Candidates are also awaiting word on whether the state\u2019s primary date will be pushed back for a second time, now to June.<\/p>\n

The extended Senate primary fight \u2014 already pushed back from March to May \u2014 will cost Republicans even more to secure the nomination. A fourth GOP Senate candidate, Marjorie Eastman, entered the race early October and reported raising $422,978 in the last 13 weeks.<\/p>\n

Democrats, meanwhile, cleared their primary field for former state Supreme Court Justice Cheri Beasley.<\/p>\n

Read More<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Source: Politics Former Rep. Mark Walker says he is staying in North Carolina\u2019s open Senate race, a decision that rattles the GOP primary in one of the nation\u2019s most competitive… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":33986,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33985"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=33985"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33985\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/33986"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=33985"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=33985"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/cryptospotters.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=33985"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}