Ted Budd profits from gun sales, but now it may cost him in the Senate race
Former President Donald Trump did North Carolina Republicans no favor when he barged into a primary race and endorsed U.S. Rep. Ted Budd to be the Senate nominee.
The nod helped Budd handily win the nomination, but now Republicans may be having second thoughts. After mass shootings at a supermarket in Buffalo, N.Y., an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, and a Fourth of July parade in Highland Park, Ill., the GOP is asking North Carolinians to replace retiring Sen. Richard Burr with the owner of a gun store and shooting range.
Budd, a three-term congressman representing Dist. 13 in central North Carolina, already has low name recognition and far-right views that are drawbacks in a statewide race. Now his ties to gun sales could further hinder his appeal.
A WRAL/USA Survey poll conducted the second week of June found that 62% of North Carolina adults polled think gun laws should become more strict. And that was before the terror of July 4, when a 21-year-old man fired more than 70 rounds from an AR-15-style rifle into the parade crowd, killing seven.
A devotion to gun rights helped Budd in his gerrymandered congressional district, but it will weigh against him in his race against Democratic nominee Cheri Beasley, a former state Supreme Court chief justice who supports stronger background checks for gun sales and a ban on combat-style weapons and high-capacity magazines.
“Budd’s position on gun rights may ultimately harm him among some unaffiliated and soft Republican voters, particularly suburban women,” said David McLennan, who directs the Meredith Poll at Meredith College in Raleigh.
Budd, the owner of a gun store and shooting range in Rural Hall, hasn’t helped himself with people worried about the proliferation of guns and the sale of the military-style rifles and high-capacity magazines used in all three recent mass shootings. The Davie County native has appeared in campaign ads with a handgun on his waist and his campaign website features him shooting rifles.
Budd didn’t even have the good sense to soften his gun-totin’ image by voting for the modest gun controls recently passed by Congress with the support of North Carolina’s two Republican senators, one of whom, Sen. Thom Tillis, helped craft the bipartisan legislation.
“I will not support this legislation because I am concerned that it will have the unintended effect of infringing on the due process rights of law-abiding citizens,” said Budd, who was joined in opposing the bill by all of North Carolina’s House Republicans.
In standing firm against new gun laws, Budd gets credit for consistency. And, like his fellow GOP House members in North Carolina, he can indulge that rigidity in a red congressional district. But at the state level, more people are fed up with conservatives who will not reconsider their position in the face of the carnage that is entering every corner of U.S. life.
Following the Texas school shooting, Budd expressed his concern by offering the now much-derided “thoughts and prayers” response. In a Twitter post, he said, “Please join me in praying for the children and families involved in this horrific shooting in Uvalde, Texas. Words cannot express our grief over such an unspeakable act of evil.”
One Twitter response in particular clearly spelled out Budd’s political difficulty. It said: “You literally own a gun range. Words may not be able to express our grief, but actions sure can. Stop taking money from the NRA, get out of the gun business, and do something to protect your constituents. Or get out of Congress and let someone who will protect us have a chance.”
Trump thought championing gun rights was a way to win in 2020. It wasn’t. He told North Carolina Republicans to go that way again this year with Ted Budd. But at a time when many voters are saying “enough is enough,” a candidate who is a gun rights zealot might be too much.
