Mark Our Words: The North Carolina GOP Primary Is About to Get Even Uglier

Mark Our Words: The North Carolina GOP Primary Is About to Get Even Uglier 

Former congressman Mark Walker announced today that he plans to enter North Carolina’s GOP gubernatorial primary later this month, joining Lt. Governor Mark Robinson and state treasurer Dale Folwell in the race and marking the start of an even uglier chapter to this already messy and divisive nominating contest.

Not even an official candidate yet, Walker is already attacking Robinson. A Walker spokesperson confirmed the rumors surrounding his impending campaign by saying it is “essential that Republicans nominate a candidate who can withstand the scrutiny of a gubernatorial election” — a clear dig at the Lieutenant Governor, who has earned widespread backlash for comments mocking school shooting survivors, suggesting women can’t be leaders, and saying that as governor he would make sure women “can’t have an abortion in North Carolina for any reason.”

But as Western Carolina University political scientist Chris Cooper notes, “there’s a dime’s worth of difference” between any of the extremists battling for the GOP nomination. Walker enters this race weighed down by a record just as extreme as Robinson’s, including picking a fight with Bruce Springsteen in defense of the notorious “bathroom bill” that cost North Carolina billions of dollars and thousands of jobs, leading efforts to end Medicaid expansion, and arguing that “governments shouldn’t allow abortions under any circumstance.”

“Mark my words: as Mark Walker joins this extreme and messy primary, the attacks are only going to get louder and uglier,” said DGA Communications Director Sam Newton. “And as much as this field of out-of-touch extremists tries to tear one another down, this field is remarkably united when it comes to their toxic agenda: banning abortion, drastic cuts to school funding, and more of the culture wars that hurt working families and businesses across the Tarheel State.”

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