ELIZABETH CITY — First U.S. House District hopeful Laurie Buckhout has been formally endorsed by the Republican who’ll be at the top of the GOP ticket in November: former President Donald Trump.
“I got President Trump’s endorsement yesterday,” Buckhout announced to applause during the Pasquotank Political Action Committee’s 4th annual Independence Day potluck picnic at Journey Christian Church in Elizabeth City on June 29.
Buckhout, the first of several regional and local candidates to address the roughly 30 residents attending the PAC picnic, said she met the former president while attending his campaign appearance in Chesapeake, Va., on June 28.
Buckhout, who lives in Edenton, said she’s had a busy past couple of weeks. Besides meeting Trump, she also got to spend time with U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Louisiana, who raised campaign funds for her at events in Raleigh and in Greenville.
“This race is just stupid expensive,” said Buckhout, who is challenging incumbent U.S. Rep. Don Davis, D-N.C., in the 1st Congressional District. “Running for national office is just ridiculously expensive. It cost way more than it should, but it is what it is.”
Davis is a resident of Greene County, which is included in the district under new boundaries approved by the General Assembly last year. Pitt County, long part of the 1st District and 3rd District, was placed entirely in the 3rd District.
Buckhout went on to explain that the geographic size of the 1st Congressional District is a large reason why campaigning to represent it in Congress costs so much. Because the district includes 21 northeastern counties — it stretches from Currituck County in the east to a portion of Granville County in the west and to Lenoir County in the south — it costs a lot “to reach out and touch everybody” with TV political ads, she said.
The 1st District also borders Virginia to the north, which means that in addition to the Greenville-area and Raleigh-area media markets, her campaign must also purchase TV advertising space with the Norfolk-area market.
“So, you pay triple for every commercial that goes out to tell (viewers) why to vote Republican instead of Democrat,” she said.
Buckhout said she wasn’t sure what to think of Speaker Johnson before she met him.
“He’s made some votes that I wasn’t all that crazy about,” she said. “And I wasn’t sure that he was going to be the strong leader that we need.”
She has since changed her mind, she said.
“I fell in love with the guy after he said a few things,” Buckhout said. “A, he’s a strong Christian, but B, he’s met with President Trump and they have each other’s complete support, complete and 100% support.”
Asked how she thought Trump did in last week’s first presidential debate with President Joe Biden, Buckhout said, “I think he did great.”
Buckhout also addressed Biden’s performance, which has been widely criticized by even Democrats who say he failed to convince voters during the 90-minute televised CNN debate that he has the energy and stamina to campaign vigorously against Trump, much less serve another four years. Several polls taken in the aftermath of the debate show a growing number of voters, including Democrats, believing someone other than the 81-year-old Biden should be the party’s nominee to face Trump.
“I think it was kind of sad,” Buckhout said of Biden’s performance. “You watch how disabled and confused Joe Biden is, but even despite his confusion he managed to spout enough un-American ideas about not closing the border; he spouted some lies about the economy and frankly it was a sad spectacle for him.”
Asked how she thinks Biden’s performance could affect his chance for re-election, Buckhout pointed to his approval rating.
“I’ll tell you what, his approval rating is right at 38%,” she said. Following Thursday’s debate, she said, “I can only imagine — I know — it didn’t get any better.”
Biden’s debate performance could also harm Davis’ re-election bid, she said.
“I know that my opponent of course is very tied to (Biden) and has said … he trusts Joe Biden with the country and the economy. He thinks Joe Biden is a great guy,” Buckhout said. “I just can’t help but think that Don Davis’ continued ties to Biden are going to impact how folks look at this election.”
Davis sidestepped questions about Biden’s debate performance following a town hall in Hertford on Friday. Saying he was attending the event “in an official capacity to focus on the issues relevant to constituents’ concerns,” Davis declined to discuss Biden’s debate performance. He told The Associated Press in a statement, “I believe what’s most important back home is they just want to know that we’re fighting for them.”
Asked why, if Democrats should be concerned about Biden’s age and ability to campaign, Republicans shouldn’t also be concerned about Trump’s recent conviction in New York on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records, Buckhout cited what she claimed as “weaponization” of the justice system as the reason why.
“You know, I think they see it as a weaponization of our legal system and I think they are concerned because, ‘Hey, if it can happen to a former president it can happen to them,’” she said.
Also speaking at Saturday’s PAC event were state Sen. Norm Sanderson, R-Pamlico; state Rep. Bill Ward, R-Pasquotank; Jonathan Snoots, candidate for Pasquotank Board of Commissioners and Angie Boylan, who is running for a seat on the Elizabeth City-Pasquotank Board of Education.
Sanderson, who originally represented state Senate District 1, reminded guests that he will not appear on their ballots in Pasquotank County in November. That’s because a newly drawn state Senate map by North Carolina’s Republican-led Legislature moved Sanderson out of Senate District 1 and into Senate District 2. State Sen. Bobby Hanig, R-Currituck, will pick up three Senate 1 counties previously served by Sanderson.
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