Rep. Ted Budd won North Carolina’s U.S. Senate race without much running.
The Republican congressman finished ahead of Democrat Cheri Beasley by coasting to the GOP nomination on President Donald Trump’s endorsement and riding through the general election on worries about inflation and crime that turned many voters toward Republicans.
The unspoken motto of Budd’s campaign was: Don’t screw this up. It wasn’t an inspiring approach, but it seems to have worked.
Beasley, the former chief justice of the state Supreme Court, has an impressive personal and professional story as a Black woman in a southern state rising from a public defender to the highest office of the state’s judicial system. She had hoped to become North Carolina’s first Black senator. Campaigning more like a judge than a politician, she made her case widely, even in rural areas where she knew she wasn’t likely to win. She spoke to the concerns of both middle- and lower-income North Carolinians.
Through it all, Budd blamed inflation on President Joe Biden’s policies and insisted that Beasley would be “a rubber stamp” for the president’s agenda. Little did it matter that Budd voted against parts of the Biden agenda that have passed – a huge boost in infrastructure spending, expanding clean energy and reducing drug prices – that will benefit North Carolina for years to come. What did matter was the rising prices of gas, food and rent today.
The U.S. Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade and Budd’s support for a national ban on abortion after 15 weeks appeared to boost Beasley’s chances, but it was not enough to offset economic conditions that many voters blamed on Biden.
National Democratic leaders didn’t think Beasley could win. They withheld their outside spending even as she bettered Budd in her own fundraising by 3 to 1 and drew even in polls. But her fundraising was no match for outside spending by Republican super PACs that paid for a barrage of negative ads against her.
While Budd avoided mistakes, Beasley also took a cautious approach. She sought to cast herself as a non-politician who was critical of both parties’ performance in Washington. But a campaign that eschews partisanship and ideology also reduces the energy it generates among activists, young voters and, in Beasley’s case, Black voters.
The election will send Budd to the Senate to replace retiring Republican Sen. Richard Burr. Budd is a Trump acolyte who will be a constant counterweight to Democrats and any Republican who proposes compromise.
This election marks 14 years since North Carolina elected a Democratic senator, Kay Hagen in 2008. The reasons vary from personal failings – Democrat Cal Cunningham’s affair in the 2020 election – to national economic and political conditions. The results also show the enduring power of voters outside of North Carolina’s urban centers. Republicans won the U.S. Senate race despite Wake and Mecklenburg counties going 2 to1 for Beasley. The GOP also captured control of the state Supreme Court by winning both seats on the ballot and taking all four races for the Court of Appeals.
Whether this election was an endorsement of Republicans or a protest over inflation isn’t clear. Budd campaigned on complaints more than GOP solutions.
Whatever the reasons, North Carolina deserves more than a succession of conservatives with rural political bases representing it in the U.S. Senate. North Carolina is growing around technology and higher education; its population is increasingly diverse and urbanized.
Yet in this election, the new North Carolina voted very much like the old. Change may be coming, but it’s not quite here yet. To turn North Carolina consistently toward their side, Democrats will need more than demography. They have work to do.
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ABOUT THE WRITER
Ned Barnett is associate opinion editor of the News & Observer.
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