North Carolina’s top politicians on both sides of the aisle sent their party’s dissenters a message in Tuesday night’s primary election results to fall back in line.
Three of the state’s highest-ranking Republicans made it clear that U.S. Rep. Madison Cawthorn had fallen from their favor. They threw their support, instead, behind state Sen. Chuck Edwards, who beat Cawthorn in unofficial results by more than 1,300 votes.
Grow NC Strong, a super PAC originally created to support U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis, pumped $1.5 million into campaign ads against Cawthorn, according to Open Secrets. It spent another $165,000 supporting Edwards.
“There’s a few reasons why Madison Cawthorn lost, but ticking off the wrong U.S. senator was the prime reason,” said Chris Cooper, political science professor at Western Carolina University, located in the 11th Congressional District that Cawthorn represents.
Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper also influenced the primary election against a member of his party, choosing to target a moderate Democrat in the state Senate. The move could backfire if it ends up contributing to Democrats losing a Senate seat this fall to a Republican. Cooper can’t spare many seats and still keep his veto power.
But at least in the short term, Cooper, Tillis, Senate leader Phil Berger and House Speaker Tim Moore all can claim wins Tuesday even though none of them appeared on the ballot.
Asked about the election results on Wednesday, Moore, said he is “very proud” of Edwards.
“He’s going to do an amazing job for our state in Congress, I have nothing but great things to say about him,” Moore told reporters at the Legislative Building on the opening day of the General Assembly’s short session.
“I certainly wish Mr. Cawthorn well, I just think he’ll be better as a private citizen instead of in elected office,” Moore said.
Cawthorn’s fall
Cawthorn’s loss Tuesday night surprised nearly everyone, despite a laundry list of scandals that have made near constant headlines over the past two months.
“It is extremely rare for an incumbent to lose,” said Jason Husser, political science professor at Elon University. “Particularly a celebrity incumbent like Cawthorn. The only reason that there were so many challengers that were as well organized as they were was because of Tillis, and Phil Berger, Tim Moore, (U.S. House Minority Leader Kevin) McCarthy and other Republican leaders all really getting together in unison against Cawthorn.”
Besides the PAC tied to Tillis supporting Edwards’s campaign, Berger and Moore also held a fundraising lunch for Edwards.
Chris Cooper said he doesn’t remember ever seeing a coordinated effort like this against another Republican by Tillis and noted that Tillis had not gone after other candidates with similar beliefs.
“So this is not about ideology or about the America First message,” Chris Cooper said. “This is about Madison Cawthorn.”
Tillis’s staff declined to comment for this article but pointed to a written statement Tillis released Tuesday night that congratulated Edwards.
“Republicans chose Chuck Edwards tonight because he is the embodiment of Mountain values who will fight for them every single day in Congress with honor and integrity,” Tillis said. “I have no doubt he will win in November and I can’t wait to work together on behalf of Western North Carolina and hold the Biden-Harris administration accountable for its failed policies.”
Tillis told reporters Wednesday he was pleased with Cawthorn’s graciousness in his loss.
Texts and tweets
A tweet from Tillis’s wife might have been the first indication that there was a target on Cawthorn’s reelection campaign.
It was Nov. 12, 2021, and Cawthorn had just announced by video he had chosen not to run for reelection where he resided but instead would run closer to Charlotte in a newly drawn 13th Congressional District. (He would later return to his original district, after redistricting.)
“Knowing the political realities of the 13th district, I am afraid that another establishment go-along-to-get-along Republican would prevail there,” Cawthorn said on video. “I will not let that happen.”
Many took that as a direct assault on Moore, who lives just west of Charlotte in Kings Mountain. Moore quickly opted not to run for Congress.
And Susan Tillis took to Twitter saying: “I can assure you that those of us in the new 13 didn’t need any intervention and we are capable of making our own decisions.”
The Washington Post reported that Cawthorn saw the tweet and texted Tillis asking why his wife was attacking him on Twitter.
“Just spit ballin here, but maybe because you’ve attacked her husband,” Tillis wrote back, The Post reported.
Chris Cooper said he first noticed the shift in Tillis’s attitude toward Cawthorn in August 2021 when Cawthorn made a speech in Macon County in which he talked about election integrity.
“We had someone who is a terrible campaigner and a RINO (Republican In Name Only), Tillis, win his Senate seat, and then when we see all these things going on, all these people that won statewide, but then Dan Forest lost,” Cawthorn said, “so I can tell you that’s wrong right there.”
“Prior to Cawthorn’s comments about Tillis, he was not for Cawthorn, but he was not actively against him,” Chris Cooper said. “Tillis increasingly moved from silence to opposition.”
“Getting Edwards in the race gave Tillis not just somebody to oppose but somebody for Tillis to support,” Cooper said. “Clearly calling Tillis a complete RINO and a terrible campaigner inspired Tillis to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars against him.”
Cooper takes a risk on legislative control
State Sen. Kirk deViere is one of several moderate Democrats who have voted with Republicans on key issues important to them, like reopening schools for in-person learning — but the only one Cooper targeted.
It’s rare for the governor to try to take out a sitting lawmaker in their party primary election by running other candidates and putting money behind opponents.
DeViere, who is in Senate District 19, was also one of a group of moderate Democrats in both the House and the Senate who voted for an early version of the state budget that earned them a seat at the negotiation table. In the Senate, those lawmakers are Sens. Don Davis, Ben Clark and Paul Lowe. Davis and Clark gave up their legislative seats to run for Congress. Davis won his primary in the 1st district. Clark did not have a primary.
Challenger Val Applewhite led early and maintained her lead with 56% of the vote in unofficial results, compared to deViere’s 36%.
When deViere conceded Tuesday night, he said that he respects the voters’ decision but was “disappointed.” DeViere said he called Applewhite, a former Fayetteville City Council member, to offer his congratulations. He’ll finish out the rest of his term in the state Senate this year.
In a statement after her primary win, Applewhite said that “primaries are tough, and this one was especially challenging. But Senator deViere has been a steadfast public servant for our community, and I hope to work with him to keep this seat in Democratic control this November,” she said.
If Applewhite loses her race this fall to a Republican, it could contribute to Republicans regaining a supermajority, which is three-fifths of the vote, or a veto-proof majority.
Applewhite will face Republican former state Sen. Wesley Meredith in the general election. DeViere already defeated Meredith in two previous elections, and his more centrist record might have been useful for Democrats in a district that the Civitas Institute’s partisan index deems “likely Democratic,” but not “safe Democratic,” by six points.
The primary included PAC-funded attack ads against deViere, including one that PolitiFact NC rated “false.”
Cooper trying to influence the election drew a rebuke from another sitting Democrat, state Rep. Billy Richardson, who called on Cooper to retract what he called a wrong decision.
“And he ought to be man enough, and leader enough to acknowledge he made a mistake and retract it,” Richardson told the N&O previously.
Cooper did not, answering a reporter’s question last week asking why he opposed one of his party’s budget negotiators by saying that he supported Applewhite.
On primary day, deViere was at the polls talking with voters and hopeful that his legislative record over the past four years was enough for voters.
In his concession statement, deViere said that campaigns “too often are about winners and losers but when that happens, what gets lost are ideas and values. There is too much at stake in our community, state and nation to let that happen here.”
He stopped short of commenting Tuesday night on the governor’s role in the primary.
Democrats have been reluctant to weigh in about Cooper targeting their colleague. On Wednesday, the legislative short session started but no votes are expected until next week, so only a few lawmakers showed up. One was state Sen. Mike Woodard, a Durham Democrat, who declined to address the endorsement.
“Senator deViere has been a great colleague and a solid representative for the people of Cumberland County,” Woodard told the N&O.
Chris Cooper said he was surprised that the governor stuck “his nose in a race no one asked his opinion on.”
But the move to primary deViere was also an implicit threat to other Democrats. And it didn’t carry much risk to the governor, Chris Cooper said, except getting “egg on his face.”
But there’s a caveat to the calculus. What if Applewhite loses to Meredith in the general election?
“If that ends up being the race that costs him the supermajority, then I take back everything I said,” Cooper said.
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