“I really feel like 2016 was the year that the mask came off”
One can only hope. North Carolina’s MAGAfied GOP is turning off once-faithful Republicans and turning them into once-Republicans (USAToday):
Ex-Republican Phebe Roberson, 75, said she “can’t stand” former President Donald Trump and voted against him in North Carolina’s GOP primary earlier this month.
She also cast a ballot against Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, the incendiary Republican gubernatorial candidate who received Trump’s endorsement ahead of the primary.
The right fringe, she says, has “stolen my Republican party.” She cast her primary ballot for Nikki Haley.
Justin Bradford, 47, of Pinehurst, once voted a straight Republican ticket, but began moving away from the GOP a dozen years ago when he switched his registration to unaffiliated and voted for Barack Obama.
Still, he said the Republican party “hadn’t really turned the corner yet.”
“I really feel like 2016 was the year that the mask came off,” Bradford said.
North Carolina’s fall election will be consequential not only for Joe Biden but for the state’s Democrats.
The “road to the presidency” goes through North Carolina, term-limited Gov. Roy Cooper (D) tells reporters. Except for Obama’s win in 2008, Republicans have won the state’s electoral votes for nearly half a century.
Then, of course, there is Michele Morrow, the NC GOP’s home-schooling candidate for superintendent of the state’s schools. She’s the Witch of the East to Robinson’s “worse than the other one” Witch of the West. Robinson advocates a total ban on abortion.
Bradford said he’s thinking about his 18-year-old daughter in both the gubernatorial and presidential election.
“I have some genuine concerns for my daughter for the kind of world, you know, she’s going to operate in now as an adult,” Bradford said.
“I don’t want to be super dire about things. But I’m a little bit freaked out right now.”
Listen to those feelings, Justin.
There are just 99 Republicans in my very blue precinct, 627 unaffiliateds (80% vote blue) , and 727 Democrats. In North Carolina’s March 5, semi-closed primary, Nikki Haley received 77 votes, Trump 36, Chris Christie 2 and 2 No preferences. The voter history files are not updated yet to indicate how many UNAs voted a GOP ballot. Obviously, some voted in the GOP primary, likely for Nikki Haley. In the large, heavily red county to the south, Haley received 31%. I’ll take that as a good sign for November.
Happy St. Patrick’s Day. See you at the brew pub later.
(h/t BF)
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