Through newspaper advertisements, email blasts and door-knocking, some local Republicans are trying to spread the word that [Bo Hines, a 26-year-old candidate who doesn’t live anywhere near the congressional district he’s running in], Trump’s favored candidate in the 13th Congressional District, is a carpetbagger. In their view, the former president was misguided in endorsing Hines over homegrown conservatives invested in local party politics.
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[Linwood Parker, chair of the Johnston County Republican Men’s Organization and former mayor of Four Oaks] said Johnston County Republicans activists were “surprised” Trump felt the need to bring in an outside candidate for a primary “in an area where he had good support before.”
“This thing was disappointing. I’m sure Trump doesn’t know,” Parker said of Hines’ lack of local roots. “He probably don’t realize it. That’s the reason we’re doing the ads.”
Politico
He probably don't. Maybe Hines was Ginni Thomas' recommendation.
“[Hines is] coming in, just trying to cherry pick a district he can win."
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Earlier in the election cycle, Hines campaigned for other congressional seats elsewhere in the state. He filed to run in the newly redrawn 13th district on March 2; less than two weeks later, Trump issued his endorsement, describing the 26-year-old as an “unwavering America First patriot.”
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Asked why Hines decided to run in a district where he has no obvious connections, spokesperson Rob Burgess provided a statement calling Hines “the only true America First, social conservative endorsed by President Donald Trump in this race.” He noted that Hines lived in Wake County, part of which is within the district, while attending North Carolina State University, where Hines played football for the 2014 season before transferring to Yale.
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Hines is in the process of moving to Fuquay-Varina, located in southern Wake County, according to his campaign spokesperson. He intends to update his voter registration in time to vote in the upcoming primary.
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A second local group, Citizen Advocates for Accountable Government, is also trying to leverage its network of hundreds of local conservative activists to turn voters away from Hine
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“We’re all America First people, but we don’t need Mr. Trump or anybody else bringing candidates in who don’t know nothing about farming, don’t know anything about agriculture and the roads here and the needs we have,” [the group's founder Dale] Lands said.
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Trump is set to appear in the eastern North Carolina county this weekend to rally on behalf of Hines and two other endorsed candidates ahead of the state’s May 17 primary. For Senate, Trump’s support is behind Rep. Ted Budd, who struggled in recent months to take the lead over former Gov. Pat McCrory, but has turned a corner as outside spending has skyrocketed in his favor. Also booked for the rally is Rep. Madison Cawthorn, the freshman congressman from the western part of the state who has angered top House Republicans after talking about orgies and cocaine.
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The chair of the Johnston County Republican Party, meanwhile, said he still hasn’t decided whether he’ll attend Trump’s rally, which is being held a few miles away from his house. Darryl Mitchell, the chair, said there has “been very little communication at all” with the local party about the rally, and that he is not aware of any locals who are scheduled to speak.
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The revolt against Trump by conservatives who adore him, while rare, isn’t the first of its kind this year. Trump has issued scores of midterm endorsements, in some cases for candidates who are all but unknown to local GOP officials and activists.
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In a midterm election year when Trump is attempting to assert his influence through a flood of primary endorsements, North Carolina isn’t the only place where local conservative activists are trying to stop his endorsed candidate from securing the Republican nomination on the grounds of carpetbagging.
In Tennessee, the Republican-controlled legislature gave final approval last week to a bill that would effectively disqualify Trump’s pick in the 5th Congressional District, Morgan Ortagus, [a former Trump State Department spokesperson,] because she only moved to the state last year.
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In Georgia, a Republican effort is underway to try to drive down support for Trump’s Senate pick, retired football star Herschel Walker, who returned to the state last year after decades away.
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