HENDERSONVILLE, NC — Rick Griswold, a 74-year-old lifelong Republican, doesn’t know much about Ted Budd, the congressman he plans to support in the party’s Senate primaries on Tuesday. But he knows exactly why he’s casting his vote for Mr. budd.
“Trump supported him,” said Mr. Griswold, an Army veteran, as he collected tools during his part-time job at O’Reilly Auto Parts. “I love Trump.”
The former president’s “complete and total support” does not guarantee victory in a Republican primary. However, agents who worked in Senate campaigns this year said that playing up the imprimatur of Donald J. Trump is the most effective message in intra-party battles.
In North Carolina, Mr. Budd’s power of combining the former president’s endorsement with another from one of Mr. Trump’s on-again, off-again allies: the Club for Growth, an influential anti-tax group that has spent $32 million on federal races this year.
That amount is twice that of any other outside group — and much of that spending has been directed at candidates Mr Trump has backed, according to campaign finance data collected by Open Secrets.
Mr Trump is outraged by the Club for Growth’s campaign against his choices. During a heated battle in the Ohio Senate primary, the group aired a TV spot of Mr. Trump’s choice in that race, JD Vance, in which he criticized the former president. mr. Trump ordered an assistant to text the group chairmanDavid McIntosh, who told him in a vulgar message.
Mr. McIntosh, meanwhile, has said privately that he hoped the group’s recent endorsement of Kathy Barnette in Pennsylvania would help it retaliate against Mr Trump, according to those with knowledge of the talks.
Understand the Pennsylvania primaries
The pivotal swing state will hold its primary on May 17, with key races for a US Senate seat and governorship.
Joe Kildea, a spokesperson for Club for Growth, said that “David never expressed these feelings.” “The only reason Club for Growth supported PAC is because Barnette is the one and only Conservative in the race,” said Mr. Kildea.
But in North Carolina, Mr. Budd to former Governor Pat McCrory and former Representative Mark Walker after Mr. Trump announced his endorsement in June. Mr. Budd seemed to break away from the pack, aided by an $11 million Club for Growth ad campaign that revolved primarily around the former president’s support. The group’s most-watched TV spot of the race featured footage of Mr. Trump that he Mr. Budd approved.
Last week, Mr. Budd was 27 percentage points ahead of the rest of the field, according to a poll by Emerson College, The Hill and WNCN-TV, the CBS affiliate in North Carolina’s Research Triangle. The Club for Growth has also limited its spending on the race, indicating that Mr. Budd safely leads the way.
The winner of the Republican Senate primary will advance to the November general election with a clear advantage over the Democratic nominee, who polls say will be Cheri Beasley, a former state Supreme Court justice. Republicans have won the last four races in the North Carolina Senate and the past three presidential games in the state.
Doug Heye, a Republican who has worked on three Senate campaigns in North Carolina, said Mr. Budd was a strong but relatively unknown candidate statewide. His rise, Mr Heye noted, showed the strength of a well-funded, Trump-approved primary campaign.
“It’s not surprising that Budd is on the rise,” he said. “But these margins look pretty big, especially considering he’s up against a former governor and a former congressman.”
Mr McCrory contested the polls, criticizing the Club for Growth, a 23-year-old conservative group he described as a political assassin who had strayed from its original mission to promote low-tax, limited government policies.
“The Club for Growth is trying to buy the North Carolina Senate race,” said Mr. McCrory. “And we’re trying to do everything we can to stop them.”
Mr. Budd, 50, promoted himself as a gun store owner during his first congressional campaign in 2016. He had been involved in several companies after divesting in 2003 from the Budd Group, a company founded by his father and engaged in cleaning, landscaping and other maintenance of business facilities, a spokesperson said.
This year, Mr. Budd has kept his head down for the most part. He visited all 100 counties during the campaign, which his team believes was a factor behind skipping all four Republican primary debates.
“We’ve focused on the fundamentals, such as organizing in all 100 counties,” said Jonathan Felts, senior advisor to Mr. budd.
Understand the 2022 midterm elections
Why are these midterms so important? This year’s races could tip the balance of power in Congress to Republicans, shattering President Biden’s agenda for the second half of his term. They will also test former President Donald J. Trump’s role as GOP kingmaker. Here’s what you need to know:
Mr. Budd has compiled a staunchly conservative voting record during his six years in the House, a record closely tied to both Mr. Trump and the Club for Growth.
He voted to reverse the results of the presidential election after a mob of Trump supporters rioted in the Capitol on January 6, 2021, and signed a letter in the days following the election urging the Justice Department to address voter fraud and irregularities. to investigate.
In post-election text messages obtained by DailyExpertNews, Mr. Budd Mark Meadows, then the White House chief of staff, inaccurately suggested that Dominion Voting Systems may have had a connection to liberal billionaire George Soros, a false claim made by multiple Trump allies.
The Club for Growth was one of the first outside groups to endorse Mr Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, but in the primary races they are not always aligned. In Ohio, the group spent $8 million for Josh Mandel, while Mr. Trump backed the eventual winner, Mr. Vance.
In the Pennsylvania Senate primaries on Tuesday, Mr. Trump backs Dr. Mehmet Oz, the longtime television personality. Meanwhile, the Club for Growth supported Ms. Barnette, a conservative author and political commentator who has soared in the polls. In next week’s Alabama Senate game, Mr. Trump withdrew his endorsement for Representative Mo Brooks, while the Club for Growth backed him.
Yet the Club for Growth and Mr Trump were on the same side this month in a contentious primary in the West Virginia House. In that race, their support for Deputy Alex Mooney helped him to an 18-point victory over his roommate David McKinley, who had support from much of the state’s political establishment. The Club for Growth spent more than $1 million on that House race, twice as much as any other outside group.
With two weeks to go into the first full month of this year’s primary competitions, Club for Growth’s Super PAC has already spent $32 million on federal races. That’s twice as much as any other outside group and already half of what the group spent in the 2020 election cycle. In recent years, much of the funding for the super PAC has come from Uline Inc., a shipping company that owns is owned by Dick and Liz Uihlein, and Susquehanna International Group, an investment firm co-founded by Jeff Yass.
In 2016, the Club for Growth approved Mr. Budd and spent $500,000 to help him get out of a crowded primaries. The Budd family later donated at least $50,000 to the group.
This year, the group spent $11 million supporting Mr. Budd, about 57 percent of external spending in the Republican Senate primary.
Cyndi Glass, 63, left her local polling station during the early ballot, saying she was aware of only two Republican Senate candidates. One was Mr. McCrory, but she said she “wanted something different.”
The other was Mr. Budd.
“Trump supported him,” she said. “And that was a plus for me.”
