Could there be MORE Trump’s coming to politics?
Didn’t we have enough ALREADY?
A central issue in last week’s impeachment trial was whether former President Donald Trump deserves a political future. But his acquittal sparked speculation Sunday about the electoral prospects of another Trump: his daughter-in-law, Lara.
Sen. Richard M. Burr’s decision to vote for the conviction of Donald Trump incensed many Republicans in his home state of North Carolina, and in doing so reignited talk that Lara Trump, a native of Wilmington, North Carolina, would seek the Senate seat Burr will vacate in 2022.
“My friend Richard Burr just made Lara Trump almost the certain nominee for the Senate seat in North Carolina to replace him if she runs,” Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said in an interview on Fox News on Sunday.
Lara Trump did not respond to a request for comment. One senior Republican official with knowledge of her plans said that the Jan. 6 riot soured her desire to seek office, but that she would decide over the next few months whether to run as part of a coordinated Trump family comeback.
If negotiating a post-Donald-Trump world has been a disorienting experience for Republicans around the country, it is especially acute in North Carolina, a state that has become a polarized, and nearly deadlocked, partisan battleground.
Burr’s vote, and the torrent of criticism among North Carolina Republicans that came with it, appeared likely to sharpen the differences in the primary to succeed him between staunch Trump loyalists and Republicans who see a need to appeal to educated suburban voters in a state with steadily changing demographics.
“The GOP base is getting smaller,” said Paul Shumaker, a veteran party strategist in Raleigh….
image….WION/Reuters
North Carolina is a pretty evenly D and R stare.
A new poll shows 58% of Americans wanted Trump convicted. Lara Trump and Lindsey Graham may think Republican primary voters will still be hell bent next year on punishing Burr for his vote to convict. But will that be a winning message in a general election in an evenly divided state 20 months now?
Anyway, they can’t punish Sen. Burr directly since he’s retiring in two years.
Richard Burr is not running for re-election.
Correct. Sorry for the confusion in my post. Without Burr on the ballot, for Lara Trump to be running a campaign based on making a statement about what the guy who is retiring voted for a year and a half prior may be quite a lift.
Richard Burr announced in 2016 that he would not run again in 2022.
Lara was running because it was an open seat (she talked about it last year) and was totally unrelated to burr’s vote. Supposedly, she is less enthusiastic than she had been about running since the insurrection.
Trumps margin in NC was down from what it was in 2016.
Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper tan ahead of him .
If Lara runs that will be a good test in a more evenly divided state as to whether Trump still carries sway in a Republican primary in a light red state.
N.C. also voted (narrowly) for Obama in 2008 2,143,000 to 2,128,000 for McCain and 26,000 for Barr (Libertarian).
Historically, however, North Carolina could sometimes group with Virginia, Florida and Texas in voting for Republicans (from Hoover in 1928 to Romney in 1996) when all or much of the Black Belt (SC, Ga, Alab, Miss, La &/or Ark) was voting for the Democratic candidate, Strom Thurmond or George Wallace — with the exception of 1964 when the pattern was reversed: the Inner South voting for Goldwater and the outer states including NC voting for LBJ.
Self-correction: Dole in 1996.
…North Carolina could sometimes group with Virginia, Florida and Texas in voting for Republicans (from Hoover in 1928 to
RomneyDole in 1996)..Believe it or not, while every Democrat who’s run (successfully or unsuccessfully) for President since Watergate (1974) is still alive, Dole and Romney are the only two living Republican losers (with G.W. Bush and Trump the only living GOP ex-Presidents).