GOP’s Budd pulls ahead in N.C. Senate showdown, Beasley enlists Dave Matthews to energize Dem voters
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NCGOP Chairman Pat Mullins said he’ll have “an intense conversation” with Republican Party Chairman Tony Lunsted Thursday afternoon in Raleigh about whether he should step up to the challenge of taking back the Senate next year. The party chairman was at luncheon Tuesday night at the Ritz Carlton in Cary, where Lunsted talked with a number of other party leaders about this year’s contest and he told them that Republicans could win a majority either way, if they do it correctly.
“He told us there were a number of things that Republicans could do to win,” Mullins said. “But he said if we put them to the test by running candidates who would win… and it showed them they had a winning formula, then he would support us, which I hope we do.”
At least one House and two Senate candidates in North Carolina are on a different mission than getting the Republican candidate elected.
Their purpose is to energize Democratic-leaning voters and get them to make a choice between the two major parties.
Mullins and other Republican leaders who have been running candidates for office in recent years know that the Democrats have a lot of ground to make up and a lot of enthusiasm left. But they believe that if they can get their message across to the electorate and reach out to Republicans, they’d have a fighting chance to win.
“We have to get across the message that there’s a better choice for North Carolina voters — a Republican choice,” Mullins said. “And to do that, we have to talk to Democratic-leaning voters about their choice, and we have to show them that the choices in North Carolina are not only Democrat, but Republican.”
A number of House and Senate candidates are using this week to focus on getting their message through to voters and getting them to see the GOP candidate as the most electable