North Carolina's Senate Race Is Even Screwier That You Thought

The Republican Establishment and Kay Hagan both are rooting for the same candidate to win the Republican senate primary in North Carolina: House Speaker Thom Tillis. The latest PPP survey (in their home state) shows Tillis tied with an even further right sociopath and virulent racist, Greg Brannon, for the GOP nomination-- gigantic momentum for Brannon, who has been endorsed by some of the most fringe elements of the extremist far right, not just the teabaggers and Rand Paul, but Ann Coulter, Utah lunatic Mike Lee and FreedomWorks. Brannon, who opposes racial integration and public education and favors Confederate secession, admits his model as a senator would be Jesse Helms. He and Tillis are tied at 14% in the 8-way primary. They are probably headed for a runoff.

Yes, you may look at the blatantly treasonous statements that make Brannon so popular with the Hate-America crowd and think he would be the easiest to beat, but Tillis is so well known in the state-- and so discredited by the way he ran the House-- that the latest poll shows Kay Hagan beating Tills 45-43%, while tied with Brannon 43-43%. Tillis forgot he was in a primary with right-wing extremists and started trying to run a general election campaign that would appeal to mainstream conservatives and independents-- big mistake in a North Carolina primary but the GOP is one of the country's most backward and hateful.

Tillis drew a lot of attention last month for his comments on Obamacare and the minimum wage, and what he said about those things doesn't play well with the Republican base. On the day he filed Tillis made news by suggesting he didn't think there should be a minimum wage-- but even among GOP primary voters only 27% support eliminating it to 56% that would be opposed to such a move. Even more problematic for Tillis could be his statement expressed last week that 'Obamacare is a great idea that can't be paid for.' Only 15% of primary agree with Tillis' sentiment that 'Obamacare is a great idea,' compared to 78% who say they disagree with it.

Romney was the overwhelming victor in the 2012 North Carolina presidential primary and Ron Paul came in a very distant second. In fact, Romney swamped all his competitors combined:

• Mitt Romney- 638,601 (66%)
• Ron Paul- 108,217 (11%)
• Rick Santorum- 101,093 (10%)
• Newt Gingrich- 74,367 (8%)

On top of that, Romney did what McCain was unable to do-- beat Barack Obama. McCain only managed 2,128,474 votes in North Carolina (49%), while Romney pulled in 2,270,395 for a winning 50%. Brannon doesn't think much of his fellow Republicans' choices. Tuesday morning the Charlotte Observer reported that Brannon warned Republicans back then that anyone who was voting for Romney was voting for tyranny. Romney was already the GOP nominee when Brannon was railing against him.

Brannon also said Romney and President Barack Obama, a Democrat, “despise the Constitution,” as he minimized the differences between the two major parties.

…Brannon, 53, is standing by his statements.

“I’m a lifelong Republican who firmly believes that we will continue to lose elections if we don’t nominate candidates who will stand on principle,” he said in a statement. “Moderate Republicans have given us out-of-control spending, unsustainable debt and bigger government. Enough is enough.”

It was at a January forum in Winston-Salem that Brannon mentioned not voting for Romney, saying he had supported abortion rights. Romney once supported abortions but said as president he would sign legislation banning them. “You cannot ever waver on life,” Brannon said at the forum.

He used stronger language in the June 2012 post.

“Voters need to vote in light of the obvious truth that no substantial difference exists between Barack Hussein Obama and Willard ‘Mitt’ Romney,” he wrote. “Understanding and applying this simple truth is liberating.

“Casting a vote for either Obama or Romney will advance tyranny since both candidates are committed statists who despise the Constitution … Well meaning but manipulated voters continue to vote for tyranny based upon a terribly misplaced allegiance to the 2 major political parties.”

The “correct practical strategy,” he wrote, would have been to vote for anyone else on the ballot.

“Voting third party,” he said, “will help foster real political change.”

The party establishment Senate candidate in Iowa, Joni Ernst, just sent out an e-mail bragging about how Romney endorsed her campaign in that state's crowded primary. I bet they hope no one in Iowa is tuning in on how Brannon thinks about Romney. Brannon is very popular with right-wing extremists but he's only managed to accumulate $142,329 cash on hand, while Tillis is sitting on $1,286,910, which he would very much prefer to spend against Hagan… but won't be able to, not if he has any hope of winning the primary.