“Even for the 2022 election Budd has yet to unequivocally state he’ll accept the final tally.”
RALEIGH: Today, the Capitol Broadcasting Editorial board published an editorial calling out Congressman Ted Budd for his record of denying the 2020 election and for refusing to “unequivocally state he’ll accept the final tally,” noting that “voters should not cast ballots in 2022 for those who continue to refuse to accept the validity of the votes cast in 2020.”
The editorial board called out North Carolina Republicans–including Congressman Budd– for “sid[ing] with deniers” by voting against the Presidential Election Reform Act this week, stating that “loyalty to a political party or to a politician should NEVER override honesty, Integrity and the rule of law.”
This week, the Charlotte Observer Editorial Board also slammed Budd this week for refusing to “to answer a basic question,” about accepting the results of the 2022 election, noting that this “should be disqualifying to any voter who believes that democracy matters.”
Read the highlights here:
Capitol Broadcasting: Editorial: Voters shouldn’t back candidates who are election deniers
By Capitol Broadcasting Editorial
September 22, 2022
When it comes to upholding the results of elections in North Carolina and the United States – the most recent of which in 2020 for president have been shown to have been fair and free of manipulation – there is no room for equivocation.
Incumbents who want to continue to represent this state in Washington — but who voted to overturn the results of the 2020 elections and still stand with former President Donald Trump’s outlandish and false notion he defeated Joe Biden – do not deserve to return.
Voters should not cast ballots in 2022 for those who continue to refuse to accept the validity of the votes cast in 2020.
On Jan. 6, 2021 Budd voted (along with every other North Carolina Republican member of the U.S. House except Patrick McHenry) to overturn the results of the 2020 election that Democrat Joe Biden clearly won. Budd said on Twitter at the time there were “irregularities (and) constitutional violations in the presidential election.”
Those who continue to stand in the way of affirming the count of the legitimate votes that elected Joe Biden president demonstrate disregard for the rule of law that has sustained this nation. They show a lack of faith in the process as they scheme and plot to manipulate an election’s outcome for mere partisan gain.
That is what, with their votes on Jan. 6 and Jan. 7, 2021, Republicans Dan Bishop, Ted Budd, Virginia Foxx, Richard Hudson, Greg Murphy, David Rouzer and Madison Cawthorn did.
When given a chance on Wednesday to clarify the arcane rules for certifying presidential elections, North Carolina’s Republicans in the U.S. House sided with the deniers and voted against overhauling the 135-year-old Electoral County Act of 1887.
Even for the 2022 election Budd has yet to unequivocally state he’ll accept the finally tally.
When it comes to pledging loyalty to our nation, Americans don’t swear to monarchs, dictators or deities. The pledge is to uphold protect and defend the Constitution.
Loyalty to a political party or to a politician should NEVER override honesty, Integrity and the rule of law.
Candidates who can’t recognize the legitimacy of the 2020 election don’t deserve support when citizens’ votes are cast in 2022.
Charlotte Observer: Opinion: Ted Budd’s refusal to answer a basic question shows he really is an election denier
By The Editorial Board
September 20, 2022
In 2020, it became evident that Donald Trump would not accept defeat long before the first ballot was cast. “The only way we’re going to lose this election is if the election is rigged,” he told his supporters.
Now, Trump’s preferred candidates in key swing states won’t promise to accept the 2022 election results, The New York Times reported Sunday. Among them is Rep. Ted Budd, who Trump has endorsed in North Carolina’s U.S. Senate race.
A campaign spokesperson declined to tell The New York Times whether Budd would uphold the state’s results, and apparently made the unsubstantiated claim that Budd’s opponent, Cheri Beasley, might try to disenfranchise voters. A similar story published by The Washington Post listed Budd as one of 12 Republican nominees who either refused to commit to accepting the outcome of their elections or declined to respond altogether. The News & Observer didn’t get a straight answer, either.
That’s alarming. Even in the best case scenario, it provokes an ugly distrust in our elections, and discourages people from participating at all.
It’s not entirely surprising that Budd would cast doubt on the 2022 election, because he still seems reluctant to embrace Trump’s 2020 loss. As a congressman, Budd objected to the certification of the Electoral College results and spent months echoing Trump’s false claims of voter fraud. Budd did finally admit last year that Joe Biden is, in fact, the legitimate president, but later claimed those comments had been “taken out of context.” He has since reiterated his “tremendous constitutional concerns about how the election of 2020 happened.”
Budd’s campaign did not respond to multiple requests for comment from the Editorial Board. Representatives for Bo Hines, another Trump-backed election denier running in North Carolina’s competitive 13th Congressional District, also did not respond when asked if Hines would support the upcoming election’s results. Hines recently scrubbed Trump’s name and endorsement from his website and hung up on a New York Times reporter who asked whether he planned to appear at Trump’s rally in Wilmington this weekend.
Republicans, whether they agree with it or not, are feeding the stolen election narrative because it wins them votes, and it’s dangerous. We know what can happen when a legitimate election is dismissed as “stolen” or “rigged,” and yet we’re staring at the very same threat again.
Donald Trump and his acolytes seem to believe that ascendance to public office is something they are owed, and the only acceptable outcome of an election is the one in which they win. That, coupled with their outright refusal to commit to the peaceful transfer of power, should be disqualifying to any voter who believes that democracy matters.
Original source can be found here.
