Five Republicans Battle to Face Kissell in 8th Congressional District Primary

RALEIGH – A shift in the partisan direction of North Carolina’s 8th Congressional District has given five Republican U.S. House candidates hope of going to Washington. But first up is the May 8 primary and a potential runoff.

“It’s actually now the second most Republican district in the country with a Democratic incumbent running for re-election,” said Richard Hudson, one of the candidates.

The other 8th District candidates are Scott Keadle, Vernon Robinson, Fred Steen, and John Whitley. The winner will face off in November against the winner of the Democratic primary between incumbent U.S. Rep. Larry Kissell and Marcus Williams.

The 2011 General Assembly drew a more favorable map for Republicans in the district. The 8th District went from having a 49 percent to 28 percent advantage for Democrats in voter registration to a 46 percent to 33 percent advantage.

The shift is more pronounced when you look at voting habits in the district. In the old 8th District, Democratic Gov. Bev Perdue defeated GOP nominee Pat McCrory 51 percent to 47 percent. Voters in the new 8th District gave McCrory a 55 percent to 43 percent advantage. In 2010, Kissell won his re-election bid by 9 percentage points.

The district spans from the state’s southern border near Charlotte northward into Davidson and Randolph counties. It hugs the South Carolina border eastward as far as Robeson County.

Hudson has spent time working for various GOP U.S. representatives in North Carolina and in Washington and has worked on or headed Republican candidate campaigns. He has worked for former GOP U.S. Rep. Robin Hayes (Kissell’s predecessor), and two current members of Congress — North Carolina’s 5th District Rep. Virginia Foxx, and Texas Rep. John Carter. He was McCrory’s campaign manager in 2008.

Keadle is a dentist and a former Iredell County commissioner. He has run for Congress twice before, in 1998 against Democrat Mel Watt for the 12th district and in 2010 in a bid to unseat U.S. Rep. Patrick McHenry in the 10th district.

Robinson is a former member of the Winston-Salem City Council. He twice ran statewide for the state superintendent of public instruction position, in 1992 and 1996. He ran for Congress in 2004, losing in a GOP primary runoff to Foxx, and in 2006, losing in the general election to Democratic U.S. Rep. Brad Miller for the 13th District seat.

This is Whitley’s first attempt at elected office. He is a neurosurgeon.

Steen has been in the state House four terms, plus a portion of another. He was previously mayor and on the city council of Landis.

“I think jobs and the economy [are] what’s on everyone’s mind,” Hudson said. “This district has lost more textile jobs than any congressional district in the country.

Hudson said that economic policies, including the financial reform legislation, are stifling growth. “The regulations were in my opinion way too onerous and went way too far,” he said.

Hudson said Washington needs to rein in out-of-control spending. “Every year we wait, the fix becomes more expensive,” Hudson said.

Hudson also said his experience in Washington means he would not need on-the-job training.

Keadle also said economic issues were key.

“In a nutshell, we need to make the government smaller and private economy bigger,” Keadle said of his goals should he get elected. “We need to balance the budget. We need to reduce the spending. We need to reduce the regulation. We need to encourage domestic energy. We need to grow the private economy.”

Keadle said that government regulation is choking the economy. “Every minute I spend worrying about some inane government regulation is a minute I can’t spend trying to do something for my customer or grow the economy,” Keadle said.

He said he is concentrating on economic issues, but that doesn’t mean social issues are not important. He supports protecting Second Amendment rights and believes that government should protect life from conception.

“To be clear though, when I get up in the morning in Washington, I’m going to try to balance the budget, roll back the government and grow the economy,” Keadle said.

The economy is also the top issue for Steen.

“The uncertainty is driving this entire market,” Steen said. “You hear the concern about the high debt that we have on our grandchildren. People are tired of it.”

Steen said he supports balancing the budget by initiating fiscal restraint. He said he believes the Supreme Court will take care of the Obamacare issue. But even that will leave more work for Congress to do, he said.

He also said he believes that “with innovative ideas, we can bring manufacturing back.”

One way to help bring manufacturing jobs back is to have cheap, reliable energy, Steen said.

The role of government and immigration issues are top priorities for Robinson.
“Returning the U.S. to a limited constitutional republic with unlimited economic opportunity is the top issue,” Robinson said.

He also said he supports securing the nation’s borders, making English the official language, and enforcing e-verify requirements as measures to combat illegal immigration.

“Anybody who comes to this country legally should have to sign an agreement that you will not be a burden,” Robinson said.

He also supports a change in the way the 14th Amendment to the Constitution is interpreted by judges, and disciplining the courts if they don’t change. The 14th Amendment says, “All persons, born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and the state wherein they reside.”

Robinson said that the amendment wasn’t intended to allow a foreign national in the country illegally to give birth to a child, who becomes a U.S. citizen. He supports removing certain cases from federal court jurisdiction and impeaching judges as a means of disciplining the court.

Health care and the economy rank as Whitley’s top campaign issues.

“The issue that propelled me into this race is the ObamaCare legislation,” Whitley said. “This piece of legislation is more than just a government grab of your health care. It’s a fundamental change, if it is upheld, to our Constitution which gives the federal government the power to compel you to buy anything.”

Whitley said that the landmark legislation stifles the economy and job growth.

“Who is going to go out and hire people if they’re going to have a large expense as far as their health care is concerned?” Whitley asked rhetorically.

Barry Smith is a contributor to Carolina Journal.