Voters across North Carolina turned to Republican candidates where crime was the top issue in the race.
U.S. Senator-Elect Tedd Budd made Democrat U.S. Senate nominee Cheri Beasley’s weak record on crime a top issue in the North Carolina Senate race and it proved to be a powerful issue against the former Chief Justice. The brother of a slain state trooper spoke out against Beasley. Other ads questioned her judgment when it came to convicted sex offenders. It was simply an issue for which Beasley had no answer.
Republicans won all six of the statewide judicial races where crime was the overriding issue along with the overreach of the Democrat-led state Supreme Court.
“The clear message from last night is North Carolina voters prioritize their own safety more than any political agenda, and the Democrats’ soft-on-crime ideas kept them from winning races up and down the ballot,” said Michael Luethy, a senior consultant for Budd.
Republican Richard Dietz beat Democrat Lucy Inman by more than 5%. Republican Trey Allen had a similar winning margin over Democrat Supreme Court Justice Jimmy Ervin.
Republican judicial candidates led the ballot in North Carolina winning by 1-2 points over and above Ted Budd’s impressive 3.6% victory.
Every Republican judicial candidate also had more raw votes that Budd. Wake County Republican Court of Appeals Judge Donna Stroud proved to be the most popular statewide candidate on the ballot defeating Democrat Brad Salmon 54% to 45% and winning 2,012,454 total votes, which is 112,000 more than Budd. It is important to note there were no third party candidates in judicial races, whereas the U.S. Senate race offered Libertarian and Green party candidates on the ballot.
Several of the GOP legislative candidates that won Democratic-held seats made crime and Democrat connections to defund the police movement top issues.
Republicans also did well in county sheriff’s races across the state.
Republicans picked up Democratic-held Sheriff seats in 7 counties: Alexander, Haywood, Duplin, Lenoir, Franklin, Person and Jackson. Jackson County has had a Democratic sheriff for the last 96 years. Republicans also picked up the Gaston County Sheriff’s office that was held by registered unaffiliated.
Democrats flipped the sheriff’s office in Granville County.
In Graham County, unaffiliated candidate Brad Hoxit won against incumbent Republican candidate Russell Moody with 69 percent of the vote.
In total, Republican sheriffs will control 64 of North Carolina’s 100 counties. Democrats will control 35, with the sheriff-elect in Graham as the lone sheriff not affiliated with either party.