Pat McCrory, North Carolina’s last Republican governor, is now very likely to run for the U.S. Senate in 2022 and Lara Trump is not, Republican sources in the Tarheel State told Newsmax.
McCrory, 64, is “leaning” toward a candidacy for the seat of retiring Republican Sen. Richard Burr, according to sources close to the former mayor of Charlotte and state governor from 2012-16.
One source went a step further to tell us flatly: “He’s running and he will have a great campaign team in North Carolina and Washington DC.”
A McCrory candidacy, the same source told us, would almost surely mean that native North Carolinian Lara Trump, the wife of former President Trump’s son Eric, will not make the race.
McCrory has a very cordial relationship with the former president and his family and many of the former governor supporters are also Trump backers.
Another reason many Trumpers in the Tarheel State now feel Lara is not running is that the North Carolina State University grad has so far done little to lay the groundwork for a candidacy in her homestate.
When Hillary Clinton was first hinted at as a Democratic Senate candidate in New York in 1999, she made immediate moves toward an eventual candidacy that ranged from the purchase of a home in the Empire State to securing early blessings from such Democratic powers as retiring Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan to then-Rep. Charles Rangel.
“I like Lara, but she has done nothing like this,” a Republican state legislator told us.
The other major contender seeking the GOP nomination is conservative Rep. Mark Walker.
Among Democrats, former State Supreme Court Chief Justice Cheri Beasley sent signals out Monday morning that she would soon declare for the Senate. The first Black chief justice in North Carolina history was defeated last year by 401 votes out of 4.5 million cast. A formal announcement by Beasley is expected in April.
State Sen. Jeff Jackson been an announced candidate for months. Widely considered a centrist Democrat, the Charlotte lawmaker is also a captain of the U.S. Army National Guard.
John Gizzi is chief political columnist and White House correspondent for Newsmax. For more of his reports, Go Here Now.
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