7 takeaways from NC GOP's first U.S. Senate primary debate

The participants—former North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory, former Greensboro-area U.S. Rep. Mark Walker and combat veteran Marjorie K. Eastman—largely directed attacks to one candidate not in the room: U.S. Rep. Ted Budd, the candidate former President Donald Trump has endorsed in the race.

Here are seven takeaways from the event:

Throughout the afternoon, McCrory took aim at Budd, criticizing the congressman’s choice to attend the Conservative Political Action Conference in Orlando, Florida, and skip the debate.

“It’s inexcusable,” McCrory said. "I just want to let you know I always show up.”

Walker, who attended the conference but returned to the state for the debate, and Eastman also alluded to the congressman’s absence.

Budd has said he would not entertain the conversation of a debate until candidate filing ends at noon on Friday. His opponents argue the major candidates in the race are already known and should engage in an open conversation.

Budd’s senior campaign adviser, Jonathan Felts, said after the debate that the congressman didn’t have a scheduling conflict. Rather, he said, Budd wants the primary date to be locked in and candidate filing to close before he agrees to participate in a debate.

Eastman clapped back, “Real quick, Governor, you can refer to me as Ms. Eastman. Next, did you serve in the military? No. So let me help you out. The military tells you where to live. Twenty years ago, I was assigned here at Fort Bragg, and that’s actually where I met my husband. The military moved us all around since and we knew this would be our forever home.

She added, “When my husband retired from the military, we were proud to come home to North Carolina because we fell in love here in 2002 and 2003 and I vowed to be a North Carolinian. I find it particularly insulting that you had to go there. That’s very disappointing.”

She also said in the debate that she registered as a Republican in college but changed her status to unaffiliated when she joined the military so she could be apolitical.

“I’m not ashamed of that, and I’m proud of every veteran that does that,” Eastman said.

Documents obtained and reviewed by WRAL from multiple sources show Eastman registered to vote in North Carolina as an unaffiliated voter on Nov. 16, 2018. After moving to a different Cary home, she retained her status of being registered without a party preference on Sept. 23, 2020. On Aug. 23, 2021, she changed her party identification to “Republican.” The transition came six weeks before she entered the U.S. Senate race in early October.

State Board of Elections data shows she didn’t vote in the 2020 Republican primary. She voted in person for the general election on Nov. 3, 2020.

Eastman did not respond to a request for comment on the filings.

In a statement after the event, she said she did not appreciate “cheap shots from a failed politician who has never seen the battlefield.”

McCrory, who unsuccessfully ran for reelection as governor in 2016, told Eastman during the debate, “I welcome you and I welcome your military service and I welcome you to North Carolina. I think it’s great. We have so many people moving to this great state and I think a lot of it might be due to some good government leaders that we had here.”

“Putin is a thug,” Eastman said. “This was unprovoked and unjustified.”

McCrory said Putin “is trying to destroy the freedom, not only of Europe but of the world.”

Walker said Putin “smells weakness at this point” and blamed Biden for not imposing stricter sanctions against Russia prior to their invasion.

“I would never vote to confirm her,” Walker said.

McCrory said he would work with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell to try to sink Jackson’s nomination.

“She’s too radical for the United States of America and far too radical for North Carolina,” McCrory said.

“We’re here talking about all this stuff that hasn’t changed,” Walker said. “How are you gonna change something if you don’t put new leadership into the pipeline? You just have to call it out for what it is.”

McCrory praised McConnell’s influence in reshaping the balance of the U.S. Supreme Court and helping Trump appoint three associate justices onto the nation’s highest court.

Eastman said she met with McConnell before announcing her candidacy but wouldn’t say who she would support as majority leader if she were elected.

Eastman said the federal government ought to leave more public health matters to local control, Walker said too many Americans surrendered their liberties in response to federal mandates and McCrory complained of inconsistent policies at the state and federal level.

“We lost the trust of government because they said it was science when some of it was science but some of it was pure politics,” McCrory said. “We’ve got to take the politics out of science.”