A Tea Party group has endorsed Thom Tillis for U.S. Senate. This is a curious decision; Tillis doesn’t really have a reputation as a “Tea Party” candidate. But the story behind it is even more interesting.

The group in question is the Catawba Valley Tea Party, which is based in the Hickory/Conover region. The endorsement came about as a result of a non-endorsement: apparently Greg Brannon falsely claimed through Facebook that the group had endorsed him, so the group’s leaders got mad and decided to endorse Tillis instead. In the words of the group’s president Thomas Kern: “We never had even discussed endorsements or anything, and he never retracted that … that diminished his credibility to us.”

Brannon’s campaign hasn’t responded to requests for comment. Now, this is perplexing. If the story is true, then it raises a question. Why lie about something so trivial? If you’re going to lie, why not say you’ve been endorsed by the Club for Growth? Or Ted Cruz? The Catawba Valley Tea Party is small potatoes. How many votes are going to be gained through this deception? Not many, I presume.

Of course, it’s possible Brannon made an honest mistake. And maybe we should give him the benefit of the doubt. After all, Brannon seems particularly prone to these kind of mistakes. Like when he was caught accidentally plagiarizing from Rand Paul. And that other time, when he was caught accidentally plagiarizing, again. Or the time his campaign failed to file his ethics disclosure. Or when he failed to pay his property tax on time. Speaking of property taxes, Brannon says they’re an example of “central planning” and has compared them to the Soviet Union, apartheid, and the Holocaust. Which probably explains why there was such a delay in getting that tax paid. These quotes come from his website, which has since been deleted.

And of course, there’s that unfortunate court ruling that found him liable for defrauding investors. Maybe things would have turned out differently had Brannon actually taken the stand and testified on his behalf, but he didn’t – apparently because he felt that the case was so obviously frivolous that doing so would be a waste of time. The jury must have disagreed. All in all, this miscalculation might end up costing Brannon nearly half a million dollars, which is the sum he’ll have to cough up to pay back those investors, should he lose on appeal.

Some people just have bad luck, I guess.

John Wynne

John Wynne is the “conservative voice” at PoliticsNC, where he also provides polling analysis and commentary on legislative campaigns. When not writing about politics, he enjoys gardening and listening to opera. Contact: johncwynne@gmail.com.