An AG primary in North Carolina and a freak show in Washington

This blog is supposed to be primarily about North Carolina politics, but it’s very hard not to discuss the GOP spectacle in Washington. Let me get that stuff off my chest first.

The Republican freak show in Washington

Yesterday was quite a day in Republican politics. It’s hard to imagine sticking with a party that seems to have become so unmoored. Tribalism is a powerful thing.

Trump, the party leader and likely presidential nominee, sounds like a fascist dictator from 1930s, calling his opponents “vermin” and talking about building “camps” for immigrants. The entire GOP leadership was silent. What’s the point of being involved in politics and having that little conviction? It really is a party of fascists, charlatans, and cowards.

Meanwhile, GOP Members of Congress look like the bad kids in a cheesy high school coming-of-age flick. In a committee hearing yesterday, a Republican Senator from Oklahoma, Markwayne Mullin, challenged a union official to a fight. Bernie Sanders had to break it up. Former Speaker Kevin McCarthy elbowed one of his colleagues in the back and then denied it, saying, “If I would hit somebody, they would I know hit them.” Sounds like a script written by 10th grader, but nobody believes McCarthy anyway.

The comically inept Rep. James Comer who is overseeing the Hunter Biden probe had a public meltdown in committee when he was confronted about reports of a $200,000 loan he had made to his brother. Comer has been accusing Joe Biden of corruption for make a similar loan to his brother. To paraphrase Shakespeare, methinks thou doth protest too much.

Finally, the GOP showed, once again, that it may hold a majority in the House, but it doesn’t have any control. Democrats had to rescue them for the third time this year, passing a bill to keep the government open. Had the situation been reversed, Republicans would almost certainly have allowed the government to shutdown. Only one party is serious about governing.

While it’s tempting to laugh off all these juvenile antics and their legislative incompetence, we’re really seeing a dangerous situation. Dysfunction in the GOP strengthens Trump and his handlers. While infighting is ripping up the rest of the party, the Trumpists are as unified as they’ve ever been and he’s not losing support. The so-called grownups in the party like Mitch McConnell and Thom Tillis are too scared of the base to stand up to Trump. They’ve given no indication that they would ever be a check on his power. They’re either cowards or collaborators or both.

Now, back to North Carolina.

Durham District Attorney Satana Deberry announced she is running for attorney general. She will face a primary with Representative Jeff Jackson, who announced his candidacy last month, and attorneys Tim Dunn of Fayetteville and Charles Ingram of Duplin County. Deberry was elected in 2018, the first African American woman to hold the position.

Deberry is impressive. She’s whip smart with degrees from Princeton and Duke. She was elected as a reformer who calls herself a “progressive prosecutor.” She says her experience is more relevant than Jackson’s, noting that she’s “a prosecutor who has run a large office.” And, in at a dig at Jackson, Deberry says, “I’m a serious lawyer and a serious person — not a national social media following.”

Deberry would add diversity to the ticket. She starts as an underdog, entering the race with just a little over three months before the primary. She’ll need to quickly put up a fundraising operation and build a statewide network.

Jackson, her main opponent, has been running for something since last year. He’s known for a long time that he was either going to be running for re-election to Congress or for a statewide office. He has a national following that will allow him to raise large of sums of money and he’s already secured the endorsements of many in the Democratic establishment. He’s also probably the best known Democrat in the state besides Roy Cooper.

My concern about Deberry is her political profile. She’s a self-styled progressive reformer who has made reducing cash bail a priority for nonviolent offenses. She’s focused more on violent crime and less on drug offenses. She also wants to address racial bias in the court system.

While I may agree with many of those positions, I’m not sure a majority of North Carolinians would. We are still a center-right state with a tough-on-crime mentality. Her de-emphasizing drug cases won’t go over well with the fentanyl crisis still dominating headlines. Right now, voters say crime is a top priority and Deberry has been criticized as for her approach.

In a general election, her record would be on the ballot. Likely GOP nominee Dan Bishop would try to make the election about Deberry, not him. Republicans love to hate Durham and, earlier this year, the was listed as having one of the highest homicide rates in the nation. Bishop will try to pin that ranking to Deberry.

Deberry’s criticism of Jackson’s inexperience in running a big office is fair, but in politics, that may be a strength, not a liability. Jackson is primarily a resume candidate. He doesn’t have any major political accomplishments because he has served in the minority in the state senate and Congress. He doesn’t have any major professional accomplishments because he was only out of law school a few years before he went to the senate. But he doesn’t have much baggage, either.

To me, the goal in 2024 should be to stop Dan Bishop. He is a threat to North Carolina and our democracy. He’s an amoral Trumpist election denier who has allied himself with the worst of the populist GOP opportunists, including Lauren Boebert and Matt Gaetz. He’ll trade all of his scruples for power and attention. He voted against certifying the 2020 election and has consistently defended Trump. He clearly lacks the respect for the rule of law necessary to serve as attorney general.

With Jackson on the ballot, Democrats will have an easier time keeping the focus on Dan Bishop’s disturbing record. With Deberry on the ballot, Republicans will have an easier time making the race about her tenure as DA. For better or worse, people more often vote against candidates than for them.