It didn’t take long for former 6th District Congressman Mark Walker to announce that he wanted his old seat back.
On Wednesday, Oct. 25, shortly after the North Carolina General Assembly approved the new map for the 14 North Carolina congressional districts, Walker announced he was dropping out of the governor’s race and would be filing to run for Congress in the 6th District.
It was no surprise that Walker, who according to recent polling is running a distant third in the North Carolina Republican gubernatorial primary, would make the switch to run for Congress. However, with Guilford County divided into three congressional districts, there was some speculation about which district Walker would choose. Members of Congress are not required to live in the district they represent but are required to live in the state. Walker currently lives in Summerfield.
Walker represented the 6th District from 2014 to 2020. In the redistricting for the 2020 election, the 6th District went from a Republican district to a heavily Democratic district and Walker chose not to run for reelection.
In December 2020, Walker announced he was running for the open US Senate seat in 2022. Walker finished third in the Republican primary behind then 13th District Congressman and now Sen. Ted Budd and former North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory.
In his six years in Congress, Walker was moving up the Republican leadership ranks. In 2017, Walker was elected chair of the Republican Study Committee, and in 2019 he was elected vice chair of the House Republican Conference.
Before making the decision to run for political office, Walker served as a Southern Baptist pastor and was the arts and worship pastor at Lawndale Baptist Church in Greensboro.
While Walker was representing the 6th District, he won reelection twice – each time in a newly redistricted 6th District.
However, none of the three 6th Districts Walker represented are the same as the new 6th District. The new 6th District includes the southwest corner of Guilford County, the western and southern portions of Forsyth County, the northwest corner of Cabarrus County and all of Davidson, Davie and Rowan counties.
This guy is a slippery and self-serving sly little shyster.
Don’t trust him.
I miss Howard Coble.
That’s a pass for me unless there’s no other viable options. Walker had his chance & to put it simply – he hasn’t performed as advertised. McCrory wasn’t necessarily my favorite governor, but he now seems to see the need for good third party candidates & may have someone to recommend. Let’s see who runs before making a choice too hastily.
Whoever the Republican candidate may be, it is certain that Kathy Manning is out on her tuchus.
Don’t count Manning out. She should never have been in to start with. But a lot of misguided and poorly informed people voted for her.