And now there are three.
Saturday, May 20, former 6th District Congressman Mark Walker announced he is running for North Carolina governor in 2024.
Walker made the announcement at Triad Christian Academy in Kernersville.
Walker joins Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson and North Carolina State Treasurer Dale Folwell as announced Republican candidates.
Gov. Roy Cooper is serving his second term and is not eligible to run for reelection. On the Democratic side, it appears NC Attorney General Josh Stein is the heir apparent. Cooper served as NC attorney general before defeating the incumbent Republican governor, Pat McCrory, in 2016.
Walker was elected 6th District Congressman in 2014 to replace Rep. Howard Coble, who, after 30 years in Congress, announced his retirement. Walker, however, got a head start in the crowded Republican primary by launching his campaign before Coble announced he wouldn’t run for reelection.
Walker went on to win two reelections to the 6th District seat in 2016 and 2018. The 2020 the redistricting turned the 6th District into a seat all but impossible for a Republican to win and Walker declined to run for reelection.
There was talk that Walker would run against Sen. Thom Tillis in 2020, but Walker decided not to run in that election. However, in December 2020 Walker announced he would run for the open Senate seat in 2022. In the May 2022 Republican primary, Walker finished a distant third to at the time 13th District Congressman and now Sen. Ted Budd and former NC Gov. McCrory.
In the Republican gubernatorial primary, Walker is up against Robinson, who won the Republican primary for lieutenant governor in 2020 against a crowded field and went on to the win the general election. And Folwell, who has won two statewide elections for NC treasurer in 2016 and 2020.
Walker served as a pastor for 16 years until deciding in 2013 to jump into the political arena and he won his very first election in 2014.
Walker in his speech announcing his candidacy said that he had three primary goals.
The first was to “expand educational opportunities” in the state. He said, “We’ve got to return power to the school boards and parents not DC or the Raleigh bureaucracies.
Second, he said, the state had to “secure economic freedom.”
And third, he said, was “to protect our children and our families.
Walker said, “I will be tireless in my fight against the intellectual pursuit of our elites promoting child mutilations through gender reassignment surgeries that are damaging our children and our future.”
Walker is preferable to any Democrat, but he’s an oleaginous Uriah Heep. He one accused Phil Berger Junior of having lost a case that was before the Supreme Court, but that case was wholly unrelated to Berger, and took place before Berger Jr was ever born. The only connection was that the losing party’s name was Berger.
And just look at this guy’s verbiage.
“Secure economic freedom” – is anyone in favor of economic servitude?
“Expand educational opportunities” – is anyone in favor of restricting educational opportunities?
“Protect our children and our families” – is anyone in favor of exposing them to threats?
This is the kind of meaningless pablum that RINOs spout.
I just don’t trust the guy, or like him.
Mark Walker does not deserve a single vote if running as a Republican. Now, he might have a better chance to win IF he switches parties and runs as a Democrat – his true Party. He us a total worthless RINO otherwise. Vote for a true Republican – vote Mark Robinson. Walker needs to remain at home.
I have a lot of respect for Mark Walker, but I will only consider a moderate for gov in the primary. I respect Mark Robinson but won’t vote for him either unless he moderates his abortion stance. The legislature has or is prepared to pass very popular reforms – school choice, 12-week elective abortion ban, protecting women girls and kids from destructive trans insanity, Medicaid expansion. The state is not ready for staunchly pro-life laws that would outlaw abortion or restrict to 6-weeks. The future of the state depends on entrenching these great reforms from the legislature this year. We need a decade more of a Republican majority in the legislature. Because of backlash if more restrictive abortion policy is passed, I will vote for a Democrat gov (with straight Republican on the legislative side), before I will vote for a pro-life activist on the Republican side. I respect the pro-life position, but nothing is accomplished in loosing present or future elections. I’m interested in winning elections in actual reality not loosing over faux moral superiority.
Mark should have run for his old seat in the US House that is occupied now by Kathy Manning. The NC legislature revised the district to such a degree that Mark would be a leading candidate for that role, but statewide he’s not nearly as well known. If it’s not too late, Mark needs to run for his former spot in Congress.