RALEIGH — Grassroots NC, one of North Carolina’s leading pro-Second Amendment organizations, announced it was backing state Sen. Chuck Edwards in the 11th Congressional District Republican primary.
Edwards is one of many candidates running against first-term U.S. Rep. Madison Cawthorn.
GRNC said in recommending Edwards to its voters, it was about effectiveness, not personal views.
“Cawthorn has made a series of gaffes, including being reprimanded by Republican leadership, which damage his legislative effectiveness. Combined with dropping the NDAA vote in his first term in office (he says he voted for it knowing the red flag language would be stripped in the Senate), gun voters in the district should consider replacing him,” GRNC says in their reasoning for backing Edwards.
The group said that challengers Rod Honeycutt and Michele Woodhouse both scored 100 on GRNC’s survey, but the standout is Edwards, who is a federally-licensed firearms dealer and helped the group pass pro-gun legislation through the General Assembly.
Meanwhile, the National Rifle Association’s Political Victory Fund is sticking with Cawthorn, giving him one of the group’s coveted endorsements.
GRNC backed a second challenge to an incumbent in another race, telling its members to support District Court Judge Beth Freshwater Smith in her contest against chief N.C. Court of Appeals Judge Donna Stroud.
“Judge Freshwater Smith is a stronger constitutionalist and Second Amendment supporter,” the group says.
