RALEIGH — Former U.S. Rep. Mark Walker said last week he was dropping out of the race for governor in order to attempt to return to Capitol Hill. The redrawn 6th Congressional District contains parts of Cabarrus, Forsyth and Guilford counties and all of Davie, Davidson and Rowan counties.
Walker, who is now running for his third office since 2022, served three terms in the U.S. House of Representatives from 2015-2021.
Following the state’s 2019 court-mandated redistricting, Walker did not run for reelection in 2020 and would announce a bid for U.S. Senate by the end of that year. He ultimately finished a distant third in that race.
Perhaps wounded by the endorsement given by one-time ally Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson to Ted Budd in that contest, Walker began lambasting his fellow Greensboro native in personal terms. In one post on X, Walker called attention to Robinson’s previous bankruptcy filings, writing, “After spending 25 years cheating people plus three bankruptcies, tax liens, multiple foreclosures, civil judgments, unpaid property taxes, and even criminal charges on fraudulent check-writing in multiple NC counties, the LG knows a scam job when he sees one.”
Walker now says Washington, D.C. is the place for him and that was confirmed by the recent election of Louisiana Rep. Mike Johnson as U.S. House Speaker. Walker says he will carry the endorsement of Johnson and other elected Republicans in the race.
There are at least two other Republican candidates who have declared they are running: Christian Castelli, the 2022 Republican nominee, who immediately critiqued Walker’s race-hopping.
“Congressional experience is NOT the answer we need to solve our challenges. We’ve tried it; it has failed us,” he wrote on X on Oct. 25.
Also declaring for the race earlier in October was Jay Wagner, a Republican who has been mayor of High Point for two terms.
Walker’s absence from the gubernatorial campaign leaves Robinson, State Treasurer Dale Folwell, Salisbury trial attorney Bill Graham, retired healthcare executive Jesse Thomas and former state Sen. Andy Wells in the Republican primary.
