RALEIGH — Allan Baucom, a successful farmer and businessman who has also served as a past chairman on the Union County Board of Commissioners, is seeking to win the March 5 Republican primary for North Carolina’s 8th Congressional District.
“This race ‘now’ is because we need to make changes in the direction that our federal government is going,” Baucom said when North State Journal asked why he was entering the contest this year.
The 74-year-old Baucom said he’s qualified from a business, professional and life skills aspect to “help move this needle back in the direction that it needs to go back to where our founding fathers had intended it to be.”
The 8th district includes Anson, Montgomery, Richmond, Scotland, Stanly, and Union Counties as well as portions of Cabarrus, Mecklenburg and Robeson Counties. In addition to Baucom, GOP candidates vying for the nomination include John Bradford, Don Brown, Leigh Brown, Mark Harris and Chris Maples.
Speaking about why he was running, he said he is “in a position in life to where I can do this.”
“Lots of the people that I, and others, would like to be our representative are not positioned to where they can, whether it be from family or whether it be from business,” said Baucom. “Therefore it leaves, oftentimes, people that we don’t necessarily want to be representative [or] to be an elected official that is running. In this situation, I am able to.”
“I can assure the people in this district always put them first. And that I learned that from Jesse Helms,” said Baucom. “That the power of government – the power of this nation – resides in the voters. It does not reside in the elected officials.”
He added “I firmly believe that I think that too often we have elected officials that want to be served rather than to serve.”
“My approach is the opposite – is to serve and let’s take and put the power back to the people,” Baucom said.
Baucom said he’s built several businesses and farms in Union County over the years and noted that he has lived in the district “my entire life.”
“I was raised here and know the values of the people and know the concerns and the challenges across the district – not just in one little segment – but across the district,” Baucom said. “I pay taxes here, I support organizations, I’m invested here.”
When asked what his top priority items would be if elected to the seat, Baucom said the border was number one.
“We got to stop the bleeding. We got to stop it immediately,” said Baucom. “I very much will be engaged with President Trump on the America First Agenda. To do that, we got to find that tourniquet and we got to apply it.”
Baucom went on to say, “In that same vein with the border crisis, is let’s send all the illegal immigrants and migrants back to where they came from and then let’s develop an immigration policy that is good for the United States; Not a good one that’s good for Mexico or Guatemala or China…as we’re seeing the influx [from there].”
The former commissioner expressed a desire to implement term limits to “drain this swamp.”
“Not just drain it, but let’s reclaim it,” said Baucom. “Let’s get back to having the respect and that it should have that it used to have. Our Founding Fathers did not intend for someone to be elected and for it to become a career. And that’s all too often what is happening and on both sides of the aisle.”
He also said he has signed a pledge that he will endorse term limits and sponsor a term limit bill.
“I’ve pledged that I will serve no more than three terms when elected,” Baucom added.
Another key issue for Baucom is supporting the Lumbee Indian Tribe becoming nationally recognized.
“I have assured the Lumbee Tribe that I will support their efforts, as I have in the past, for national recognition,” said Baucom. “And it’s more than just for the Lumbee Tribe because they deserve it and they’ve earned it. But with their recognition comes that rising tide that floats all boats. It will improve the economic situation for lots of areas across the district and in which lots of those areas it is sorely needed.”
