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ORLANDO, Florida – It’s been a month since former Rep. Mark Walker defied former President Trump, and the Senate Republican candidate in battleground North Carolina’s open seat race says so far, so good.
Walker, a former three-term congressman who represented a district in the central part of the state, was asked by Trump to drop out of the GOP Senate primary and instead run for the House again with the former president’s endorsement. But a month ago Walker announced he was staying in the Senate race, turning down Trump, who remains the most popular and influential politician in the Republican Party.
“We did consider it. We want to be respectful,” Walker told Fox News. “But we felt in our heart, I can look you in the eye and I can tell you we are the best candidate for the U.S. Senate.”
And Walker, who steered the conservative Republican Study Committee for part of his tenure on Capitol Hill, touted that “I am the number-one America First-rated candidate.”
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Walker spoke with Fox News at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), the oldest and largest annual gathering of conservative leaders and activists.
Walker remains in a race that includes front-runners former Gov. Pat McCrory and Rep. Ted Budd, who last year landed Trump’s endorsement, in the battle to succeed retiring GOP Sen. Richard Burr.
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“We’ve picked up seven or eight points,” Walker noted as he touted recent polling. “We feel like this is ours for the taking, because of our record.”
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Republican Senate candidate and former Rep. Mark Walker of North Carolina speaks at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), in Orlando, Florida, on Feb. 24, 2022. (Mark Walker Senate campaign)
Walker, who noted that he’s been backed by Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, former presidential candidate and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, and members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, emphasized that “people know me as a genuine conservative.
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The winner of the May 17 GOP primary will face off in November against former state Supreme Court Justice Cheri Beasley, who has a clear path for the nomination in the Democratic primary.
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