By Miles Layton

EDENTON — On a cool Thursday evening inside Edenton’s Town Hall, 1st District congressional candidate Laurie Buckhout stood before the Chowan County Republican Party and made her case not only as a conservative standard-bearer, but as a battle-tested national security professional ready, she said, to confront threats abroad — especially Iran — and dysfunction in Washington.

The retired Army colonel, business owner and former Trump administration cyber official delivered a lengthy, freewheeling speech punctuated by sharp answers to questions from the Albemarle Observer and others in attendance.

From misguided accusations driven by negative politics to questions about her health, campaign finances, President Donald Trump and the prospect of military action against Iran, Buckhout addressed each head-on.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, most folks know there is a heated Republican Primary with five candidates — Buckhout, Bobby Hanig, Asa Buck, Ashley Nicole Russell and Eric Rouse — seeking to be the GOP standard bearer in the November Election, facing off against Democrat incumbent Don Davis. Early voting ends Saturday, Feb. 28, with the Primary Election being Tuesday, March 3.

Farm girl

“I grew up on a cattle farm in the Shenandoah Valley,” Buckhout began. “Most of you guys know that. So when my husband and I could finally put down roots, I came back to the country. I came back to farm country. I came back where I had open land, where my dog and I could walk for miles, not see another person.”

That return to rural life in Edenton, she said, was intentional.

“That’s how I grew up,” she said. “So I went to school on an ROTC scholarship. I was the 5th of 5 kids, so by the time money came around, it was, ‘She’s going to go to school on ROTC.’ And I did. And my first vote was for Ronald Reagan, and by then he was rebuilding the military.”

Buckhout served 26 years in the Army, including a year in Iraq during the ground war. She commanded roughly 800 communications soldiers spread throughout the country.

“Everywhere you had a tank battalion, everywhere you had artillery, everywhere you had missiles, you had my guys providing communications,” she said. “Everything from hospitals to Patriot missile batteries had my people with them.”

Her soldiers, she said, “were getting shot at, RPG’d, mortared, IED’d. We all were.”

Buckhout bristled at suggestions that her service was somehow less than combat.

“So when somebody says those troops were not in combat, I tell them, go to hell,” she said. “That’s something I carry very deeply.”

She noted that between nine and 12 Purple Hearts were awarded in her battalion and that “since then, I have had between 7 or 8 of my soldiers have committed suicide from PTSD.”

“We need to do so much better on our veterans’ care,” she said. “So that’s one of my big pillars for what I want to be.”

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From Service to Cyber Warfare

After Iraq, Buckhout was assigned to the Pentagon, where she developed counter-IED capabilities and specialized in cyberspace and electromagnetic spectrum warfare.

“I’m an EMS expert. I’m one of the very few in the world. I’m one of the top 10 electronic warfare people in the world,” she said. “I just got a lifetime achievement award from the International Electronic Warfare Association. It’s the geekiest group you’ve ever seen.”

Her post-military business, which she built with her husband Paul — a retired Delta Force operator and West Point graduate — employed more than 150 people, many of them veterans and wounded warriors. The company trained allied nations in counter-IED operations before she sold it in 2019.

“I have signed the front and the back of the check,” she said. “I know what it’s like to employ people. I know what it’s like to bear the responsibility.”

At times, she said, she and her husband dipped into their own retirement funds to make payroll.

“Because sometimes the government is late in paying their bills,” she said. “You can’t just say you’re not going to pay them.”

That business experience, she argued, stands in stark contrast to what she called Washington’s reckless spending.

“We do not have a revenue problem,” Buckhout said. “We’re collecting too many taxes, too many dividends, too many gimme’s from too many people, and we’re spending it egregiously.”

Trump, Endorsements and “Dirty Early” Attacks

Buckhout ran in 2024 after redistricting moved her into Democrat Don Davis’ district. She lost narrowly in what became one of the most expensive House races in the country.

“I came so close last time,” she said.

She described receiving a call from Trump’s administration after Christmas.

“They called me up and said, what do you want to do?” she said, explaining she accepted a senior cyber post rather than pursue a long-term Senate-confirmed role.

Buckhout later worked briefly in the Executive Office of the President, helping draft the national cybersecurity strategy.

Despite that connection, she pushed back against claims that she had falsely claimed Trump’s endorsement.

“I have not one times that I’ve been endorsed by President Trump,” she said. “He hasn’t endorsed anybody in this race.”

However, she made no apology for using favorable comments from Trump.

“I have used the audio of him saying, ‘Laurie Buckhout, she’s great,’” she said. “If anyone in this room had audio of President Trump saying, ‘Jennifer’s awesome, Larry’s awesome,’ would you use it? Of course.”

On campaign finances, Buckhout rejected claims that she is funded primarily by outside interests.

“The majority of my money … came from me,” she said. “$1.8 million my husband and I put in the race. … I worked my ass off for that, and so did my husband.”

Iran and Speaking Truth to Power

The most serious exchange of the night came when the Albemarle Observer asked about Iran and whether Buckhout would be willing to stand up to Trump if necessary.

“Iran’s gonna be in the news,” noted the Albemarle Observer. “If you’re elected, you’re probably going to be dealing with this head on. … If Trump said to bomb Smurf Village … are you able to stand up not only to your party, but to Trump?”

For the record, though the question jokingly mentions Smurf Village, a place where blue communists led by a Papa Smurf, a Karl Marx-like figure, live, the bigger issue was whether Buckhout, knowing that a big war or other tough decisions may be ahead, could stand up to her own political party and the President.

Buckhout did not hesitate.

“I don’t need this job,” she said. “I don’t need the paycheck. I don’t need any honors.”

She added, “What you’re going to get out of me is somebody who is not afraid to speak truth to power.”

While praising Trump as “so damn common sense,” she said her loyalty would not override her duty.

“I have been exposed to everything,” she said, referencing decades of holding a top-secret clearance. “You will have in me a representative who makes the Chairmen (military leaders), who makes Secretary Hegseth answer every hard question.”

On Iran specifically, Buckhout warned against impulsive military action without clear objectives.

“I did the Iraq War,” she said. “And I did the ground war that destabilized the entire Middle East. It was not a good idea.”

At the time, she said, leaders believed Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction.

“We ended up destabilizing the entire Middle East,” she said. “So you’re going to find in me somebody who’s going to ask very hard questions about what’s the real end state.”

She ticked through a list of considerations: “Is it a regime change? … Are we going to get our boots on the ground into that? What other countries are going to come in to fight? How is that going to cause more or less terrorism to go around the world?”

“You have to ask these hard questions,” she said. “I am not afraid of anybody on the Hill or, God bless President Trump, I’ll speak truth to power to him.”

At the same time, Buckhout emphasized that any final decision about any combat operations — war — would depend on classified intelligence.

“Should we go or not go? I can’t answer that,” she said. “You can’t answer that unless you see all the classified information, all the plans.”

Answering Hard Questions

Buckhout also addressed criticism that she is a political outsider and dismissed criticism that she is a carpetbagger, saying, “You can’t help when the Army sends you.”

She argued that the historical term referred to Northerners who exploited the South after the Civil War.

“I’m the opposite,” she said. “I’m not coming down to take things. I’m coming down to fight.”

Questions about her health drew a detailed response. Buckhout explained that she suffered kidney damage from burn pit exposure in Iraq.

“A lot of people come back sick,” she said. “For me, it hit my kidneys.”

She later learned that a medication she had been prescribed was causing additional problems.

“I went off the medication, started feeling better in a week,” she said. “Bottom line is I feel great.”

Asked why she entered the race later than other candidates, Buckhout said she wanted to ensure she was healthy and prepared.

“I wanted to make sure I was doing the right thing,” she said. “If you’re going to serve, you’re going to serve. I don’t want to get up there and not be able to serve.”

She acknowledged that entering late meant less time to raise money.

“We knew we were going to have to stroke a big check,” she said. “We’re going to take our kids’ inheritance and spend it on this.”

Contrasting With Don Davis

Turning to her likely Democratic opponent, Buckhout did not mince words.

“I think he’s a fraud,” she said of Congressman Don Davis.

She noted that the 1st District has been represented by Democrats for 144 years and remains economically distressed.

“The old 1st District was the 15th poorest district in America from the bottom,” she said.

Buckhout argued that her experience in congressional budgeting gives her an edge.

“I got about $4 billion for cyber to fight the cyber fight,” she said of her time in the Trump administration. “I had to fight for that budget.”

She wants seats on the Veterans Affairs, Agriculture and Defense Appropriations committees.

“Veteran healthcare is not what it needs to be,” she said. “You got to be on the Ag Committee. You got to work the Farm Bill.”

On bipartisanship, Buckhout said she is willing to work across the aisle.

“I would work with a snapping turtle if it were for the good of the district,” she said.

As the evening wound down, she fielded lighter questions — including the name of her dog, Sammy — but the dominant themes remained national security, fiscal discipline and conservative reform.

“I promise to do the right thing to the best of my intellectual and moral ability,” Buckhout said.

For Chowan County Republicans gathered in Town Hall, the message was clear: Buckhout sees the fight for Eastern North Carolina as inseparable from the larger fight against threats like Iran abroad and unchecked spending at home — and she intends to bring her battlefield and boardroom experience to both.