By Miles Layton

WASHINGTON COUNTY — With the fervor of a combat veteran and the warmth of a neighbor, Republican congressional candidate Laurie Buckhout delivered a blistering attack on incumbent Democratic Rep. Don Davis at a recent Salute to Service event hosted by Mike Harris at Harris Farms, calling the congressman a career politician who has done nothing for the 1st Congressional District.

Washington County Commission Chairman John Spruill, who also serves as 1st Vice Chair of the county Republican Party, set the tone before Buckhout took the stage, rallying the crowd with a passionate introduction.

“We’re going to flip this thing and she’s going to do it,” Spruill told the crowd. “Eastern North Carolina — we’ve been down for what, 147 years? We’re going to do it with your help. We’re going to do it together.”

Buckhout, a retired Army colonel who moved to Edenton after a distinguished military career, wasted little time before turning her sights on Davis, but not before sharing the family history that she says shaped her character and her mission.

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Buckhout demolishes Davis

Buckhout methodically dismantled Davis’ record, beginning with what she described as a fundamental abandonment of the values military service instills.

“In the military you have some ethics — it’s selflessness, putting others before yourself, throwing yourself on the grenade if you need to,” she said. “It’s a sense of integrity and it’s action. I’m going to hit him on throwing those ethics away that he should still have in his heart. And he does not.”

Buckhout described Davis as a career politician who has spent approximately 29 years in office — moving through positions as mayor, state house member, state senator, and now congressman.

“He’s a professional politician,” she said. “I never had politics on my bingo card.”

She challenged voters to hold Davis to a higher standard than simply being harmless.

“I’ve got friends who will say, ‘But he’s not a bad guy,’” she said. “You know what? You can do better than not a bad guy. You seriously can.”

On legislative accomplishments, Buckhout was scathing. She said Davis has passed exactly one piece of legislation in five years in Congress.

“You know what that bill is? To rename a post office,” she told the crowd. “The sign hadn’t even been hung yet. I think we can do better than that. I think we need to have bills that are going to protect veterans, that are going to lower taxes, that are going to protect the elderly living on social security.”

She challenged the so-called federal dollars Davis has touted in the district, including funding for Seymour Johnson Air Force Base. Buckhout argued that money did not originate from any effort by Davis.

“That came out of appropriations. It came out of Republican lawmakers in Texas and Florida who brought that up, ran it through defense, ran it through appropriations,” she said. “When it finally got to the floor of the House, he miraculously woke up and said, ‘Oh, I guess I’ll vote for that,’ and went back to sleep again. That’s how he so-called got that money. He didn’t get it.”

On the border and immigration, Buckhout accused Davis of deliberate deception.

“He made one little vote — ‘I am going to vote to close the border on this one thing’ — because he knew I was watching him,” she said. “And then two weeks later, he endorses Kamala Harris as president, who was the border czar. So he talks out the side of his mouth, does one thing, says another. He does not support you.”

She also criticized Davis’s vote against what she called “the one big beautiful bill.”

Buckhout closed by framing the race in stark national terms, warning that losing the seat would torpedo President Trump’s legislative agenda and embolden House Democrats to move immediately toward impeachment.

“If we lose this fight, Trump’s agenda is gone,” she said. “House Bill One is going to be to impeach Donald Trump. House Bill Two is probably going to be to get rid of election integrity and require no more voter ID. And then guess what? America’s done.”

She drew a direct contrast with Davis on the question of character.

“I am not Don Davis. I am not going to say one thing and do another,” she said. “I’ve got a lifetime of integrity, of hard work, of putting others before myself. And I’ll throw myself on that grenade for every single one of you. I’m a mama bear, and I’ll crawl through broken glass for every single one of you.”

The crowd responded with sustained applause as Buckhout left the stage, buoyed by what supporters described as exactly the kind of fighting spirit they believe Eastern North Carolina needs in Washington.

A Family Forged in Service

Buckhout grew up on a cattle farm in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley, the daughter of two decorated veterans. Her father, an Army colonel, served in World War Two, Korea, and Vietnam — shot down three times in Vietnam observation helicopters, a prisoner of war in Germany who escaped and brought 15 other prisoners with him, and who ultimately died of Agent Orange-related cancer.

“He left the tooth behind and took off and took about 15 other prisoners with him,” Buckhout said of her father’s escape from a German POW camp, where a guard knocked out one of his teeth, “because you take a vow when you’re an American fighting man or woman that you will always try to escape. You will always try to get back to your unit and not give the enemy anything.”

Her mother, she said, was an Army Air Corps flight nurse in World War Two who earned three air medals.

“I am not really bragging on them,” Buckhout told the crowd, “but I think any person wants to be grateful and proud of your parents. That’s who you came from.”

She credited her upbringing for an uncommon toughness, noting with a laugh that she was “the only girl in the sixth or seventh grade who could climb” the rope to the ceiling of the gymnasium during the presidential fitness test. “That was from stacking hay bales all summer long,” she said.

Buckhout said her political convictions were cemented during her Cold War service in East Germany after the Berlin Wall fell.

“If you want to see the reason why you’re a conservative, go to East Germany after the wall fell,” she said. “Look at the sad people living under communism and totalitarianism. Look at the people who gave up their guns. Look at the people who gave up their rights. Look at the people who had no First Amendment or Second Amendment to protect them. They couldn’t do anything on their own. They were kept in a cage like animals, and that’s not going to happen here under my watch.”

She spoke of her deployment to Iraq and the deep bond she forged with her troops. Before deploying, she said, she taped herself reading children’s stories to leave behind for her sons — then 11 months and 3 years old.

“I wanted them to have my voice in case I die,” she said. “But you do it because you love your country.”

After retiring, Buckhout said she and her husband initially settled in Virginia, but left as the state’s political climate shifted. They chose North Carolina, drawn to its military heritage and conservative values. A resident of Edenton, Buckhout described folks in our neck of the woods as her family — people and places she cares about deeply.

“Virginia was gone,” she said plainly. “North Carolina, y’all are keeping it real.”