Congressional candidate shares stage with President Trump

GREENVILLE – Laurie Buckhout, the Republican nominee in North Carolina’s 1st Congressional District, told a crowd at Pitt-Greenville Airport on Tuesday she would take “no-excuses leadership” from the battlefield to Capitol Hill, and she pressed voters to cast ballots early in her race against Democratic U.S. Rep. Don Davis.

Buckhout spoke on the same stage as President Donald Trump, who headlined a rally of nearly two hours to boost Republican candidates two weeks before the Nov. 3 midterm election.

“North Carolina Republicans: It is an honor to stand with you today!” Buckhout said, opening her remarks. She thanked Trump for coming. “Your leadership, your fight, and your America First agenda are exactly what this state and this country need,” she said.

Buckhout leaned on her military background, which is the core of her campaign. She said she spent almost 30 years in the U.S. Army and was responsible for more than 800 soldiers in combat.

“In that job you don’t get to make excuses. You lead, or people get hurt. I led,” she said. “And I am ready to bring that same no-excuses leadership to Congress for Eastern North Carolina!”

She said she is no career politician. “I didn’t come up through politics. I’m a farm girl who came up through the Army,” Buckhout said. She commanded a Signal Battalion in combat during Operation Iraqi Freedom and earned the Bronze Star. When Trump asked her to help lead cyber policy at the Department of War, she said, “I said yes.”

“I have spent my life defending America, and I am just getting started for you!” she said.

Buckhout also described her family. Her husband is a retired Army Delta operator, she said, and the couple raised two Eagle Scouts.

“I want my boys – and every kid in this district – to have the America we grew up with: where hard work pays off, the border means something, and you don’t have to leave home to build a future,” she said. “That America is worth fighting for, and that fight is right now!”

Here’s the rally if you want to watch — all two hours of it.

‘Four times he sat down’

Buckhout then turned to Davis, the first-term incumbent, who is seeking re-election in a district that has long been politically competitive.

“For 143 years, one political machine has dominated this region,” she said. “Today that old system has a name: Do-Nothing Don Davis.”

She ran through a list of votes she said Davis cast against his constituents. “When working families needed tax relief, Don Davis voted no. When tipped workers needed to keep more of what they earn, he voted no. When small businesses needed room to grow, he voted no. And when our farmers needed help, he voted no. Four times his people needed him to stand up. Four times he sat down!”

Buckhout focused on Davis’s vote against the One Big Beautiful Bill, the tax and spending package Trump signed. She called it “the biggest investment in American farmers in a generation,” citing “stronger safety nets for our crops, nearly $14 billion already in producers’ hands, and a higher death-tax exemption so family farms stay in the family.”

She accused Davis of claiming credit for the law’s benefits. “Then he put out press releases taking credit for rural funding made possible by the very bill he tried to kill,” she said. “He knows what you want. He just won’t vote for it.”

She also said Davis “voted to allow men in women’s locker rooms” and opposed expansion of ECU Medical, “against more care and capacity right here in Eastern North Carolina when our communities need it most.”

Buckhout said that when Trump asked Congress to stand if members believed government should put American citizens first, “every Republican stood tall. Don Davis stayed in his seat.”

Her last charge was personal. “Don Davis filed his taxes late for 20 years in a row,” she said. “While farm families here meet every deadline, he couldn’t file his own returns on time for two decades. That’s not leadership. That’s failure!”

Here’s President Trump — “There’s a guy named Don Davis. I hear he’s like a disaster.

‘Here is the mission’

Buckhout closed with a get-out-the-vote pitch built around the Army ethos. “The Army taught me you never leave a mission unfinished, and you never leave your people behind. So here is the mission,” she said.

She reminded voters that early voting is underway and ends Saturday, Oct. 31, at 3 p.m. Unregistered residents can register and vote the same day at an early voting site, she said, an option unavailable on Election Day. “Bring your photo ID.”

“Don’t wait for the last weekend. Lines get long, life gets in the way, and the weather on the coast doesn’t care about our plans,” she said. “Vote this week. Then use the days you have left.”

She urged supporters to make calls, knock on doors and drive people to the polls. Polls open Tuesday, Nov. 3, from 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.

“We have the momentum. We have the message. Now we need you,” Buckhout said. “Stand with me! Fight with me! Vote for me! Let’s retire Do-Nothing Don Davis and send a warrior to Washington!”

A few odds and ends — Protesters, football and $5,000

Trump’s speech wandered widely and included some of his usual asides. Early on, security removed protesters from the venue. Trump said without evidence that demonstrators were paid. “They get paid $250. That’s what they get,” he said. “Here’s another one over here. Here’s another one over here. Losers. Losers.”

He later praised the crowd’s response. “You people just rip them right the hell out of there. I like that,” he said.

The president repeated his pledge to send $5,000 to every adult citizen if Republicans keep control of the House and Senate. “If Republicans win the House of Representatives and the Senate, I am going to give all adult citizens in the United States of America five thousand dollars,” he said. “And only Republicans can do that.”

He added a condition. The money, he said, must be invested in the United States. “You cannot go to Japan. You cannot go to China, darling,” Trump said. “I will allow you to go to France if you’d like. You can have some fun.”

Trump’s closing was blunter. “If you elect a Republican House and Republican Senate on November 3rd, you’re going to get $5,000, and if we lose, you get nothing,” he said. “You ain’t going to get nothing if we lose.”

Last words: Trump said Buckhout will be the next congresswoman from the 1st District.

Buckhout reiterated her call for early voting. “All of this energy the President has brought here to North Carolina is for naught unless you all get out and vote early,” she said. She said both of the districts are Republican-leaning. “That’s simple math. There are more of us. All you got to do is get out the vote.”

Trump said he plans to return to North Carolina before Election Day.