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GOP Cong. Richard Hudson Ducks Town Halls [1]
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Date: 2025-04-19
GOP Congressional Leader Richard Hudson– The Strategy is to Duck Town Hall Meetings April 18, 2025
As anyone paying the slightest bit of attention to the news knows, many voters who cast their ballots for Demagogue/dictator wannabe Donald are now suffering acute cases of buyer’s remorse. Normally, when U.S. Congress Members are on vacation, which they currently are, they often hold town halls in their districts to discuss, listen, and learn what their constituents are thinking about. However, since Donald took office and with the help of his chain-saw hacking buddy Elon Musk, started firing thousands of federal workers and closing their offices without any hearings, GOPers realize that their constituents are furious with the Trump-Musk wrecking ball. With this political climate, it is a “no brainer” that “Red” district constituents would give their legislators harsh earfuls about their attacks on their jobs, their plans to gut Social Security, and cut other key parts of the safety net some of which have been in place since Democrat FDR’s 1930’s New Deal. So while Democrats are going into “Red” district town halls to explain how awful the Trump-Musk juggernaut is, GOPers have adopted a far different strategy. Most “Team Red” Congress members are town hall meeting “no-shows” because they know the hostile reception and bad press they would get. GOP lawmakers are, in fact, continuing to act like political cowards/ “fraidy cats.” They are taking their cues from National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) Chair Cong. Richard Hudson who has told them to skip in-person town halls. (Samuels, A. Daily Kos)
https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/4/14/2316368/-Democrats-hear-out-pissed-off-voters-while-Republicans-ghost-them
Seventh-term GOP Congress Member Richard Lane Hudson Jr.(53) currently represents North Carolina’s 9th Congressional District (CD). Hudson was first elected in 2012 in what was previously numbered the NC 8th CD. He was re-elected in the NC 8th in 2014, 2016, 2018, and 2020. After the post-2020 Census redistricting, Hudson’s district became the Tar Heel 9th CD, but did not change that much politically. Hudson’s office stated that he had previously represented every county in his new 9th CD where he ran in 2022 and 2024 except for Chatham County (Cohen & Cook 2024 Almanac of American Politics). He handily won his first election and all his re-elections (Ibid). In his re-elections, he won with margins in the 50% plus range The 9th CD contains nearly half of the old 8th and retained its core in Cumberland County. It contains Fayetteville, the home of the U.S. Army’s largest military post, Fort Bragg, home of the famed 82nd Airborne Division with some 52, 000 active-duty military personnel. This area is also home to 100,000 Army retirees. Fort Bragg, named after a previous Confederate general and slaveholder, was renamed in 2020 Fort Liberty. Trump had it renamed to Fort Bragg to purge the military of so-called “wokeness.” In a twist of fate, the renamed Fort Bragg was named not for the Confederate general, but for an obscure infantryman who fought in WWII’s Battle of the Bulge (Cameron, C New York Times.)
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/07/us/politics/fort-liberty-renamed-bragg.html
The 9th additionally now includes the southern and western exurbs of Raleigh and Randolph County as well as Moore and Lee Counties. Hoke and Scotland counties also lie in the 9th. The 9th now has a comfortable R+8 Cook PVI,Partisan Voting Index
https://www.cookpolitical.com/cook-pvi/2025-partisan-voting-index/district-map-and-list
Richard Hudson grew up in the Charlotte, NC area. Politics runs in his DNA. He helped his grandfather run for the Roanoke Rapids City Council, where he served for 30 years. Hudson put up signs for hard-right racist- leaning NC GOP U.S. Senator Jesse Helms. Hudson served as student- body president at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte where he obtained his Bachelor’s degree. After college, Hudson went to Washington, D.C. where he worked for several prominent GOPers. He was chief of staff to GOP Texas Congress Members Mike Conway and John Carter as well as North Carolina’s Virginia Foxx. He also worked as deputy chief of staff for NC Cong. Robin Hayes who was defeated by Democrat Larry Kissell in 2008. In November, 2011, just two months after moving back to the 8th NC CD, Hudson stated that he had a sense that “God had a higher purpose for his life and was calling him to run for Congress (Ibid).”
In 2012, Hudson won his primary to run against Kissell. In a race that GOPers had made a top priority, Hudson defeated the two term Democrat by 8 points, 53%-45%. In 2024, he clobbered another Democratic rival by 18.5 percentage points, 56.3%-37.8%
https://ballotpedia.org/North_Carolina%27s_8th_Congressional_District_elections,_2012
Hudson called for the repeal of Obamacare in 2017. In the wake of the Uvalde, TX school shooting massacre, he introduced legislation to provide for more mental health resources in public schools.
https://richmondobserver.com/stories/hudson-introduces-bill-to-increase-safety-mental-health-resources-at-schools,17615
However, he opposes red flag laws, which allow courts to remove firearms from individuals deemed a threat to themselves or others
https://hudson.house.gov/press-releases/bice-hudson-urge-removal-of-red-flag-law-from-national-defense-bill
Hudson has been an unabashed supporter of Donald Trump. After the Trump-incited January 6, 2021 D.C. Capitol coup attempt, Cong. Hudson voted against certifying Biden’s 2020 presidential election. In July, 2022, Hudson stated he would endorse Trump for president in 2024.
https://hudson.house.gov/media/in-the-news/nc-representatives-respond-to-trumps-2024-announcement
Hudson has climbed up the House and national GOP leadership ladder. In 2020, Hudson was elected as Republican Conference secretary. In 2022, Hudson became chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) which helps recruit and financially support GOP candidates (Ibid). Cong. Hudson has worked on health and energy issues and in the current 119th Congress sits on the House Energy & Commerce Committee.
https://hudson.house.gov/press-releases/congressman-richard-hudson-named-chair-of-energy-and-commerce-subcommittee-on
In 2021, he was given a 0% rating from the liberal ADA (Americans for Democratic Action) and a 5% basement rating from labor’s AFL-CIO. In 2022, the ACLU gave him a mere 22%. Hudson co-sponsored a resolution to amend the Constitution to ban same-sex marriage
https://www.ontheissues.org/NC/Richard_Hudson_Civil_Rights.htm
And Hudson’s strong GOP credentials run in his immediate family as well. His wife, Renee, was chief of staff for Kellyanne Conway, who helped Trump win election in 2016.
https://www.fayobserver.com/story/news/columns/2017/02/13/wife-congressman-richard-hudson-to/22084002007/
Cong. Hudson, in his safe GOP district, can keep winning reelection easily. However, as I have repeatedly said, he and his fellow “Team Red” House members will become irrelevant if Democrats take back the House. We can easily do this by flipping a net gain of 3 GOP seats in 2026. However, if our Democratic base sits on their couches like they did in 2024 when Trump narrowly won, this will not happen and we will, once again, have committed political malpractice. Our democracy depends on giving us a congressional base to take on dictator wannabe Trump and the House is key in this important battle.
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