PSC Midterm Election Reflections: North Carolina
PSC Midterm Election Reflections: North CarolinaSherman Criner V (PPS ’26)
Cheri Beasley
Cheri Beasley is the Democratic nominee for North Carolina’s U.S. Senate seat in the upcoming midterm election. Justice Beasley graduated from Rutgers University in 1988 and recently received her Master of Laws from Duke University School of Law in 2018. Beasley served as an Associate Justice of North Carolina’s Supreme Court from 2012-2019 while later being appointed to Chief Justice by Governor Roy Cooper where she served from 2019-2020 after losing a tightly contested election to current Chief Justice Paul Newby.
Regarding her specific policy stances, Beasley tends to be more tight-lipped than Budd, but the main issues that she is running on are women’s rights, improved access to health care, legalization of abortion, and reforming the criminal justice system. Polls currently show that Beasley is engaged in a tenuous fight with her opponent, Ted Budd, with many polls revealing that she may be losing the election by a few percentage points.
Ted Budd
Ted Budd is the Republican nominee for North Carolina’s U.S. Senate seat in the upcoming midterm election. Representative Budd graduated from Wake Forest University in 2007, and has recently served as a member of the House of Representatives in North Carolina’s 13th district, which consists of numerous small towns such as Asheboro, Burlington, and Salisbury. Budd won the Republican nomination for Senate after a relatively easy victory over former North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory in the primary, largely due to the endorsement that he received from former President Donald Trump.
Regarding his specific political stances, Budd tends to vote in-line with other Republicans on issues such as voting rights, election integrity, foreign policy, and the Affordable Care Act. Regarding one of the more pressing issues in the minds of Americans, in light of the recent Dobbs decision, Budd is a staunch opponent of abortion, evident by his co-sponsorship of a bill that would ban abortions nationwide after 15 weeks of pregnancy. In recent news, Budd was one of only 39 Republicans to vote for the Merger Filing Fee Modernization Act of 2022, which seeks to penalize companies for antitrust behavior.
According to a Meredith College poll, Congressman Budd holds a 1.2% lead over his opponent, Cheri Beasley, although numerous polls indicate that he possesses an even wider advantage.
Sherman Criner (PPS ’26) is a Public Policy Undergraduate at Duke University’s Sanford School of Public Policy and a member of the Polis Student Committee. This piece was submitted as a reflection on the 2022 Midterm Elections. This content does not represent the official or unofficial views of the Sanford School, Polis, Duke University, or any entity or individual other than the author.