Can Donald Trump Get This 26-Year-Old Elected to Congress?

In Ohio, Donald Trump fired JD Vance for third place and won the Republican Senate primary. In the West Virginia House of Representatives last night , Trump fired a longtime Maryland politician for electing the current governor .

Still not sure that Trump is incredibly receptive to GOP? Pay attention to Bo Hines . This was proof of the former president's influence.

Hines, a 26-year-old former college football teenager who is often compared to Madison Cawthorn of North Carolina before Cawthorn 's recent troubles , is running for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives, which represents Raleigh's southern neighborhood. .

And that was just the beginning of his ambition. "The governor of North Carolina and his main target is the president," Hines said in an interview in 2015 about his future aspirations when he was too young to buy alcohol .

Hines is just one of eight leading Republicans scheduled for Tuesday, but both Trump and the influential anti-tax group Growth Club have backed his proposal.

Thanks to their combined muscles, he could be a GOP candidate in North Carolina's only competitive home game this fall. If so, it would be a testament to Trump's ability to engage novice voters in the struggle and a profound expression of the realities of modern American politics.

"She's beautiful, she's inexperienced, so she's perfect," says Christopher A. Cooper, a political scientist at the University of West Carolina.

Talented athlete going into politics

The favorite story of Hines and his allies is that the rising star of MAGA broke the football record. Trump announced his support, calling him a "proven winner in court and off the field" and a "champion of conservative values."

The introductory announcement shows an opponent jumping rope and lifting weights in the gym. "Bo Hines trained for the grill," says the narrator, "and I only learn the values ​​that real competition can teach."

Hines is really a very respected athlete. As a high school student , Charlotte was a football phenomenon and was named an all-American freshman in North Carolina. Before leaving football a few years later, the Scouts considered him a potential NFL client. At his peak, he ran 40 yards in 4.41 seconds.

But then he began to dedicate himself to politics.

"After my first year, I moved to Yale University to study political science and watch the legislative process live on Capitol Hill," says a rare biography on his campaign website . "After graduating last year, I graduated from Wake Forest Law School to study left-wing Ivy League propaganda."

In interviews since his tenure, Hines has spoken openly about his political ambitions. However, prior to this campaign, his political work experience included internships in the offices of several Republican politicians.

For South Dakota Sen. Mike Rounds, one of those experiments lasted a total of 12 days, according to LegiStorm, which tracks congressional staff. He was paid $ 216.65 for his work, which he described as helping Rounds develop alternatives to the Affordable Care Act .

The other is Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb. Hines told the interviewer that the work required "minimizing Indiana bureaucracy."

Advantages of the "Strong enough" campaign.

Hines, whose parents are wealthy businessmen, spent a quarter of three million dollars on family funds for the campaign. North Carolina election records show that he voted in only three state elections, none of the primary.

In the first three months of 2022, he said his campaign exceeded $ 199 in people in the area and donated no more than just six from North Carolina. All individual donations below $ 200 can be made anonymously.

Fortunately for Hines, the group's PAC's super arm, the Growth Activity Club, said it planned to spend $ 1.3 million to support it. This is a large amount for home races.

Before settling in the 13th ward, Hines looked around for suitable perches. He said he intended to challenge Republican Rep. Virginia Fox, who has long held office in the western part of the state, before re-implementing the amended plans. In April, she and her husband changed their address to a house in Fuquay-Varina, south of Wake County, the region's most densely populated area.

In Johnston County, a thriving rural community, some Republicans have criticized the Hines for, in the words of a local parent company, "trying to go in and choose a district just to win." And Hine's main rival, a lawyer named Kelly Daughtry, the daughter of a former State House leader, attacked her as a carpet weaver.

The Hines campaign, which refused to make him available for interviews but published a number of detailed questions about his candidacy, said he grew up in Charlotte and spent time in NC, a little north of the Raleigh border. .

So far, Daughtry has spent more than $ 2.5 million on the contest and donated about $ 3 million of its own money. He has also served as Democrat for his past contributions to the Democrats , including Cherry Beasley, who is a Democratic candidate for the Senate, and Attorney General Josh Stein.

Some people who have access to private surveys say that Hines is a few percent ahead of Daughtry, while others are far behind. In North Carolina, if no candidate gets at least 30% of the vote, the top two runners-up advance to the second round.

The question for Hines is whether Trump's support and encouragement for the Growth Club will be enough to lift him to the top, while Daughtry's campaign hopes that his local credibility and success as a lawyer will attract supporters of the old party. sound to appear key. So far , primary voter turnout is relatively low in the district.

Republican political adviser Charles Hellwig, who advised Daughtry, said he expected tough competition, but said "Trump, backed by money, is a very strong coalition in the Republican primary."

"Make sure you know what you believe"

Over the years, Hines has used a variety of terms to describe his political philosophy. In an interview with The Hartford Courant in 2017, he said he was "not a social conservative."

He added: "I think I call myself a social libertarian. I'm more liberal in some social issues. I think it's part of our generation. I hope future Republicans don't get so caught up in the 80s. Congress wants to regulate how people live their lives." works.

Comments "out of context" for the campaign led to negative propaganda from the super PAC, which supported one of Hines' rivals. Hine's position on reproductive rights is that "abortion should be illegal throughout the United States. There are no exceptions."

Although Hines has previously spoken highly of Cawthorn - praising him as a "legitimate leader in the conservative movement" and sharing his support on Instagram - he has recently tried to distance himself from members of Congress who have alienated many Republicans. In Washington and North Carolina, lawmakers allege they used cocaine and leaked obscene, snobbish habits and nude videos.

"We are not the same. We have a completely different past, a very different past," Hines said in a recent interview with Axios . "Our only common denominator is our age and our socially conservative values."

In a podcast interview from January 2021, long before the Growth Club and Trump were confirmed, Hines spoke of leading a massive campaign to deliver economic growth, broadband internet and infrastructure in rural areas to potential voters.

Hines now has a Telegram account that publishes numerous pro-MAGA articles accusing Democrats of being "real segregators," of declaring a "war" on the police, and of "starting a war" in Ukraine.

During Trump's introductory speech at a Johnston County rally last month, he said he nominated Hines because "I will not look at the radical and Marxist left destroying our country for future generations."

Reiterating the offensive line he launched against Daughtry, he continued: "I will not support the cowardly Republican RINO, which is trying to dismantle the First American Movement."

A few weeks ago, in another podcast interview with self-improvement guru Matt Beaudreau , Hines shared some of the wisdom he has learned so far throughout his career.

"If you're not honest, people are very smart," he said. "You understand that."

He advised other young people who wanted to get involved in politics: "Before you try to tell others what you should believe, make sure you know what you believe."

Alyce McFadden contributed to the coverage.

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how they escape

Popular Democratic Riots in Pennsylvania

Most Pennsylvania congressmen tend to maintain a low profile on the national stage. But if Senator Bernie Sanders had campaigned, the spotlight would have been a little brighter.

In Pittsburgh on Thursday, Sanders will campaign for Summer Lee, a candidate to replace retired Democrat Mike Doyle. The district, including Pittsburgh, strongly supports Democrats. Thus, to avoid great disappointment, the primary election on Tuesday will appoint the next congressman in the district.

Lee, who represents part of Allegheny County in the state legislature, has significant support from national progressives such as Sanders and Senator Elizabeth Warren, including the first four members of the so-called Democrats and parliamentary leader Pramila Jayapal. Progressive Caucses.kongres. The city's newly elected mayor, Ed Gainey, also backed Lee.

Doyle backed Steve Irvey, a lawyer who campaigned on his promise to work with President Biden. Irvine is backed by former Gov. Ed Rendell and two former Pittsburgh mayors: Bill Peduto and Tom Murphy.

In other words, after the redesign of the district-map, the 12th Congress constituency is preparing for the modern classic Democratic primary.

Irvey's media adviser, Jay Howser, said, "This competition is more about style than content." "Steve Irwin and Summer Lee have a 95% chance of agreeing on this. Summer Lee will simply be the only surviving voice in Congress speaking and defending for liberal reasons, even though Steve Irwin is progressive, but he wants to. Work with President Biden to get things done. .

Abigail Gardner, Lee's communications consultant, sees things differently.

"There are significant political differences, including issues such as student loan forgiveness and climate change and the fight against corporate pollutants, where Summer is clearly a more progressive note and a different position than Steve Irwin," Gardner said.

- Blake and Lia

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