Republican Representative Ted Budd has won the North Carolina Senate race against Democratic candidate Cheri Beasley.
The race was called by Decision Desk HQ on Tuesday night at 11:24pm EST.
Decision Desk HQ projects Ted Budd (R) wins election to the U.S. Senate in North Carolina.#DecisionMade: 11:24pm EST
Follow more results here: https://t.co/ogd3AkeoyM pic.twitter.com/leqQ7It2hQ
— Decision Desk HQ (@DecisionDeskHQ) November 9, 2022
The seat was open after Republican Senator Richard Burr retired.
The race has been a close one, but Budd successfully garnered a win. On Election Day, FiveThirtyEight’s average polling had Budd up 4.3 points at 49.5% over Beasley’s 45.2%. However, Beasley was leading Budd in early results on Election Night.
In an acceptance speech, Budd said, “I want to make the Old North State that much better again.”
Jonathan Felts, Budd’s campaign manager, said earlier in the day on Tuesday, “I think people are responding well to Ted Budd’s message of helping get America back to work again, helping to get the economy up and running again,” adding, “We’ve been in recession now thanks to (President) Joe Biden and we have to get folks to work.”
Budd recently discussed the economy on Fox News as voters prepared to head to the polls.
“The problem is Joe Biden and his policies over the last two years have choked down supply,” Budd said. “You’ve got to stop what Milton Friedman used to say is too much money chasing too few goods which inevitably leads to inflation.”
“We’ve got to deal with the goods. We’ve got to deal with American energy and getting back to energy independence again. We’ve got to get back to rolling back regulations which have stopped housing projects, and stopped building apartments, it’s made it hard on small businesses trying to meet the demand of the consumers out there,” he said.
“We don’t even have enough truck drivers to get groceries to the grocery store nor enough diesel to get it there. So these are all self-inflicted problems by Joe Biden. So what we have to do in the next few years is press the brakes on his agenda and get this country back on the right track,” he added.
“Everything that Joe Biden has done and Cheri Beasley, my opponent in this Senate race, would do, makes it harder on those in North Carolina and in our country,” he said.
“Let’s stop all this excess money, starting back in April 2021 when Joe Biden pumped trillions more dollars into the economy,” he added, saying that Congress should be allowed to make these decisions.
“Joe Biden’s ideology, the Democrats’ ideology doesn’t allow them to solve this problem,” he said.
President Barack Obama recently endorsed Beasley in the Senate race.
“I don’t need to tell you these are challenging times. That’s why we need strong leaders to step forward. Leaders who will do what’s right instead of what’s easy. Leaders who will fight for you,” Obama said in a video endorsement.
“That’s why I’m supporting Cheri Beasley for U.S. Senate. Cheri was a public defender, a judge, and the first African American woman to serve as Chief Justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court,” he added.