(RepublicanNews.org) – Former North Carolina Representative Mark Walker has abandoned his own congressional campaign in order to support presumptive presidential candidate Donald Trump in his. Walker, who had faced a highly competitive race against Addison McDowell, a former healthcare lobbyist who had earned Trump’s public endorsement, will instead work for Trump as a director of outreach for faith and minority groups.
McDowell will now progress to the general election as the candidate for the 6th Congressional District in North Carolina. Walker had finished second out of six candidates, losing out to McDowell by just 2.1 percentage points. As no single candidate achieved more than 30% of the vote, election rules stipulated that Walker as runner-up was entitled to request a run-off vote or a second primary to take place in May.
Initially, Walker was keen to take the opportunity to fight once more for prime position. However, by Wednesday, March 13th, he had changed his mind and said that he was now happy to bow out of the competition to allow Addison to advance unhindered. He confirmed his new role later that day on social media after Trump announced their new partnership when the former president said that he looked forward to working once more with Walker to “build bridges.” Walker, previously a Pastor, said that he had been “delighted” to accept the position, and was excited at the prospect of working with those he said had been “long forgotten by Democrats.”
Walker had previously served under both the Obama and Trump administrations as a member of the House from 2015-2021, only leaving after re-districting resulted in his constituency becoming Democratic. The area has since been re-districted once more, resulting in it leaning more Republican, something which prompted its representative, the Democrat Kathy Manning, to choose retirement over a re-election campaign. As no Democrat has opted to run for the position, Addison McDowell looks set to become the next GOP representative for the area, which McDowell said he was “honored” to do.
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