Ted Budd is an ultra-MAGA Senator trying to be uncontroversial

North Carolina has had a number of senators who utilized a political strategy that amounted to “Be Invisible.” Richard Burr was the pioneer. A solid mediocrity, the Winston-Salem lawnmower maven sought to make as minimal an impression on the voters as he could. Unknown but uncontroversial, Burr won three Senate elections, making himself the longest-serving North Carolina senator since Jesse Helms. No accomplishments, no defeats: a consistent record. 

Ted Budd once seemed a little rowdier than Burr. Budd introduced himself to North Carolina by cutting an ad with a gun on his hip and the border wall behind him, making a macho pronouncement of his commitment to Donald Trump and the MAGA cause. But Ted Budd shortly put his Trumpism on the shelf and out of sight. Instead of bomb-thrower, he’s been Richard Burr redux. The invisible senator tiptoes through the halls of Congress once again, careful never to be relevant. 

Budd’s ability to refashion (or perhaps simply vaporize) his image may portend well for his reelection bid. North Carolina is a red-leaning state, especially in Senate elections, and in the absence of any controversy the “R” label is often a sufficient asset to sneak through a general election. But Budd’s inconspicuous Senatorial profile may also be allowing him to perform a disservice to his constituents and his state. Unlike Burr, whose voting record was very conservative but also fairly benign, Ted Budd is a rabid populist who is using the cloak of irrelevance to conceal an extreme agenda. 

The January 6 terrorist attack has been on all our minds lately. Donald Trump wants to stuff a cash reward in the pockets of the terrorists’ prison jumpsuits, now that he’s let them out of the Big House and back into the country whose government they attacked. This includes a convicted child molester. Senator Budd has a certain view of the terrorists. He called them, when the blood had hardly dried on the Capitol steps, “patriots.” That is an astonishing expression of radicalism. Our junior Senator saw a group of people stage the most radical attack on the US government since the Civil War and endorsed the character of the assailants. On democracy, Budd in 2021 was a stone-cold opponent. 

Budd’s authoritarian views do not seem to have changed. Gerrymandering is the preeminent (and increasingly effective) threat to American democracy in our time. Ted Budd gave it his blessing. As state legislatures across the country redrew maps to abolish the districts of the opposing parties’ congresspeople, Budd dismissed nonpartisan redistricting. It’s a “misnomer,” he said oddly, expressing the opinion that nonpartisan redistricting commissions are screens for (presumably Democratic) politicians to draw maps that played to their partes’ self-interests. 

This is nonsense. Nonpartisan redistricting has been effective in red states like Florida and Iowa. Ted Budd simply wants the Republican Party to have the power to rig elections by drawing districts such as the Piedmont district that launched his career. Budd stands firmly with authoritarian redistricting fiends like his North Carolina colleague Ralph Hise in believing that the ultimate power of who represents the people should lie with politicians who see voters as partisan pawns. 

On the most vivid clash over democracy in our time, Ted Budd sided with authoritarian sympathizers over Ukrainians fighting for their country’s sovereignty and survival. Budd joined Republican Russophiles in opposing further aid to Ukraine’s desperate struggle against Russia. He didn’t exactly embrace the Russians. But, George Orwell might have said, Budd’s opposition to Ukrainian aid was objectively pro-Putin. If an independent democracy should fall to Russian aggression, it will be with Ted Budd’s implicit assent. 

Do North Carolinians know these things about Ted Budd? I doubt it. So far, Budd seems to have been successful in sliding beneath the radar and implementing his ultra-MAGA politics without the scrutiny of North Carolina voters. His approval ratings resemble what Richard Burr had for most of his career: low name recognition, little support, but also weak opposition. He’s Mr. Irrelevant come back to the Senate. That he is also a fervent Trumper and across-the-board opponent of true democracy is a fact that democracy advocates will have to bring to light.