On this date in 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, as well as 2019, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day posted profiles of the current U.S. House Representative for North Carolina’s 8th District, Richard Hudson, who is one of the Birthers among the Republican caucus, having once told an assembled crowd that “President Obama is hiding something about his birth certificate”, and called for legislation to investigate it. Hudson also not only voted for the 2013 Government Shutdown, but when the vote came to reopen the government, he voted to keep it closed. He also took part in the 2014 GOP efforts to stir up fears over Ebola, calling for both a travel ban, and writing an official letter to blame the outbreak on President Obama.
Hudson also voted against the renewal of the Violence Against Women Act, and during debate about the SNAP food stamp program, called for drug testing on welfare recipients to be implemented nationally (since it’s done so well failing as a practice at the state level). Richard Hudson has been quite the conspiracy theory lover in his first few years in the House, already demanding answers about Benghazi, the non-scandal that was the “IRS Scandal”, and trying to cut funding towards the implementation of the United Nations’ Agenda 21 treaty. During the GOP’s faux-outrage over the Planned Parenthood “sting” videos supplied by the Center for Medical Progress that were proven to be edited to mislead the public, Hudson not only voted to defund the organization, but boldly proclaimed himself as believing that life begins at conception.
While Congress was mostly quiet through a tumultuous 2016 election campaign (and with some of the fewest working days in Congressional history), Rep. Hudson spent most of the year demonizing the Environmental Protection Agency, including trying to block any restrictions they might place on Motorsports events, playing up this fight to the folks in his district whose passion for NASCAR surpass the needs of the planet itself. In July when he decided to target employees of the EPA by filing an amendment into their funding that would prevent any of their employees from flying on an airplane as a part of their job (like to places to conduct investigations of wrongdoing by anyone, y'know, ignoring EPA standards and polluting) as well as restricting any of these criminal enforcement employees from owning a gun they might need to do their jobs.
Our update for 2019 on Richard Hudson will include simply this moment… one of his first votes in Congress back in 2013 was to vote against Disaster Relief for those affected by Hurricane Sandy. We thought at the time that it seemed like there would be some hypocrisy coming on that vote, because after all, North Carolina, where Rep. Hudson is from, frequently is impacted by hurricane damage. And so it was that after Hurricane Florence, that he quite predictably wrote letters to Donald Trump to beg for him to allocate disaster relief to his district. Because of course this hypocritical little s*** did.
Richard Hudson has failed to host a single town hall since the 2016 elections with his constituents, but has made time to have several closed-door meetings with donors. With a +8 advantage his district gave him after redistricting in 2012, he has been able to fend off any Democratic challenger that he might see. He managed to win re-election with 55% of the vote in 2018.
- January 22nd, 2019: Hudson cannot be arsed to vote against HR 676, which would prevent Donald Trump from doing the unthinkable and walking away from our allies in NATO to appease the Russians.
- January 23rd, 2019: Rep. Hudson voted against HR 648, because he was gleefully enjoying the longest government shutdown in history.
- February 28th, 2019: Hudson votes against HR 1112, a bill which would have required universal background checks on all firearm purchases, and close the gun show loophole.
- March 14th, 2019: Rep. Hudson votes against HJR 46, which sane members of Congress voted for to reject Donald Trump’s “national emergency” regarding the U.S. border and his attempts to reallocate funds for a border wall without Congressional approval.
- April 4th, 2019: Richard Hudson is one of 158 Republicans who choose to vote against the re-authorization of the Violence Against Women Act, likely because they feel the 2nd Amendment remaining absolute is more important than preventing people with a history of domestic abuse from owning a firearm (which statistics show, makes them more likely to use those firearms against women in their lives).
- May 17th, 2019: Hudson votes against The Equality Act, which would have prevented discrimination towards Americans based on their gender identity or sexual orientation.
- June 4th, 2019: Rep. Hudson votes against the Dreamers Act, because he’s too xenophobic and partisan to care about immigration reform.
- July 16th, 2019: Richard Hudson votes against a resolution to condemn Donald Trump for his racist statements that four people of color in Congress should “go back where they came from”.
- December 3rd, 2019: Richard Hudson is one of 71 Republicans who vote against House Resolution 546, which stated disapproval of any attempt to readmit the Russian federation back into the G7 and make it the G8.
- December 19th, 2019: Richard Hudson votes against the impeachment of Donald Trump, in spite of glaring evidence of abuse of power.
Richard Hudson is already prepping his 2020 campaign, which involved having to return money he collected from an indicted North Carolina businessman who was funneling money to members of Congress for political favors. Specifically, that businessman, Greg Lindberg, routed money from a local’s veteran’s charity to Hudson’s campaign rather than donating it to, y’know, the veterans’ families that the money was intended for.
Once upon a time, being associated with such a scandal could be the ruin of a candidate, but these days, the public are jaded enough to not care (and they should). We’ll see if North Carolina’s 8th is still leaning as far conservative as it has been in 2020, as the entire GOP digs in and supports government corruption from the top down.