Laurie Buckhout is a retired army colonel and the GOP nominee looking to defeat Rep. Don Davis, D-N.C., in the race to represent North Carolina's 1st Congressional District in the House. (Laurie Buckhout campaign)
Buckhout accused Davis, a U.S. Air Force veteran who served for 14 years in the North Carolina state Senate before getting elected to the House in Nov. 2022, of being a "career politician" who has "never had a day in his life where he's run a business."
"He's never created jobs. He's been a career politician," she said.
"You look at everything he's done, he goes down to the border, and all that is, is for photo ops," she added of Davis, who previously served as the mayor of Snow Hill, North Carolina, in the early 2000s. "Has he made any changes or put forth any bills to stop the invasion? No. Has he done anything to stop illegal aliens [from] bringing fentanyl into the state or to his district? No."
Buckhout, who's been traveling the district to speak with voters about their concerns ahead of the election, said there are a number of issues she's hoping to tackle if elected, including poverty.
"G.K. Butterfield, who hand-picked Don Davis to replace him, used to brag that this is the poorest district in North Carolina, and it is. It's been Democrat-led for 141 years and maybe that's the reason," she said.
Buckhout began her career with the Army in 1984 and later commanded an 800-person battalion attack task force as part of the initial spearhead attack into Iraq in 2003. (Laurie Buckhout campaign)
"The sense of standing up when you feel your country is in danger, that's never really gone away," Buckhout added. "That's part of what made me decide to run for office was, as a mom and a citizen, as maybe a soldier for life, I guess, I can't step away and just watch our country burn. I feel compelled to stand up and, you know, try to change it."
Following her tenure in the military, Buckhout, started a strategic consulting and services group specializing in electronic warfare and cyberspace operations.
"We worked on some wonderful programs when I came back from Iraq, stopping our soldiers from getting blown up with IEDs," she said. "When I retired from the Army in 2010, after being assigned to the Pentagon after going to Iraq, I did the same thing as a business, because it still needed to be done. Soldiers were still getting maimed and killed by improvised explosive devices in Iraq and Afghanistan. And, of course, now they've spread all over the world, and we've even found them on our own border."
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Aside from several national endorsements Buckhout has received, she said that her "most valuable" endorsements have come from those who she said know her best in the district, including Chowan County Sheriff Edward Basnight, Lenoir County Sheriff Jackie Rogers, Gates County Sheriff Ray Campbell, and District Attorney Jeff Cruden.
In October 2023, the North Carolina General Assembly adopted new congressional district boundaries, adding the counties of Chowan, Franklin, Greene, Pasquotank, Perquimans, Tyrrell and the remainder of Vance to the state's First Congressional District. The newly redrawn district now excludes Wayne County.
Buckhout, who was elected as the district's Republican nominee last month in the GOP primary election, will face off against Davis in the state's general election on November 5.
Kyle Morris covers politics for Fox News. Story tips can be sent via email and on X: @RealKyleMorris.
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