Challenging the Status Quo

Our local newspaper ran a great article on my filing to run for U.S. House of Representatives.  Since Kernersville News doesn't have an online edition, I decided to post the text and photos here.

I thought it was great that they had me on the front page, then I turned to page two and couldn't stop laughing. The paper actually published the photo of me protesting outside of Congress in DC with my sign that reads, "Congress No Longer Listens to We the People #ElectileDysfunction".  Priceless.

Foxx knows what the people of NC05 want, someone with a backbone to stand up against Barack Obama and the liberal agenda, but she ignores us. That is why I am running. I am tired of our voices being ignored. Virginia Foxx is part of the leadership that knows exactly what we the people want, but they ignore us.

Challenging the status quo
Kernersville resident files to run against Congresswoman Virginia Foxx; Burr faces challenges

by Wendy Freeman Davis

Pattie Curran made good on her commitment to seek the Republican nomination for the state’s Fifth Congressional District against Congresswoman Virginia Foxx next year when she filed her candidacy on December 1, the same day Foxx filed to run for re-election. 

No Democratic candidates submitted their names to run in the 5th District race in 2016.

Curran, a married homeschool mother of three who lives in Kernersville, first announced her campaign in April of this year, saying at the time that she believes the people in the district are desperate for a change in Washington D.C., even among politicians who have traditionally been held up as bastions of conservatism.

In the months since announcing her intention to run against Foxx in the Republican primary, Curran said nothing has changed her mind or opinion on the lack of conservative principles being displayed in the nation’s capital.

“Conservatives are disappointed,” Curran said Monday afternoon as she talked about her campaign and filing her candidacy earlier this month. 

Curran’s displeasure with the status quo in Washington D.C. was apparent after Congress voted to pass the most recent omnibus bill on December 18 when she posted the following on her campaign’s Facebook page:

“Still angry over yesterday’s omnibus passing the Republican controlled House and Senate. We called, we tweeted, emailed ….and we the people were ignored again. We were attacked by moderate Republicans for not understanding.”

The bill, which keeps the federal government operating through next fall, funded all the things conservatives have complained about, including Planned Parenthood, amnesty for illegal immigrants, and the Syrian refugee program.

She continued.

“Both parties are working in collusion against the will of the American people. I’m tired of being ignored.”

It’s that sense of disappointment that Curran hopes will compel her to win over Foxx in the primary, but she knows it is an uphill battle.

“This is a grassroots effort. I am not a six-term career politician with a $2 million war chest. This is about taking back what’s rightfully ours. We need bold conservative leadership in Washington who say, ‘no, this is not right,” Curran said on Monday.

Congresswoman Foxx talked to the Yadkin Ripple about filing for re-election.

North Carolina families want someone with a strong track record of championing conservative solutions to the problems facing our nation. The folks I speak with across the Fifth Congressional District are constantly telling me that they like someone who has a backbone to stand up to big government liberals in Washington, and I’m confident that my strong record of doing just that will speak for itself.”

Foxx said that is why she is excited about running for re-election, saying she knows conservative ideas work.

“I’m not afraid to make that case to voters,” she said, “It’s time for the Obama administration’s era of incompetence and big government boondoggles to come to an end. The people of North Carolina are ready to put President’s Obama’s failed liberal ideology out to pasture and put time-tested conservative solutions to work.”

In the race for U.S. Senate, incumbent Republican Senator Richard Burr faces challenges on all fronts, with three Republicans filing to challenge him in the primary. They are Paul Wright, of Dudley; Larry Holmquist, of Greensboro; and Greg Brannon of Charlotte [Cary].

Four Democrats are vying to be on the ballot for U.S. Senate in November. They are Deborah Ross, of Raleigh; Kevin Griffin, of Durham; Chris Rey of Spring Lake; and Ernest Reeves, of Greenville.
Libertarian candidate Sean Haugh has also filed to run for Burr’s U.S. Senate seat.

Of the three candidates challenging Burr in the primary, Brannon is probably the most well-known statewide. He places second in the 2014 Republican primary to Thom Tillis. Willis went on to defeat U.S. Senator Kay Hagan in that year’s general election.

Among the Democrats, Ross is a former Wake County lawmaker, Reye is the mayor of Spring Lake and Griffin is a businessman. Reeves previously ran for mayor of Greenville.