RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) - North Carolina Libertarians are in the unusual position of getting to pick from two of their own in the May primary for the U.S. Senate race.
Former Senate candidate Sean Haugh of Durham and previous Republican congressional candidate Tim D’Annunzio of Raeford each filed for the Libertarian Party nomination. It marks just the second time in its short history that the party committed to minimal government intervention and personal freedom had a primary - the other primary came in 2000 in the race for governor.
Libertarian primaries have been few because only one member filed for elected office or the state party sometimes wasn’t recognized as an official state party because their top candidates previously failed to reach minimum thresholds of support. D’Annunzio and Haugh planned to participate in three forums before the primary, party spokesman Brian Irving said.
Haugh, who ran for Senate in 2002, said at the first forum in Durham the Democratic and Republican candidates in the race won’t talk realistically about the government piling up debt or working to end war. He said he would.
“I want to stop all war abroad - the literal definition of war. I want to stop metaphorical war - to stop culture war,” Haugh said, pointing to what he called the over-militarization of police and the collection of personal information by the National Security Agency. “Our government is treating us like we’re all potential enemies.”
D’Annunzio, who ran unsuccessfully in the 8th Congressional District in 2010 and 4th District in 2012, raised a stir at the forum when he suggested he could support Republican primary hopeful Greg Brannon should he and Brannon both with their respective primaries. D’Annunzio labeled Brannon as someone with libertarian principles.
“The last thing that I want to be responsible for if I receive the nomination is to allow Kay Hagan to defeat someone who is a Libertarian because I split the Libertarian vote in the name of the Libertarian Party,” he said.
Libertarians and unaffiliated voters can vote in the party’s primary.
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