Conservative activist Kay Daly is taking aim at incumbent GOP Rep. Renee Ellmers, R-N.C., declaring that she is taking aim at RINOs (Republicans in Name Only).
At stake is the Republican nomination in the Tar Heel State’s second congressional district. Ellmers scored a major upset to win the seat as a tea party candidate in 2010, but Daly says Ellmers quickly abandoned the principles she espoused while running for office.
“She’s the gift that keeps on giving,” said Daly, before listing the issue she thinks ought to disqualify Ellmers from serving another term.
“She’s a tax and borrow liberal. In her first year in Congress alone, Ellmers voted to increase the debt by more than Hillary Clinton did in eight years as a senator. She refuses to exercise Congress’s purse power to defund Obamacare. She’s an open borders, pro-amnesty apologist for illegals,” said Daly. “She’s the one who tried to kill the Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Act.”
After exploring a congressional bid by traveling throughout the district, Daly says the GOP-heavy district is ready for a change.
“They cannot wait to get a conservative, a real conservative, into office. They can’t wait for the election. Most of them, when they found out I was even considering it, they were saying, ‘Please run. Please.’ [Ellmers] is someone who comes back to the district and gets in arguments with her constituents. It’s all over YouTube,” said Daly.
Daly, whose first ad shows her firing a gun and saying ‘I’m hunting RINOs’ says the recent actions by the Republican Congress show there needs to be new blood in the majority.
“What we have too many of in Congress are millionaires who don’t do their job. What we have too few of are folks with titanium spines and political courage. What we need are folks who can go to Washington and actually remember they’re conservatives and actually vote their districts,” said Daly.
There’s more than one challenger to Ellmers from the conservative side. Jim Duncan entered the race earlier this year, touting himself as the antidote to Ellmers. Daly says she looks forward to a spirited campaign and hopes Duncan will endorse her in the run-off against Ellmers following the March 2016 primary.
Daly says she can better make the case as the conservative challenger to Ellmers because of a lifetime of principled activism.
“I’ve got 30 years worth of a conservative record that I don’t think Jim has if one looks closely at his record,” said Daly. “I’ve worked for (former Texas Sen.) Phil Gramm. I’ve got the support of people like Jim Dobson and Alan Keyes and Gary Bauer.”
“It’s like Ted Cruz said, ‘Where have you led and where have you bled?’ said Daly.
Daly calls her time in Gramm’s office a Ph.D-level experience in understanding what public service is all about. She says the lessons learned there stand in stark contrast to the way Ellmers views her job.
“He told me time and time again, ‘Remember who you work for.’ What I’m remembering first and foremost is ‘Remember who your boss is.’ It’s the people of the second district. What my opponent said was after she got there was, ‘Oh, my boss is John Boehner,” said Daly.
Daly flatly refuses to back Boehner or other members of the current House leadership for re-election, and she says they will have no influence on her votes.
“I’m going to go to Washington. I’m going to stand on principle. John Boehner, Kevin McCarthy and the rest of them aren’t going to change my mind for anything,” said Daly, insisting she will not play their game of voting on bills minutes after they are made available for review.
“If a thousand-page bill is handed to me half an hour before the vote, I’m going to use the Sen. Mike Lee rule and vote no,” said Daly.
Several issues will be front and center for Daly if she is elected to Congress, starting with government spending.
“When I look at my three children, it’s something that is untenable. That’s something that has to be gotten into hand right away,” said Daly.
Immigration is another front-burner issue.
“We can’t afford to take in everybody anymore. This is the greatest country in the world and we are the most generous country in this world. But the answers Washington has come up with are just completely out of touch with what the rest of the world is feeling. Too many people are out of work too many people are in trouble out there. We have to take care of our own right now,” she said.
Social issues also matter a great deal to her, especially protecting the unborn and traditional marriage.
“These issues are near and dear to my heart. I’ll be fighting for the unborn and fighting to get our courts back in line,” she said.
More information on Daly’s campaign can be found at kaydaly.com.