KERNERSVILLE (AP) — Add another Republican candidate to the list of those who want to challenge Democratic U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan a year from now.
Local radio station host Bill Flynn of Forsyth County announced over the weekend he would enter the GOP primary for Senate. There are four other announced Republican nominee hopefuls, including state House Speaker Thom Tillis of Cornelius. Flynn ran unsuccessfully against 6th District U.S. Rep. Howard Coble in the May 2012 primary, getting 22 percent of the vote in a three-way race.
Flynn told about 50 people Sunday at an event in Kernersville that a lack of “consistently constitutional government” is the biggest issue facing the country, the Winston-Salem Journal reported.
“You can have government that protects your rights or is ambivalent to your rights, but the worst mode is when government is hostile to your rights, and I submit to you … that our government is hostile to our rights,” Flynn said, adding that Hagan is “wrong for North Carolina.”
“Kay Hagan is toxic to the goodness of America,” the newspaper quoted Flynn as saying. “And we have to challenge that, and we will.”
In response, Hagan spokeswoman Sadie Weiner said in an email Monday that the senator has a strong bipartisan track record to help North Carolina residents and families that’s in “stark contrast to the over-the-top rhetoric and outside interest-funded smear campaigns against her that won’t do a single thing to create jobs or grow the economy.”
Flynn, 55, moved to North Carolina in the mid-1960s and now works at WEGO-AM. He said he’ll use his 35 years of experience as a broadcaster to articulate his message to a broad audience.
Other announced Republican Senate candidates for the May primary are the Rev. Mark Harris of Charlotte, OB-GYN Dr. Greg Brannon of Cary and nurse practitioner Heather Grant of Wilkesboro.