WaPo: ““Just in the last day or so I’ve had several people tell me or call me or email me about how they are going to do the same thing,” said Robert F. Orr, a former North Carolina Supreme Court justice and onetime Republican gubernatorial candidate, who announced his resignation from the party last week. “With these people leaving, it really just reinforces that it’s a Donald Trump cult, and most people don’t want to be a part of it.”
Big donors in the state are also going to ground, with local billionaire Jim Goodnight, who gave heavily to the Republican House and Senate efforts last year, signaling that none of his money henceforth will go to candidates who “did not support the integrity of the election process, which is so vital to our democracy,” according to a spokesman.
Less than two months after a pro-Trump mob ransacked the U.S. Capitol and highlighted the extent to which the former president retains his grip on the GOP’s most ardent supporters, the early jockeying ahead of the 2022 race to replace Burr is exposing the inherent challenges in rebuilding a coalition that can win in closely contested states.”