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Republican U.S. Senate candidate U.S. Rep. Ted Budd talks with Bob and Myrna Scott on Saturday during a campaign event at D Chill Spot in downtown Rocky Mount.

Republican U.S. Senate candidate U.S. Rep. Ted Budd speaks Saturday during a campaign stop at D Chill Spot in downtown Rocky Mount.

Republican U.S. Senate candidate U.S. Rep. Ted Budd talks with Bob and Myrna Scott on Saturday during a campaign event at D Chill Spot in downtown Rocky Mount.

Republican U.S. Senate candidate U.S. Rep. Ted Budd speaks Saturday during a campaign stop at D Chill Spot in downtown Rocky Mount.

ROCKY MOUNT — Republican U.S. Senate candidate Ted Budd made a campaign stop in downtown Rocky Mount and spoke to a crowd of 25 people, mostly black conservatives, about supporting his candidacy.

Budd, who currently represents North Carolina’s 13th Congressional District, is vying with Democrat Cheri Beasley, former state Supreme Court Chief Justice, for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by retiring Republican U.S. Sen. Richard Burr.

At a business called D Chill Spot on Saturday, Budd talked about himself, his background in business and theology, Democratic spending policies he said have led to record rates of inflation, and energy policies that have led to a spike in fuel prices and the strain that those policies have placed on North Carolina families.

But what got Budd the most appreciative reaction at the event sponsored by the Frederick Douglass Foundation of North Carolina is when he said racial diversity was growing in the Republican party and talked about the values that unite them.

“One of the most encouraging things that I have seen, over the last year in particular, is more diversity within the Republican Party. And they say that’s new and I say that’s the way we started — that’s who’ve we’ve been always been. I’m glad we’re new again and that people that don’t look like me are coming to events all over the state,” Budd said.

Budd said that black Republican leaders like Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson and Lt. Gov. Winsome Sears of Virginia are drawing in large diverse crowds of enthusiastic supporters all over the state to the events they’ve appeared at.

“It’s not about what we look like. It’s about what we believe. We believe in freedom. We believe in having educational choices for our children,” Budd said. “I’m seeing some amazing trends. I’m seeing that (meeting) rooms are starting to look like this one (racially diverse), which is encouraging to me.”

Budd said there is a trend of blacks leaving the Democratic Party, not necessarily becoming Republicans but being unaffiliated politically.

“They say, ‘I’m going to stand up for what I believe in.’ I hope they vote with us. But I’m not going to assume it. I want to ask for it. I’m going to ask for their support,” he said.

Budd said Republican policies will lower inflation and lower fuel costs and make living more affordable in general. Budd said high fuel prices and the skyrocketing cost of food is putting pressure on families struggling to make ends meet.

“This is a prosperous country. Is it perfect? Absolutely not. Can we make it better? Absolutely. Is what the left is doing to us right now hurting regular hard-working families? Yes. And we know how to fix it. Is it hard? It is. Can we make it better and do we know the plan? Yes,” Budd told the audience.

Budd said the way back involves implementing policies that encourage work, respect for the rule of law and making neighborhoods safer.

Outside the meeting, Budd spoke to the Telegram about policies that would result in lowering crime and violence in low-income communities like Rocky Mount and others like it across the state. He focused on restoring families and implementing policies that encourage two-parent households.

“You can’t come up with enough government to overcome broken families. That’s the beginning — encouraging families, encouraging work and not having disincentives to keeping families together. So we have to make sure that any policies we promote are pro-family, that they encourage life, that they encourage families to stay together and that they encourage fathers to stick around and discourage the opposite,” he said.

Budd said policies have been implemented in the past to combat poverty in the U.S. that have had the unintended consequences of destroying families.

He said more needs to be done to shut down the flow of illegal drugs along the I-95 corridor. He added that police departments need the support of their communities to keep neighborhoods safe.

“You’ve seen anti-police sentiments over the last several years. It’s been tragic,” he said.

For what can be done to combat inflation, Budd said, “Inflation, essentially, comes from having too much money chasing too few goods. So you have to hit it from both sides. You have to stop government overspending, which is the too much money part. It’s chasing goods that aren’t there. There’s a lack of production because folks have been encouraged to exit the workforce. We know what a labor shortage we have right now.”

Budd said policies should be implemented that encourage returning to work and easing regulations that are barriers to people desiring to start new businesses.

“You get too many regulations on the books and people who are entrepreneurially minded, like the owner here (D Chill Spot), will say ‘forget it’ and he won’t create something that produces,” Budd said.

When asked what can be done about high fuel prices, Budd was adamant that the current administration’s anti-fossil-fuel energy policies places too much strain on family budgets and that the recently passed Inflation Reduction Act is legislation that would make fuel prices and the price of everything else go up.

“I’ve got nothing against electrification, but you can’t mandate it on people,” he said. “The so-called Inflation Reduction Act is no inflation reduction act at all. It’s essentially Joe Biden and Cheri Beasley, who would rubber-stamp his policies, helping rich people buy Teslas and put solar panels on their roofs.”

Budd said the solution lies in creating pro-energy policies. Energy policies are intrinsically tied in with the quality of life in U.S., he said, adding that the cost of energy has a direct impact on the production, harvesting and transportation of food.

“They’re driving costs through the roof,” Budd said of Democratic policies.

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