Under the Dome: NC Republicans ‘stand with’ Texas governor over border standoff

Hello and welcome to your Under the Dome newsletter. Avi Bajpai here.

An ongoing legal standoff between Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and the Biden administration over the state’s use of razor wire along part of its border with Mexico prompted Republicans across the country, including in North Carolina, to rally behind Abbott this week.

All three Republicans running for governor — Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, attorney and businessman Bill Graham and state Treasurer Dale Folwell — posted statements on social media expressing support for Abbott and lambasting President Joe Biden, saying that his administration had shirked its responsibility to secure the southern border.

The statements showed that when it comes to border security and illegal immigration, and Abbott’s invocation of what he said was his state’s constitutional right to protect its borders, there isn’t much difference of opinion between Robinson, Graham, and Folwell, each of whom is a different kind of Republican, and represents different parts of the GOP electorate.

That’s also been the case nationally, The Texas Tribune reported, as GOP leaders including former President Donald Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson said they supported Texas as it proceeded to install razor wire along the border with Mexico, near Eagle Pass, and deny federal border agents access to the area.

This was in spite of a 5-4 order handed down by the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday, which according to The Washington Post, reversed a lower court’s decision and allowed federal agents to take down the wire Texas authorities had installed.

As of Thursday, nearly every GOP governor around the country (25 in total) had signed onto a statement from the Republican Governors Association, expressing their support for Abbott “utilizing every tool and strategy, including razor wire fences, to secure the border.”

Robinson, the GOP frontrunner for governor, applauded Abbott’s border security efforts, writing on X that the country needs more governors like Abbott “to step up into the gap and tell Biden enough is enough.”

Graham said in a post that Biden had “turned North Carolina into a border state,” and said he stood with Abbott in his “fight against the Biden Administration to secure our border.”

And Folwell wrote on X that the federal government’s “inability or unwillingness” to secure the border had turned every state into a border state, and put national security in “peril.”

N.C. House Speaker Tim Moore, who is running for Congress this year, also weighed in, pledging that the House would do “all it can to assist Governor Abbott and the state of Texas.”

That’s all for today. Check your inbox on Tuesday for more #ncpol news.

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