Republican civil war?

Return of the Republican civil war?

The conservative Club for Growth is itching to take out a prominent GOP senator.

By ALEX ISENSTADT and JAMES ARKIN

A prominent conservative group is trying to lure a staunch ally of President Donald Trump into a primary race against Republican Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, threatening to inflame intra-party tensions in a state crucial to the party’s 2020 strategy.

The Club for Growth is attempting to nudge Rep. Mark Walker, a third-term evangelical pastor, into the 2020 Senate race. This week, it completed a poll suggesting that Tillis would be vulnerable to a challenge from the right — particularly against Walker.

It’s a striking break for a group that had ceased backing primary challenges to establishment-aligned lawmakers, a posture that put it squarely against party leadership. Five years after its last attempt to topple a sitting senator, the organization is once again signaling its interest in taking on incumbents.

The Club for Growth said its move was rooted in a growing belief that Tillis is vulnerable — both in the primary and general elections.

“With such slim majorities in recent years, the Club for Growth has not challenged Republican senators,” said David McIntosh, the Club for Growth’s president. “But when there is a strong conservative alternative who will likely perform better against a Democratic challenge, we reserve the right to challenge incumbents.”

McIntosh, a former Indiana congressman who is close to many of the party’s top donors, said the group would “wait and see if a race develops and explore if Rep. Mark Walker would make a stronger general election candidate.”

The development threatens to further shake up a contest that’s already been upended by the entrance of one primary challenger. Garland Tucker, a former investment company executive who launched his campaign earlier this month, has pledged to spend $1 million of his own money and is accusing Tillis of being insufficiently supportive of the president.

Senior Republicans are deeply concerned that a disruptive primary in the state could wreak havoc on the party’s prospects, including Trump's. Already, there is considerable angst about a turmoil-wracked North Carolina Republican Party, whose chairman was recently indicted in a corruption case to which Walker was tied, though the congressman was not charged and said he cooperated with the investigation. And some in the party have grown concerned about the governor’s race, where GOP strategists have lamented about a field of lackluster candidates.

“I’m surprised [the Club for Growth] would be encouraging a pathway that hurts the president,” said Paul Shumaker, a Tillis adviser. “No one benefits from a combative primary in a battleground.”

Club for Growth officials contend that Tillis’s past differences with the White House have imperiled him in a state where the president has vast support among Republicans. Last year, the senator came under fire from fellow Republicans for co-sponsoring legislation to protect special counsel Robert Mueller. Earlier this year, Tillis wrote a Washington Post op-ed in which he came out against the president’s national emergency declaration — before ultimately voting in support of it.

According to the poll, just 45 percent of Republican voters expressed a favorable view of Tillis, and only 17 percent said they would vote to re-nominate the senator regardless of who he faced in a primary. The survey, which was conducted by the firm WPA Intelligence, also found that Tillis’ support is mired in the low 40s in prospective primary matchups.

The Walker team declined to rule out a Senate bid.

“Congressman Walker is humbled to have the support and consideration of conservatives across North Carolina,” said Jack Minor, a Walker spokesman. “What we hear on the ground is what is confirmed in these results: our state wants a senator who will support President Trump and his conservative agenda. For now, Walker is focused on delivering for the people of the Old North State.”

The White House has yet to endorse the incumbent, though last week the president met with Tillis. And on Wednesday, Tillis attended a Trump 2020 fundraiser in Greensboro, N.C., that was headlined by Vice President Mike Pence.

Walker, though, has aggressively aligned himself with the administration. On Wednesday, he flew with the vice president to North Carolina and tweeted out a picture of himself next to Air Force Two.

The Club for Growth, an anti-tax group, endorsed challengers earlier this decade against establishment-backed incumbents and candidates it viewed as insufficiently conservative on economic issues. But it has not endorsed against a Senate incumbent since the bruising 2014 primary in Mississippi, in which then-Sen. Thad Cochran narrowly defeated Club-supported challenger Chris McDaniel.

Next year's North Carolina contest has become an early focal point for Republicans. Tillis is one of at least a half-dozen endangered incumbents the party is trying to protect in its effort to maintain the Senate majority after the 2020 elections.

National Republicans have moved aggressively in recent weeks to target Tucker — an indication of how seriously they are taking any threats to Tillis. Senate Leadership Fund, a super PAC closely aligned with Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, has called Tucker an “anti-Trump activist” and has highlighted an op-ed that Tucker wrote in 2016 in which he described the then-presidential candidate as “twice-divorced, self-acknowledged adulterer.”

In a brief interview on Wednesday, National Republican Senatorial Committee Chairman Todd Young (Ind.) left little doubt who had the backing of the party establishment.

“Thom Tillis will be our nominee. Thom Tillis will hold that state,” he said. “There should be absolutely no question about that.”