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Stefanik responds to charge that E-PAC failed NC candidate

On Sunday, Politico published an article that seemed to indicate E-PAC — the political action committee formed by U.S. Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-Schuylerville, to help more Republican women get through primaries — was stumbling in one of its first races.

Titled “‘Ghosted’: GOP abandons female House hopeful despite talk of electing women,” the article included an interview with Leigh Brown, a real estate agent and author who lost a recent primary in North Carolina’s 9th House District in a special election. Brown told Politico she spoke to Stefanik initially but E-PAC did not respond to subsequent questions. Brown could not be reached for comment by the Times.

“We tell every candidate, I’ve talked to over 100 candidates, that they need to meet certain metrics, and in this case, this was not a viable candidate,” Stefanik told the Times on Wednesday.

Brown came in fourth with 8.8 percent of the primary vote. The winner — Dan Bishop — won 47.7 percent, according to the Washington Post. Brown said wished she had more advice on hiring a team and running a campaign, not just funding. But Stefanik said she gave that kind of advice.

“We have really frank discussions, particularly with first-time candidates,” Stefanik said. “In this case, in our initial conversation she talked about the fact that she assumed she would have high name ID. A first-time candidate does not have high name ID, and that was shown obviously in the outcome in the primary.”

Brown also ran into trouble when the Federal Election Commission prevented her from running radio ads for her real estate business at the same time as she was running election advertisements. Brown wound up suing the FEC over the ad issue, according to the Charlotte Observer. Stefanik said she had spoken to Brown, but it was important for candidates to follow FEC guidelines.

“A candidate needs to put together a strong campaign, a campaign strategy, a campaign budget that will be victorious on primary, Election Day,” Stefanik told the Times. “And unfortunately in this — that was not the case.”

In terms of fundraising, Brown raised $249,322.99, according to the FEC, while Bishop, the winner of the primary, raised $505,777. But Brown also benefitted from $1,296,905 in independent expenditures from the National Association of Realtors Political Action Committee while Bishop only received $5,495.88 in independent expenditures, meaning Brown had more money backing her bid than did Bishop. The expenditure from the National Association of Realtors was reported by Longleaf Politics.

For her part, Stefanik is focusing on another North Carolina primary in the 3rd Congressional District between state Rep. Greg Murphy and Joan Perry.

“Who I’m really excited about is Joan Perry, who is a very viable candidate, and we are hoping to get her across the finish line in the upcoming primary,” Stefanik said.

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