Richard Speer
Richard Speer (Republican Party) ran for election to the U.S. House to represent North Carolina's 10th Congressional District. He lost in the Republican primary on May 17, 2022.
Biography
Richard Speer was born in California.[1] Speer graduated from Rancho High School in 1976.[2]He served in the U.S. Army from 1976 to 1998.[1] Speer's career experience includes working as the vice president of technology initiatives of Shield Group Technologies, a senior security analyst with ARES Security Corporation, and a consultant with Duke Energy Corporation.[2]
Elections
2022
See also: North Carolina's 10th Congressional District election, 2022
North Carolina's 10th Congressional District election, 2022 (May 17 Democratic primary)
North Carolina's 10th Congressional District election, 2022 (May 17 Republican primary)
General election
General election for U.S. House North Carolina District 10
Incumbent Patrick T. McHenry defeated Pamela Genant and Diana Jimison in the general election for U.S. House North Carolina District 10 on November 8, 2022.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ |  | Patrick T. McHenry (R) | 72.6 | 194,681 |
 | Pamela Genant (D)  | 27.3 | 73,174 | |
 | Diana Jimison (Independent) (Write-in) | 0.0 | 110 | |
| Other/Write-in votes | 0.1 | 242 | ||
| Total votes: 268,207 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
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Withdrawn or disqualified candidates
- Anthony Culler (Independent)
Democratic primary election
Democratic primary for U.S. House North Carolina District 10
Pamela Genant defeated Michael Felder in the Democratic primary for U.S. House North Carolina District 10 on May 17, 2022.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Pamela Genant | 77.5 | 13,028 |
 | Michael Felder | 22.5 | 3,790 | |
| Total votes: 16,818 | |||
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Withdrawn or disqualified candidates
- Maddie Parra (D)
Republican primary election
Republican primary for U.S. House North Carolina District 10
Incumbent Patrick T. McHenry defeated Gary Robinson, Michael Magnotta, Jeff Gregory, and Richard Speer in the Republican primary for U.S. House North Carolina District 10 on May 17, 2022.
Candidate | % | Votes | ||
| ✔ | | Patrick T. McHenry | 68.1 | 49,973 |
| Gary Robinson | 15.9 | 11,671 | ||
 | Michael Magnotta | 6.4 | 4,703 | |
 | Jeff Gregory | 5.0 | 3,649 | |
 | Richard Speer | 4.6 | 3,381 | |
| Total votes: 73,377 | |||
| = candidate completed the Ballotpedia Candidate Connection survey. | ||||
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2012
Speer ran in the 2012 election for the U.S. House to represent North Carolina's 2nd District. Speer sought the nomination on the Republican ticket. The signature filing deadline for candidates wishing to run was February 29, 2012. Speer challengeed incumbent Rep. Renee Ellmers, Sonya Holmes, and Clement Munno in the May 8, 2012, Republican primary. Speer was defeated by incumbent Renee Ellmers in the Republican primary on May 8, 2012.[3]
The Washington Post listed the House of Representatives elections in North Carolina in 2012 as one of the 10 states that could determine whether Democrats would retake the House or Republicans would hold their majority in 2013.[4] North Carolina was rated 8th on the list.[4][5]
| Candidate | Vote % | Votes |
|---|---|---|
 Renee Ellmers Incumbent |
56% | 37,661 |
| Sonya Holmes | 9.7% | 6,535 |
| Clement F. Munno | 4.4% | 2,982 |
| Richard Speer | 29.9% | 20,099 |
| Total Votes | 67,277 | |
Campaign themes
2022
Ballotpedia survey responses
See also: Ballotpedia's Candidate Connection
Richard Speer did not complete Ballotpedia's 2022 Candidate Connection survey.
Campaign website
Speer's campaign website stated the following:
| “ |
Conservatism I have a long conservative history. As a Constitutional originalist, I believe that the Framers of the Constitution knew exactly what they were doing in limiting the scope and power of the federal government. To better understand this, one needs to consider the two primary purposes of the Founders even forming a Federal government; to provide for the common defense and to secure better trade agreements with foreign nations. I will fight every day for original intent and to return power to the States.
Remembering that the primary purpose of the Founders in creating a new nation rather than remaining distinct, self-governing colonies or states was to provide for the common defense and to secure better trade agreements with foreign nations. This limited scope is clearly seen in the language of the Constitution as written in 1787. There are some key phrases in the Constitution. In the Preamble we find “establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare.” This clearly establishes a justification for a Department of Justice and a Department of Defense. Later, as we work our way through Section 8 of Article I, (the duties and responsibilities of Congress) we find in the first clause “The Congress shall have the Power to lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts and Excises, to pay the Debts and provide for the common Defense and general welfare.” We find six more clauses regarding defense of the nation in this section. We also find in the third clause, “To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States,…” This and other clauses support the creation of a Department of Commerce. In the fifth and sixth clauses we find, “To coin Money,” and “for the Punishment of counterfeiting.” These responsibilities support the creation of a Department of Treasury. Near the end of Section 8, we find a responsibility “to exercise like authority over all Places purchased by the consent of the Legislature...” This clause can be reasonably seen to support the creation of a Department of Interior. Section 2 of Article II invests the President with the power to “make Treaties,” with the consent of the Senate. This and other tidbits argue for a Department of State. This leaves us with six federal Departments: Defense, State, Justice, Treasury, Interior, and Commerce. At the end of the 19th century, we still had only six federal Departments: State, War (Defense), and Treasury formed under Washington, Interior formed in 1849 under Polk, Agriculture formed in 1862 under Lincoln, and Justice formed in 1870 under Grant. The 20th century saw a missive explosion in the size and scope of government far exceeding the bounds established by the Constitution and today we have 15 Federal Departments and more than 50 independent Agencies, Administrations, Boards, and Commissions. It’s time to return to our roots and vastly scale back the size and scope of the Federal government.
I have long argued for fiscal responsibility and for a Balanced Budget amendment to enforce that fiscal responsibility. The reasons are quite simple, economic collapse has led to the fall of more nations and societies than any other single cause. Even the collapse of the Soviet Union some 30 years ago was largely brought on by economic collapse. It has become abundantly clear that Congress will never pass a Balanced Budget Amendment as it results in a reduction of their power; therefore, I will work with outside groups to bring about a Constitutional Convention per Article V of the Constitution for the purpose of drafting and passing a Balanced Budget Amendment. Furthermore, I will not vote for any budget that does not reduce spending from that of the prior year. I will also fight to end all subsidies. Subsidies are nothing more than the government deciding which business will succeed and which will fail, using taxpayer money to execute their plan.
The Constitution makes clear one of the primary responsibilities of the Federal government is to provide for the Common Defense. I believe in a strong defense. I believe a strong defense is the best deterrent to external aggressors. That being said, I do not support military adventurism. In too many conflicts, some recent and others not so recent, we have gone in without a clear objective. That was true for Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraq. While I believe an honest case can be made for having entered each conflict, I also believe none of them were winnable in the classic sense. In Korea, 70 years later and we still maintain troops in the country to secure the peace. We withdrew from Vietnam after a decade of fighting, only to see it immediately fall to the communists. I believe we could have stayed another two decades and it would have made no difference. After nearly two decades in Iraq and Afghanistan, the countries themselves are not functionally any better off than when we entered. To be clear, I believe we had a mission in Afghanistan, it started out almost right with Special Forces taking the leading role. The problem was we stopped short of destroying the Taliban and got involved in nation building. What we should have done was continue to pound on the Taliban for six to eight months until they were a shadow of their former self and left, with the promise to return if they attacked or supported others who attacked us again. We were in a very similar situation in Iraq, and we should have handled it accordingly; in, out, and leave the nation building to the Iraqis. Both Washington and Eisenhower warned us about foreign entanglements. We didn’t listen.
Energy Independence is the key to America’s future. We have been blessed with abundant natural resources. We have the ability to be energy independent; in fact, under the previous administration we became new exporters of energy products, coal, oil, and natural gas. If we’re worried about CO2, then the answer is expansion of nuclear power. The only cleaner, baseload source is hydroelectric, and we have been moving backward in that arena. Nuclear is clean, safe, and comparatively cheap when operating on an even playing field.
Education is the backbone of a society; without an educated citizenry, a society withers and dies. At one time, a few decades ago our primary school students shined in international competitions and comparisons typically placing in one of the top three spots. Overall, our student performance was improving every year; graduation rates for all groups were steadily increasing and illiteracy rates were declining every year. Then in 1980, along came the U.S. Department of Education. Today, our schools are failing our students. A recent Pew Research article showed U.S. students lagging far behind their foreign counterparts with only 22% (1 in 5) of 12th graders rated proficient or better in science with 40% of 12th graders rated “below basic”, only 25% (1 in 4) of 12th graders proficient or better in math, and reading wasn’t statistically any better. We need to abolish the Department of Education and return the responsibility for education to the states and local communities. Locally, parents, in every state, need to demand unlimited school choice, meaning that the 100% of the education dollars follow the child to the education choice of the parent. I recently met with a few North Carolina state Senators and we now have unlimited Charter Schools and and increase in opportunity scholarships. We’ve made headway, but there is a lot more to do.
Let’s first clear up a common misunderstanding, the 2nd Amendment does not grant the right to the American people to keep and bear arms; quite the contrary, the Founders considered that a Natural Right and the 2nd Amendment was advanced to prevent government from interfering with that Right. “A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” When government makes any law impacting the right of the people to keep and bear arms, they are in direct violation of the 2nd Amendment. The Constitution doesn’t say one can only keep arms if we permit it with a license, it doesn’t say one can only bear arms where we say, it doesn’t say only the approved type of arms; what it does say is, “the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.” When the government limits the type or number of arms a citizen can keep, or makes it financially impractical to do so, it is infringing on that sacred right. When the government restricts where a citizen can bear arms, it is infringing on that sacred right.
The 10th Amendment states, “The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.” In their lust for power, federal legislators, administrators, and bureaucrats have subsumed ever more powers from the States, and from the people. It is far past time to turn things around and return powers and responsibilities to the States.
Much like the idea of a Balanced Budget Amendment, Congress will never vote for Term Limits. They are too addicted to the power and money that comes with a lifetime spent in federal government. To that end, I will pursue a Constitutional Convention to introduce an amendment for term limits, not simply for elected officials, but for all elected, appointed, and career civil service positions. Twelve years in Congress, with a maximum of four terms in the House of Representatives. Twelve years in the Executive (President and Vice-President) with no more than 10 years in either position. Twelve years as a Presidential Appointee, with no more than eight years in any one federal department. Twelve years in the (Career) Civil Service, with no more than six years in any one federal department.
The United States is a nation of immigrants; to that end, I support, wholeheartedly, legal immigration from all corners. What this nation, and indeed no nation, can tolerate is the uncontrolled flood of immigrants seeking a better life, bypassing the normal and legal immigration process. Hosts of politicians on both sides of the political aisle have acknowledged these facts in the past, so what has changed? Two things changed; first, the Democrat base is fleeing the Party and replacements are needed and second, Americans had the gall to elect Donald Trump in 2016, totally infuriating the Democrats who then had to oppose all things Trump at all costs. The coddling of illegal immigrants is an absolute effrontery to all of those immigrants who followed the legal process and invested years of their lives to gain citizenship in the greatest country in the world.[6] |
” |
| —Speer's campaign website (2022)[7] | ||
Campaign finance summary
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See also
2022 Elections
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Richard Speer for Congress, "About," accessed April 17, 2022
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 LinkedIn, "Richard Speer," accessed April 17, 2022
- ↑ [http://results.enr.clarityelections.com/NC/36596/80750/en/summary.html North Carolina State Board of Elections, "Primary Election Results," accessed May 9, 2012.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 Washington Post, "The 10 states that will determine control of the House in 2012," accessed April 25, 2012
- ↑ North Carolina State Board of Elections, "2012 Primary Results," accessed July 19, 2012
- ↑ Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
- ↑ Richard Speer for Congress, “Principal Positions,” accessed April 13, 2022
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