So was Robert Byrd. Neither of them are conservative on other stuff.
>> Our “Big Tent” is not big enough to include Walter Jones." <<
Correct, because the GOP tent is only for ACTUAL Republicans. Jones is a closet liberal Democrat just like his dear old dad was. But Jr. has to run with an "R" next to his name because being a RAT party member is no longer a viable political affiliation in his region of NC.
The only reason why Walter Jones, Jr. is a Republican is because he got 38% instead of 40% in the first round of the Democrat primary in the newly black-majority NC-01 (his father was the longtime Democrat congressman there, but with less gerrymandered lines that yielded a white majority) in 1992. Had he gotten 2% more, he would have avoided a run-off against black Democrat Eve Clayton (who beat him in the run-off) and thus been the Democrat congressman for the most liberal district in the state. But since he was defeated, he waited two years and then switched to the GOP to run in the adjoining, conservative NC-02, and conned primary voters into voting for him. His voting record was pretty good for the first few years but then he went all Code Pink in 2005 or so and has been one of the most liberal Republicans in Congress since then (although, to his credit, he has continued to vote pro-life on abortion). Walter Jones is far too liberal to represent such a conservative district, and we need a single, qualified conservative Republican to run against him in the primary and take him out.