Greg Brannon, the North Carolina Republican Senate candidate endorsed by Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), likened being on food stamps to slavery.
“The answer is the Department of Agriculture should go away at the federal level,” Brannon said in an interview with the North Carolina Tea Party highlighted by Mother Jones on Tuesday. “And now 80% of the farm bill is food stamps. That enslaves people. What you want to do — it’s crazy but it’s true — is teach people to fish so they can fish. When you’re at the behest of someone else, you are actually a slavery to them [sic].”
Brannon has also argued that bipartisan compromises in Washington essentially “enslave” Americans.
Republicans may not have to worry about Brannon’s views on what is or isn’t slavery much longer. A new Public Policy Polling survey released Tuesday found Brannon’s opponent in the GOP Senate primary, North Carolina House Speaker Thom Tillis (R), leading the field. The poll found Tillis leading the field with 19 percent support followed by Brannon with 11 percent, Republican challenger Heather Grant with 8 percent and Reverend Mark Harris with 8 percent.
