Republican 6th District Congressman Mark Walker announced that he’s not running for anything – in 2020.

But he added that he is considering running for Sen. Richard Burr’s seat in 2022. Burr has said that he did not intend to run for reelection and evidently, unlike many politicians, Burr means it.

Walker will serve in Congress until Jan. 2021 when the new 6th District representative will be sworn in.

Walker at that point will be out of office and able to run for the Senate full time for 18 months, assuming he wins the Republican primary.

Walker in his press release said that he had President Donald Trump’s support in the 2022 Senate race.

In the press release Walker stated, “I believe the best way we can continue to serve the people of North Carolina is as a United States Senator. As I have always sought to have serving people supersede our ambition, I will dedicate my full heart and efforts to finishing my term in Congress. After we have secured more conservative policy and Republican electoral victories for North Carolina, we will take a look at the 2022 Senate race and we are thankful to have President Trump’s support. For 2020, our focus will be on helping our candidates for President, Senate, and Governor be successful.”

Once the new congressional districts were accepted by the courts, one big question was what would Walker do, because his district had gone from being a safe Republican district to one that it will be extremely difficult for a Republican to win. The new 6th District includes all of Guilford County and most of Winston-Salem in Forsyth County. Greensboro, where most of the people in Guilford County live, has a City Council made up of eight Democrats and one councilmember too liberal for the Democratic Party.

In the 2016 and 2018 elections, Walker and 13th District Congressman Ted Budd split Guilford County, and they both lost in Guilford County but won the elections by winning in the more rural parts of their districts.

Republicans Lee Haywood and Laura Pichardo and Democrats Kathy Manning, former Guilford County Commissioner Bruce Davis, state Rep. Derwin Montgomery, Rhonda Foxx and Ed Hanes have filed to run for the 6th District seat. Filing ends at noon on Friday, Dec. 20, so more names could be added to that list.

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