Monitoring US Senator Ted Budd

 US Senator Ted Budd(R) of North Carolina has been in the Senate since 2017.

The Senator's website provides options for ways to contact him, including a web-based form and a list of his offices and phone numbers across the state: https://www.budd.senate.gov/contact/

This link to the federal website Congress.gov lists legislation associated with Senator Budd: https://www.congress.gov/member/ted-budd/B001305?s=1&r=1&q=%7B%22search%22%3A%22Ted+Budd%22%2C%22congress%22%3A%22119%22%7D

As our time permits, we will highlight some of his most alarming votes and actions on this page, though a quick peek at recently introduced legislation suggests that there are many, most unified by what appears to be a philosophy that Americans cannot be trusted to make any decisions for themselves anymore.

Recent alarming votes:

1. Budd voted yes on the nomination of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. for Secretary of Health and Human Sciences. Among other controversial and alarming qualities, Kennedy has worked for years to undermine vaccines, which historically have saved lives and reduced suffering for Americans. Polio survivor Sen. Mitch McConnell strongly opposed this nominee. With this vote, Budd appears to support increasing the number of children who die of preventable diseases like measles.

Here's one impact of Budd's vote for RFK Jr: The CDC buried a measles forecast that stressed the need for vaccines.

Here's another example: Changes to the COVID vaccine recommendations mean many who want and need the vaccine may not be able to get it. 

The harm done by the appointment of Kennedy in charge of Health and Human Services is growing exponentially. He recently cancelled $500 million in funding for mRNA-based vaccines, even though they saved more than 3 million lives  and prevented more than 18 million hospitalizations due to COVID. Covid vaccines also reduce the risk of long-term Covid's debilitating effects. With Senator Budd's blessing, Kennedy is setting the stage for untold numbers of death and despair, all based on his full embrace of pseudoscience and conspiracy theories. One source (among many). These cuts not only threaten our ability to manage the harm of viruses like Covid, but also our ability to fight cancer. (source)

2. Budd voted yes on the nomination of Tulsi Gabbard for Director of National Intelligence. Gabbard has no intelligence experience and felt comfortable meeting with (and refused to criticize) Bashar al-Assad, whose family (until Dec 2024) "ruled over Syria with an iron fist, with long documented reports of mass incarceration, torture, extra-judicial killings, and atrocities against their own people" (CNN). Even Sen Mitch McConnell could not vote for someone with a record of what he called "lapses in judgment." With this vote, Budd appears to be comfortable undermining our national security.

3. Budd voted yes on the nomination of Pete Hegseth for Secretary of Defense (even Senator Mitch McConnell voted against Hegseth, who he said failed to convince him he was prepared for this role). Pete Hegseth has since proven McConnell correct, notably endangering the lives of service members by sharing classified information on unsecure channels and, so far, with a reporter, his wife, and his brother. He also assigned a role in his department to his brother and brings his wife to critical meetings.

4. Senator Budd brags about his work on the DOGE committee. Meanwhile, DOGE is responsible for firing then desperately trying to rehire essential federal workers (that doesn't sound efficient to us) and for massive, alarming data breaches that harm us all. 

5. Senator Budd ignored all the calls and emails from his constituents to vote for the most deadly budget bill in our history, which passed July 3, 2025. Learn more about what was included on our page gathering report on this terrible piece of legislation.

6. When asked by constituents to urge that the UN be allowed to deliver food to starving people without shooting them in the process, Budd instead wrote in a constituent response that he would pray for those who are dying while sending arms to continue the shooting and mass starvation in Gaza, a form of collective punishment of noncombatants that runs counter to international law or any true sense of morality. Who, one wonders, is he actually praying to?

(more will be added as time permits)