Richard Petty had endorsed Christian Castelli in the 2022 election for North Carolina’s 6th Congressional District but not for the 2024 primary race.
After Castelli’s campaign recirculated Petty’s endorsement video from 2022, Petty’s family clarified he had not endorsed anyone in the 2024 primary.
“Richard Petty has not endorsed any candidate for the 2024 Republican Primary,” Rebecca Petty Moffitt said. “Richard is a life-long conservative and has always been heavily involved in Republican politics but he has not made any primary endorsements in this election.”
Multiple Republican endorsements have been pulled or clarified in the contentious race between Castelli and former Rep. Mark Walker.
Castelli accused Walker of influencing the Petty family’s statement and suggested past support for Walker caused confusion, while Walker denied involvement.
“Richard Petty has a lot of handlers,” Castelli said. “They’re probably feeling pressure from the Mark Walker camp. They probably supported him in the past. This was not an issue when I was the Republican nominee.”
“This has only become an issue in the last two weeks when people started paying attention to the primary,” Castelli said. “And this happens to be a very contentious primary here in NC06. I don’t want to be mischaracterized or anybody to make implications that I have lied or I’m presenting endorsements that I don’t have. That’s not what I do. That’s what Mark Walker does.”
Petty is influential in Republican politics in North Carolina and withdrawing his endorsement could hurt Castelli.
“He was the first person that I asked to renew his endorsement and the answer I got was yes, but it was many months ago, and I don’t think quite honestly that they realized we were in primary season,” Castelli said. “As soon as the last general was over we were in primary season again, and I asked them very early on at that event.”
“The response I got was, ‘This close to the primary, Richard would prefer not to do it,’” Castelli said. “And I thought, ‘OK, what’s going on here?’”
