Hours after U.S. Sen. Ted Budd (R-NC) used a procedural move to hold up some of Republican President Donald Trump’s nominees in a protest over slow-moving Hurricane Helene aid, he got a call from Democratic Gov. Josh Stein thanking him for sticking his neck out.

“We need our representatives to fight for North Carolina, and I was pleased to see that,” Stein told WRAL News in an exclusive interview Wednesday morning, following Budd’s action on Tuesday in Washington.

Budd’s gambit worked. Almost immediately, $12 million in funding was sent to western North Carolina for Helene relief from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Stein used a similar name-and-shame strategy last month, WRAL News reported exclusively at the time. He sent a series of letters to Kristi Noem, the Trump administ

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