Republican candidates used a rally Thursday to get the messages of their platforms across to the attending audience.

The rally was an event held by New Day Fitness owner Tammy Crowley-Deloatch to have gyms deemed essential businesses under executive orders imposed by Governor Roy Cooper in light of the novel coronavirus epidemic.

Lieutenant Governor Dan Forest, who is seeking the governor’s seat, sent a virtual message to the audience.

“There will be a new day for fitness in North Carolina very soon,” he said. “Like you, I’m tired of a government that picks winners and losers. I’m tired of getting news every day of another business that is permanently closing its doors. We should be focused on how to get the people of North Carolina back to work, not on deciding who has to stay shut down.”

Said Forest, “Like you, I’m tired of leadership who believes they alone have the answers and (who) will their power to force down their will on you. We need a governor who believes in the people of North Carolina, who trusts the people of North Carolina, who understands we’re here to support them and not control them.”

Forest said he’s “tired of politicians who pass the buck, point fingers and cast blame. Slogans do not get things done. We need leaders who hold themselves accountable and accept responsibility for what they have the power to fix. Right now we have over a million North Carolinians out of work. I believe we need a new vision, a strong plan, the right team to move us forward, to rebuild our economy and bring back jobs. So I look forward to working with you in the days and weeks ahead to make this a reality.”

Sandy Smith is trying to unseat First District Congressman G.K. Butterfield.

“I am sick and tired of our governor picking winners and losers. It’s time to open all businesses. Everyone here is essential. Last I checked, I don’t refer to my gym as a gym, I refer to it as a health club.”

Smith said Cooper “is keeping us unhealthy. We need to stand up and fight for our rights to earn a living and feed our families. The Democrats want us in breadlines and dependent on the government. I’m here to stand with you and say no we are not going to do that. We’re going to stand up and fight for freedom to make money to pay for our homes, to pay our rents and we need to open NC now.”

Smith called Butterfield “a do-nothing Democrat who has been in office for over 16 years. He takes great pride in us being the poorest district in the country. I think our Governor Cooper is fighting to try to make this poorest state in the country and I’m telling you we are not because we’re going to elect Dan Forest as our next governor. In addition we’re going to make sure we get Mark Robinson voted as our lieutenant governor so we can control and make the entire state red —  blood red because we are true patriots, Republicans and proud Americans.”

Smith said, “It’s sick to think that the Democrats feel that abortion is an essential service. It’s absolutely sickening … We have a governor who thinks they can control us and tell us what to do — that we’re not smart enough to know that if I’m not feeling good or I don’t feel comfortable that I can stay home. We’re smart enough to do that. They’re trying to take away our Second Amendment right, but let me tell you this, I proudly support our Second Amendment and I will fight to protect it with every fiber of our being.”

The candidate said, “We’re going to send a strong message to Washington and throughout the country that we are not going to stand by and turn this country into a socialist communist nation. We are the United States of America. Land of the free, home of the brave and the brave because of our brave law enforcement and our military members.”

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Smith said no one has been talking about the children. “Our children are not in school. They’re given a haphazard education online. A lot of children in the First District don’t have access to internet. We need to stand up and fight for our children so they’re educated and that we have internet. Internet is not only going to educate our children, it’s going to stimulate our economy and bring jobs here and allow more businesses to open. We need to fight and we’re going to have a true fighter in Washington that’s going to stand up with the people.”

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Mark Robinson is running for lieutenant governor.

The candidate said, however, “We are not here for Mark Robinson. What we are here for is to fight for the right to pursue our happiness — AKA work for a living.”

Cooper, he said, has ushered in a new North Carolina “where you will get fined if you open up business but nobody’s going to touch you if you burn down a business. We’ve seen sheriffs all across this state and all across this nation who refuse to stand up for law abiding citizens and their property. It’s time for us to stand up for our own property.”

If push comes to shove, he said, “There’s a little thing called the Second Amendment.”

Robinson said Joe Biden was quoted as calling an AR-15 an AR-14. “If you come up on mine you’re going to get the bullets first and I mean it because these domestic terrorists that are robbing our streets right now, they’ve got to be stopped and if these communist sheriffs won’t stop them I sure will.”

The rioters and looters are not the ones who built the state and have no right to take back suburbs, Robinson said. “What is yours? What we built is not theirs. You never served in the military, you’ve never even been in the Peace Corps. You haven’t built one home, you haven’t bought one car. You barely even take care of yourself because you live in your parents’ basement. What was yours? It’s not yours. It’s ours and I dare you to come and take it because if you do you’re going to find out the same thing the British found out in 1776.

“You’re going to find out that the farmers and the lawyers and the preachers just don’t work for a living. You see they’ve got those guns behind them and they’re not afraid to use them.”

The left, he said, is fond of using the F-word. “If you come to my house you will use the F-word over and over and over again as you’re running away from the 5.6 bullets I’m sending out to your hind end.”

Robinson said he’s tired of those who don’t want to live in peace and destroy the nation being put above the ones who have built the nation. “It is time for us to take a stand against the American terrorist. It’s time for us to take a stand against the politicians and sheriffs that stand arm in arm with them because this is not their place. It’s ours.”

Hypocrisy, he said, is running amok during the pandemic. “You couldn’t go in and get a hip replacement but you could go in and get an abortion. You couldn’t go to church but you could go down to the liquor store and buy you a fifth of liquor. You couldn’t congregate in the park more than 10 at the time but they were packing them in (at) the abortion clinic 25 to 30 at a time.”

The candidate accused Cooper of kowtowing to rioters and looters, inside hiding under his desk or traveling to New York for campaign funds. “He wouldn't come out and talk to the business owners who drive this state but when the protesters showed up —  some of the same ones that have been looting and burning and destroying, Roy Cooper all of a sudden came out of hiding took his mask off so you see who he cares about.”

Of the pandemic, Robinson said, “COVID-19 is going to happen. It’ll be here for a little while and it’s going to go away because in case anybody in the news media doesn’t know, let me give you a news flash … there are viruses in the world and human beings catch them and unfortunately sometimes they die. That’s happened since the beginning of time. But if you allow fear to make you stop living you are already dead. You might as well go ahead and bury yourself.”

Americans and North Carolinians are endowed with common sense and wisdom, he said that “will allow them to continue to operate their businesses by protecting themselves.”

 If a 17-year-old can run to Walmart and keep the grocery carts clean, Robinson said, “ … Why can’t an entrepreneur run her business and keep her customers safe. We need to tell our families to no longer be afraid of those who are trying to take away our freedom and trying to destroy our livelihood. Now is the time for great people to stand up and speak up and be counted.”