An NC lobbyist cozies up to the Trump administration

North Carolina lobbyist Ches McDowell first entered President Trump's orbit just before the 2016 election, when he spotted Donald Trump Jr. at a conservation gala that was auctioning off a bear hunting trip on the North Carolina coast, the Wall Street Journal reports.

• McDowell approached the younger Trump and offered him a better hunt than the auctioning was offering, and the two have been hunting together ever since.

Why it matters: McDowell, a 35-year-old with no experience working in the nation's capital, is expanding his North Carolina lobbying practice to Washington, bolstered by his close ties to the Trump administration.

Driving the news: McDowell has tapped Chris LaCivita Jr., the son of one of Trump's top 2024 campaign advisers, and Jackson Hines, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s nephew, to join his firm, making for a splashy entrance when it opens its office on Pennsylvania Avenue next month.

The big picture: As the Trump administration upends industries across the country, it's also upending lobbying as we know it, "by rewarding loyalty and making K Street the latest battleground for Trump's war on elites," WSJ writes.

The intrigue: McDowell, the older brother of now-GOP congressman and former lobbyist Addison McDowell, has been a fixture in North Carolina's legislature for years, known in part for one of the most massive client lists of any lobbyist on Jones Street.

• In 2021, when the state Senate blocked a House bill to crack down on debt settlement companies, which McDowell represented, state Rep. Julia Howard reportedly told colleagues: "I guess we're just going to do whatever Ches f---ing McDowell wants," per the WSJ.

• According to the WSJ, Howard noted in a recent House speech that McDowell had moved to Washington to lobby, "so he's not going to be a pain in our side."

Read more: The MAGA Lobbyists Upending Washington With McDonald's and Bear Hunting (gift link)