(NewsNation) — Bo Hines, the Republican candidate for North Carolina’s 13th Congressional District, told NewsNation’s Robert Sherman that economic issues are the ones resonating with voters this year.

“I think we ought to talk a lot about the economy,” Hines told Sherman during an interview Saturday at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) Texas in Dallas. “We’re in a Biden recession created by Biden inflation. … People in my district are hurting. Their wallets are hurting. They’re paying $4 a gallon for gas and going to the grocery store, paying 20 percent more for meat. This is unsustainable, and we need people that are actually going to talk about the economic issues in a real way.”

He argued that getting inflation under control has to be a top priority for his party.

“We have to stop the government spending,” he argued, pointing to the reconciliation bill moving through the Senate.

Hines, a former college football player, won the GOP nomination for the district in the May 17 North Carolina primary. He faces Democrat Wiley Nickel, a current member of the state Senate, during the November general election.

Watch the full interview with Bo Hines in the video player at the top of the page.