For the past six months, the Club for Growth PAC has delivered an onslaught of negative ads aimed at former North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory in his bid to become the Republican nominee for U.S. Senate in this state.
Four million dollars worth of advertising, to be exact.
The conservative PAC is supporting McCrory rival U.S. Rep. Ted Budd in the three-way primary race to replace retiring Republican Sen. Richard Burr. It has committed to spending more than $10 million between now and the May 17 primary. (Former Republican Rep. Mark Walker is also in the primary contest.)
Budd also has the endorsement of former President Donald Trump.
McCrory, along with Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, is a Republican executive in a high-profile contest who is now polling ahead of the Trump-endorsed candidate in his race. (Kemp currently leads former Sen. David Purdue in the Georgia race.)
Yet despite all of that gravity working against him, McCrory is not only still standing but is ahead in the latest polls by double digits. The former governor said he knows why he is having positive momentum despite all of the dark ads: “I think those very negative and deceitful ads have been very ineffective because the people North Carolina know me as both a governor and as a mayor [of Charlotte], who’s had to deal with crisis, who had to deal with tough economic times.”
On working against the gale force of both Trump and the Club for Growth, McCrory said, “I’m not sitting on the shoulders of anyone else, because I can rely on my own record of achievement and my record of accomplishments. … And people just know who I am.”
The ads against McCrory have been artfully edited to make comments McCrory made about Trump seem more unflattering. Then again, in 2016, the Club for Growth also spent millions attempting to take out another Republican primary candidate — that time, it was Trump.
It didn’t work.
McCrory spent the last week, as he has since he announced, traversing the Tar Heel State making his pitch to voters that he is the best man for the job. In recent days, he has taken issue with comments Budd has made about Russian President Vladimir Putin in a television interview describing the Russian leader as a “very intelligent actor” who had “strategic reasons” for invading Ukraine, including a desire to “protect his southern flank.”
McCrory isn’t the only one in the state taking issue. Budd’s remarks attracted disapproval from Republican leaders and media outlets across the state, including U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis.
“With the Ukraine situation, we need some serious U.S. senators who understand that words do matter because your words are not only spoken here within the United States, but they’re spoken throughout the world,” he said of Budd’s comments.
“Words do matter. Right now, what you say about the enemy and saying Putin is an intelligent actor or there are reasons why he wanted to protect his flank — no, there wasn’t.”
McCrory also takes issue with North Carolina GOP Rep. Madison Cawthorn calling Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky a “thug” at a town hall and with President Joe Biden’s initial dismissiveness of the Russians possibly invading Ukraine.
“Those words — ‘slight incursion,’ ‘intelligent actor,’ ‘thug’ — Biden, Budd, and Cawthorn said some things that were reckless. And part of that is because their only experience is Washington,” he explained.
McCrory says the advantage he brings to the Senate over his other two rivals is his understanding of the roles of local, state, and federal government.
“I think we have far too many people, including two of my opponents, whose only experiences are Washington — no local city council or state experience. They go to D.C., and when you go straight to D.C. from nothing else, you tend to think D.C. is the solution,” he said.
McCrory says he has had a lot of time to reflect on why he lost his reelection bid for governor in 2016, something he says has both taught him some important lessons but has also been humbling. “I think the major lesson I learned is — as I step back and evaluate my tenure as a city council, mayor, and governor — is to pick your battles. I was a change agent. And as governor, I changed a lot, but I probably, in hindsight, needed to be more selective about my battles,” he said.
“I have also learned to revisit the Reagan philosophy of being self-deprecating, having a little bit of humor,” he added. “I think we, as Republicans, need to get back to … take the issue seriously, but don’t take ourselves seriously. And don’t think we have all the answers just because we have a title.”
McCrory said the election in his state is going to be about the instability and insecurity voters feel about so many things that are part of their daily lives: “Food costs, gasoline, inflation, the state of the world — people are looking ahead, and they are worried about their future.”
His job, he said, “is to help provide real solutions.”
NOTE: Brad Todd’s firm, OnMessage, is one of the consultants for the McCrory campaign. He co-authored The Great Revolt with Salena Zito in 2018.
