A political action committee with ties to the top Republican in the Senate is being criticized for interfering in next month’s Democratic Senate primary in North Carolina.
Faith and Power PAC, which debuted in early 2020 and whose president is the former chief of staff to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, received close to $3 million from the Senate Leadership Fund, a group run by the Kentucky Republican’s allies. The money is being used to fund ads promoting liberal state Sen. Erica Smith in her bid against former state Sen. Cal Cunningham, who is leading in the polls and is endorsed by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign.
After Faith and Power ran ads claiming Smith was the “only proven progressive” in the race, Smith disavowed any connection to the PAC before condemning the outsider group’s spending, saying that “special interests and dark money should never play a role in an election.”
On Thursday, Faith and Power released a new ad that questioned Cunningham’s liberal bona fides in comparison to Smith’s more left-wing policies.
Cunningham and his allies condemned the ad blitz, claiming Republicans are attempting to interfere in North Carolina politics because they are worried about the prospect of Cunningham facing off against incumbent GOP Sen. Thom Tillis in November.
Cunningham released a new ad on Friday in which he looks directly into the camera and slams “deceptive ads attacking my values.”
“They’re paid for by Mitch McConnell’s allies, and it’s the very political corruption I’ll go to Washington to fight,” Cunningham said at the end of the ad.
In spite of the spending, Smith, who raised only $45,000 for her campaign this year, has seen the gap between her and Cunningham widen over the past two weeks.
