Republican leaders in the Senate are aggressively defending Sen. Thom Tillis, with plans to carpet bomb primary challenger Garland Tucker across the North Carolina airwaves if he jeopardizes the incumbent’s 2020 reelection.
The National Republican Senatorial Committee, leadership’s campaign arm, and Senate Leadership Fund, a super PAC affiliated with Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., moved quickly to weaken Tucker upon his campaign launch. Operatives for the two groups are dishing dirt on the wealthy businessman’s past to political reporters in North Carolina and Washington, highlighting his previously expressed, though since discarded, opposition to President Trump — revelations often deadly in GOP primaries.
If the tactic fails, Senate Leadership Fund is prepared to ratchet up the attacks with a heavy dose of advertising on television and other platforms. The super PAC would model the spots after those it deployed successfully two years ago against Rep. Mo Brooks. He threatened leadership’s candidate in the race for the Republican nomination in an Alabama special election until ads popped spotlighting his since-disavowed criticism of Trump.
“It is laughable a charlatan like Garland Tucker thinks he can make this race into a question of who can better support our booming economy under President Trump,” said Jack Pandol, spokesman for Senate Leadership Fund. “North Carolina needs a senator who will work with the president, not one who was aiding Hillary Clinton’s presidential hopes and is now lying to cover his tracks.”
[Related: McConnell warns socialism ‘pervasive’ among Democrats]
Sen. Todd Young of Indiana, the NRSC chairman, also confirmed Tuesday that his committee was readying for battle should the primary turn competitive. “Sen. Tillis will indeed be the nominee,” he said.
In an email to the Washington Examiner, the Tucker campaign referred to the NRSC and Senate Leadership Fund as “Washington DC swamp groups.” The campaign’s chairman, Francis De Luca, suggested that Tillis’ allies were willfully misrepresenting Tucker’s past statements about Trump.
“Neither Thom Tillis or Garland Tucker supported President Trump during the 2016 Presidential Primary. Since the president was elected, Garland Tucker has praised his stands on issues repeatedly in articles and op-eds,” De Luca said. “Now, to get re-elected, Thom Tillis is telling voters he’s pro-Trump. It’s pure Washington politics.”
Tillis votes with Trump on legislation nearly 95% of the time, according to FiveThirtyEight.com.
But his relationship with Republican activists in North Carolina, always rocky, was aggravated earlier this year by Tillis’ initial decision to oppose the president’s declaration of a national emergency to fund construction of a wall along the Mexican border. Tillis eventually changed his mind and backed Trump, but not before he piqued the ire of base Republicans.
[Also read: Tillis flip-flops his way toward primary challenge]
Enter Tucker, who is attempting to capitalize by promising to be a loyal soldier for the president.
“When President Trump made his emergency declaration to build the wall, I agreed. Thom Tillis not only disagreed, he published an op-ed in the Washington Post opposing the President. Then two weeks later, at the last minute, under pressure, Tillis flip-flopped,” Tucker said in a press release announcing his bid.
But Tucker’s appreciation for Trump is inconsistent.
As recently as May of last year, and going back to the 2016 campaign, the challenger was periodically critical of the president, both his policies and his behavior. The Republican machine has acted swiftly to broadcast these inconsistencies and support to Tillis. The NRSC and Senate Leadership Fund are prepared to take further action should polling data reveal that more direct intervention is warranted.
