The super PAC aligned with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is airing a new, hard-hitting television advertisement in North Carolina that spotlights revelations of Democrat Cal Cunningham’s extramarital affairs.
Cunningham has led Republican Sen. Thom Tillis in public polling for months despite North Carolina’s tendency to support GOP candidates in federal statewide contests. Republicans believed they caught a break when Cunningham acknowledged an inappropriate relationship with a woman who is not his wife, and Senate Leadership Fund is trying to exploit it with millions of dollars in television ads.
“Politician Cal Cunningham hid the extramarital affair for months,” the ad’s voice-over says, alongside clips of news reports that the Democrat, a military veteran and married father of two children, was exchanging salacious text messages with a married woman. “But Cunningham got caught sending sexually explicit messages to a woman who is not his wife. Cal Cunningham: What else is he hiding?”
Senate Leadership Fund announced Tuesday that this 30-second spot was being inserted into its weekly rotation of television ads in North Carolina. The super PAC previously booked $4 million per week of television time in the state for the final month of the campaign. Also Tuesday, Tillis said in an interview on Fox News that Cunningham owes voters an explanation. The senator recently tested positive for the coronavirus and was weighing in on the scandal for the first time.
“On the debate stage last week Cal said it’s about integrity — and I agree,” Tillis said. “His family should be kept private. He’s got teenage children, but Cal owes North Carolinians, all the voters, a full and thorough explanation for what we now know are two separate events. And he’s an officer in the military. He’s also subject to disciplinary action just on the basis of what he has admitted to.”
Cunningham led Tillis by 6.5 percentage points in an average of recent polls. But few surveys have been publicized since Friday when the scandal surfaced.
