The Story:
The Democratic Party’s candidate for a seat in the US Senate from North Carolina, Cal Cunningham, did unexpectedly well in campaign fund raising in the third quarter, receiving more than $28.3 million. The number for his opponent, Senator Thom Tillis (R) is not yet available.
Background:
Tillis is finishing up his first term as Senator. Before he entered politics he worked for the accounting and consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers.
Tillis’ campaign has taken a hit in recent days because he has tested positive for Covid-19. This requires that he self-isolate, which will limit his campaigning. It also feeds into the Democratic narrative that the Republican Party has badly bungled the public-policy response to the pandemic and continues to do so.
Cunningham’s campaign has also taken a hit in recent days. He has been discovered to have exchanged romantic text messages with a woman not his wife. The letters are not explicitly sexual, and the “other woman” is a consenting adult. But there are rumors another shoe may drop.
The Thing to Know:Â
Cunningham is leading Tillis roughly 43% to 42% in a recent poll by Meredith College, of Raleigh. The difference between them is within the poll’s margin of error. This is a pretty dramatic condition for a race that could determine which party controls the US Senate next year.
