More ads are hitting the airwaves in North Carolina’s closely watched U.S. Senate race as the elections heat up with three months left in the race.
There are fewer than 100 days until Election Day, and the start of mail-in voting is a month away. The latest poll from Fox News shows Democrat Roy Cooper up by 9% of the vote over Republican challenger Michael Whatley.
Other WRAL Top Stories
That’s down from Cooper’s double-digit polling advantages earlier this year, and it comes after Republican groups have started pouring millions into anti-Cooper attack ads.
As the candidates themselves are criss-crossing the state with more speeches and campaign stops, the ads aren’t coming from their campaigns, but from deep-pocketed national groups called political action committees.
Political PACs are run separately from candidates’ campaigns, even though their messages often seem to align. Donors can only give so much money to candidates. But they can give unlimited sums to PACs. And because they have so much more money to spend, it’s the PACs that are dominating the airwaves so far.
Multiple national conservative groups plan to spend heavily on keeping this seat in GOP hands. Just one of them, the Senate Leadership Fund, has promised to spend $71 million — more than Cooper and Whatley have raised, combined.
The group’s biggest donors include billionaires Elon Musk, Ken Griffin, Paul Singer, Miriam Adelson and Stephen Schwarzman. It has already spent $17 million helping boost Whatley, in an ongoing ad campaign this summer.
“Roy Cooper advanced his career on the backs of grieving parents and widows, all because he released violent murders on the streets,” the group told WRAL about its anti-Cooper attack ads. “…We’re spending money to ensure that voters know what he did and standing up for the families that were tragically impacted by his decisions.”
The Cooper campaign, which has worked hard to highlight Cooper's career — including 16 years as attorney general — declined to comment on ad spending by outside groups.
On the Democratic side, the Senate Majority PAC announced $31 million in TV ads to support Roy Cooper’s race in May. And in July WRAL reported the group was pumping another $11 million into the race.
It’s largely funded by various other liberal advocacy groups, as well as a handful of individual donors such as businessmen Fred Eychaner and Amos Hostetter Jr.
“Our investment in North Carolina reflects what we already know: voters are furious with the direction of this country and are ready for change,” the group told WRAL about its anti-Whatley ads. “… Every dollar in this race makes the case that North Carolina is far safer and stronger with Roy Cooper at the helm.”
The Whatley campaign — which has sought to paint Whatley as the law-and-order candidate — declined to comment on how the Senate Leadership Fund is spending its money.