CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Former Gov. Pat McCrory, who is running for U.S. Senate, launched a new digital ad this week attempting to tie one of his biggest competitors to one of the most controversial men in North Carolina politics: Rep. Madison Cawthorn.
The ad focuses on war in Ukraine and a riot at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, putting sound bites from Cawthorn side-by-side with those of Rep. Ted Budd, the Trump-endorsed candidate in the Republican primary for Senate. Cawthorn and Budd were scheduled to share a stage with Trump at his rally in Selma on Saturday.
The ad also highlights one of McCrory’s strategies — telling voters McCrory’s their guy if they’re sick of controversial headlines about their elected officials — said Chris Cooper, a political science professor at Western Carolina University.
“He’s clearly trying to present the view that he’s not an extremist,” Cooper said. “That is his electoral lane, and I think that is also who he is.”
In an interview with the Observer on Wednesday, McCrory said he also includes Biden as a politician whose language has been reckless around the war in Ukraine. He cited a comment made in January, when Biden referred to the possibility of a “small incursion” by Russia in Ukraine as compared to an all-out assault.
The comment drew backlash in Europe, with people including the Ukrainian president saying there could be no such thing as a “minor incursion” of a sovereign nation. Biden later clarified his remarks.
“They need to be compared with each other,” McCrory said. “Biden, Budd and Cawthorn have been reckless with their words especially when we need to be cautious and united.”
Budd on Thursday released a new video of his own highlighting his Trump endorsement and pointing to positive economic outcomes during the Trump presidency.
Other front-runners include former Rep. Mark Walker and Marjorie Eastman, a veteran who served on two combat deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan.
McCrory leaning into ‘his electoral lane’
The new McCrory ad, which does not provide the full context of some of Budd’s statements, begins with a soundbite from Budd about the Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021.
Budd in an interview on a conservative talk radio show said people have lost faith in election systems. He also said the protest was “nothing, it was just patriots standing up” — the part quoted in McCrory’s ad.
While not included in McCrory’s ad, Budd continued, “And it was a bad day for America, let’s agree to that. It was a bad day for America no matter where you are politically, but at the same time ... we need to make sure that we trust our institutions, particularly when it comes to elections.”
Jonathan Felts, an adviser to Budd, said the statement from McCrory’s ad was taken out of context, and that Budd was referring to a story from Reuters that said the FBI found “scant evidence” of a coordinated effort to upend the presidential election prior to the Capitol riot.
“Professional Politician Pat McCrory is, as usual, taking comments out of context. The full context is that Ted has repeatedly condemned the January 6 rioters and supported a full law enforcement investigation,” Felts said in a statement.
Felts said Budd has consistently criticized people who broke the law on Jan. 6, 2021, and called for full investigations and prosecutions of the rioters.
“If Pat McCrory thinks peaceful protesters should be treated the same as rioters, it’s probably a bad idea for him to be in any sort of elected office,” Felts said.
The Budd clip is followed by one of Cawthorn, who spoke at the rally just before hundreds of Trump supporters clashed with U.S. Capitol Police and stormed the Capitol building.
Then, the ad moves to Ukraine, clipping a sound bite of Budd saying Russian dictator Vladimir Putin is a “very intelligent actor,” followed by one of Cawthorn calling Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy a “thug.”
Budd’s full statement, which is not included in the ad, also called Putin “evil” and “an international thug.”
“But he is intelligent, so we have to treat him as such,” he said in an interview with the CBS affiliate in Raleigh.
Budd points to healthy economy
Two recent polls, including one this week by Emerson College and news outlet The Hill, show Budd leading the U.S. Senate race in North Carolina. On Thursday, the congressman released a video pointing to high economic outcomes during Trump’s presidency, including low unemployment rate for women and Black residents.
“You’ve got to serve the interests of the American men and women who, frankly, they feel forgotten by the rest of Washington,” Budd said in the ad.
The poll from Emerson College and The Hill showed Budd up 16 percentage points among likely voters. Thirty-six percent of Republican respondents said they would vote for Budd, while 22% said they would vote for McCrory.
Along with the economy, Budd has also used topics such as critical race theory in schools to galvanize support. Polling suggested the intersection of race and education is a big-ticket item for Republicans. A poll in December by the University of Massachusetts Amherst found that more than half of Republicans don’t think public schools should teach students about racial inequality.
While McCrory received just over $3 million in contributions to his campaign in 2021 compared to Budd’s $2.7 million, Budd also has the backing of the Washington-based PAC Club For Growth. That organization has spent more than $8 million on the primary so far and plans to spend $14 million by the election in May.
Neither candidate has raised as much as Cheri Beasley, the presumptive Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate. She received more than $4.8 million in contributions in 2021 and announced Thursday she raised another $3.6 million in the first quarter of 2022.
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