Cunningham vows to fight ‘corporate corruption’ in first TV ad of NC race vs. Tillis
Democratic U.S. Senate nominee Cal Cunningham, in a tight fight in one of the nation’s most-watched races, launched his first television ad of the general election around Washington corruption and expanding access to health care.
“Affordable health care and medicine shouldn’t be a battle. It’s a right,” Cunningham said in the 30-second ad that will being airing in the Raleigh, Charlotte and Greensboro markets Thursday.
Cunningham said he favors protecting the Affordable Care Act, expanding Medicaid in North Carolina and creating a public health-insurance option.
Cunningham is running against incumbent Republican Sen. Thom Tillis. Tillis has aired two general election ads. The first focused on his modest economic upbringing; the second was about jobs.
Tillis and Cunningham are in a statistical tie, according to recent polling. North Carolina, considered a toss-up by national outlets that rate races, could play a decisive role in determining which party controls the Senate in 2021.
Republicans currently have 53 of the 100 seats. Among the six seats most likely to flip, five are currently held by Republicans.
Its prominence in the overall Senate fight, as well as the presidential election, means North Carolina’s airwaves will be full of ads from now through the Nov. 3 election.
Outside partisan groups, which have reserved tens of millions of dollars in television time through the fall, have started airing ads as well.
Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden launched his first general election advertising campaign Thursday. The Biden campaign is advertising on television, on radio, in print and digitally in six battleground states that President Donald Trump carried in 2016, including North Carolina.
‘Corruption,’ money in politics
Cunningham grew up in Lexington, joined the Army Reserves after the attacks of Sept. 11 and earned a Bronze Star as a military prosecutor against government contractors — all things mentioned in the first half of the ad. It then turns to corruption, one of Cunningham’s top issues.
He released an anti-corruption plan in November before the primary.
“That’s what I’ll do in Washington,” he said in the ad. “Take on the corporate corruption that’s been rigging the system for the big drug and insurance companies.”
The ad, part of a sustained purchase of air time in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, does not mention Tillis. Cunningham says that growing up in Lexington — a city of fewer than 20,000 people that’s less than 30 minutes south of Winston-Salem — taught him about “hard work, service and standing up for your neighbors.” In his own first ad, Tillis detailed how his family moved around the Southeast when he was a child “living paycheck to paycheck.”
“Cal Cunningham has never endured the struggles the people of North Carolina are facing right now and will be just another rubber-stamp lawyer for Chuck Schumer’s extreme liberal agenda of higher taxes and more government control,” said Tillis’ campaign spokesman Andrew Romeo in a statement. “Senator Tillis has actually been in the shoes of his constituents and will continue fighting to get North Carolinians back to work.”
Cunningham said he would not accept money from corporate political action committees, a pledge that makes it into the ad. Cunningham has taken money from non-corporate PACs and from other committees that have accepted PAC money.
Of the $7.4 million Cunningham has raised this cycle, $459,598 — or 6.1% — has come from PACs, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. All of that is from ideological or labor PACs.
Of the $11.2 million Tillis has raised this cycle, $3.9 million — or 34.9% — has come from PACs. The vast majority of that ($3.2 million) is from business PACs with most of the rest from ideological PACs ($603,001).
PACs tend to give to incumbents, particularly those seeking re-election in both parties.
“Cal took on corruption as a military prosecutor, so he knows what it takes to take on the big drug and insurance companies, while Senator Tillis has caved to them in Washington,” said Devan Barber, Cunningham’s campaign manager. “That’s the key contrast in this race, and North Carolinians are ready for a new leader who will look out for them, not the corporate special interests.”
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This story was originally published June 18, 2020 at 12:36 PM.
