Valentine-themed attack ad in US Senate race will interrupt NC’s ‘Bachelor’ night
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North Carolina U.S. Senate race
With the November election ahead, the candidates campaign across the state.
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Ted Budd wants the final rose in his primary campaign for U.S. Senate, and a political group that’s pumping millions into his bid is launching a Valentine’s Day attack ad to help him win it.
Budd-backing conservative group Club for Growth plans to run an ad linking former Republican Gov. Pat McCrory to President Joe Biden and other liberal leaders during “The Bachelor” on ABC on Monday evening.
“Find someone who loves you as much as Pat McCrory loves liberals,” the ad’s narrator declares to a visual of McCrory backslapping former President Barack Obama.
McCrory is also shown hugging Biden at the beginning of the ad.
Awkward embrace
The hug between McCrory and Biden is shown frequently in attack ads against the Senate candidate. It happened in July 2014 during the National Governors Association meeting, where Biden was a guest speaker.
National Review covered the awkward embrace, writing that Biden pulled the then-governor into the hug because Biden was insecure that McCrory wouldn’t give him so much as a smile. He repeated the complaint at least three times during his speech.
His friendly hello to Obama is from the former president’s Jan. 15, 2014 visit to North Carolina to tour a Raleigh-based manufacturing institute. McCrory greeted Obama at the airport and gave him a slap on the back.
McCrory’s campaign declined to comment on the attack ad.
McCrory and Budd are leading in the polls for the Republican nomination to the open U.S. Senate seat in North Carolina. They are competing against political newcomer Marjorie Eastman and former U.S. Rep. Mark Walker in the GOP primary.
Budd, who is endorsed by former President Donald Trump, out-funded all of his Republican opponents last quarter, according to campaign finance reports released last month. He raised $968,360, compared to former Gov. Pat McCrory’s $748,072. Eastman out-raised Walker with $423,723, compared to Walker’s $146,053.
Attack ad
The limited-run attack ad is paid for by Club for Growth’s political action committee and cost $12,700, a spokesman for the group said. It will air Feb. 14 in the Charlotte, Raleigh, Greensboro, Wilmington and Greenville-New Bern media markets.
Club for Growth said the group is also sending a mail piece to conservative influencers in the state that it expects to arrive on Monday or Tuesday. The front side of the printed literature depicts McCrory hugging Biden, while the backside features a photo of Utah Sen. Mitt Romney, a Republican and the GOP’s 2012 nominee for president.
The mail piece calls Romney a “Never-Trumper.” Romney is also mentioned in the television commercial.
“He showered Mitt Romney with love. Praising his incredible courage. What a sweetheart,” the commercial’s narrator says.
The Valentine’s Day themed mail piece separately cost $10,000. It replicates the attack on McCrory that appears in the commercial and says in the text, “Roses are Red, Violets are Blue, Pat McCrory loves Liberals, How about you?”
This story was originally published February 11, 2022 at 3:54 PM.
