New Tillis ad attacks Cunningham on affair claim, calls campaign ‘one big lie’
Republican groups already have hit the airwaves to attack Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Cal Cunningham over his alleged extramarital affair.
Now incumbent North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis is doing so directly.
The Tillis campaign launched a 30-second television ad Thursday on broadcast and cable television and digital platforms going after his Democratic opponent using headlines from newspapers and clips from television newscasts.
“His campaign was one big lie,” the ad opens.
The ad traces the fast-developing story that started Friday night, when Cunningham confirmed the authenticity of suggestive text messages he exchanged with a California woman that were first published by The National File, a right-leaning website.
The woman, Arlene Todd Guzman, later confirmed that the two had an intimate encounter. Her husband is an Army veteran, and the U.S. Army Reserves said Wednesday it had opened an investigation into the Cunningham “matters.”
The Tillis campaign called Cunningham’s “a failed candidacy.”
“The scandal itself shows that Cunningham lacks the judgment and character necessary to be a United States Senator, but his inability to apologize and fully account for his transgressions makes them even worse,” Tillis campaign manager Luke Blanchat said in a statement.
“Cunningham has said the truth still matters in North Carolina, and it’s time he comes clean to the voters and the press about the full scope of his misconduct.”
Cunningham apologized Wednesday night for his personal scandal in his first public comments since Friday. But he said he would not be “sidetracked” from the issues important to voters.
“I am deeply sorry for the hurt that I have caused in my personal life and I also apologize to all of you,” Cunningham said during a live-streamed appearance at the 2020 Green Tie Awards event, held by the North Carolina League of Conservation Voters.
The Senate Leadership Fund, aligned with Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, previously announced a $4 million television ad purchase hitting Cunningham. Another group, Results for NC, is running digital ads.
Cunningham announced last week that he had raised a record-setting $28.3 million in the last three months.
The spending and fund-raising underscore the importance of the North Carolina race nationally. The election could prove decisive in determining which party controls the U.S. Senate in January. Cunningham has been leading in polls throughout the summer and into the fall.
“Throughout this election, Senator Tillis has trailed in the polls because of his failed record of trying to take health care protections away from 1.7 million North Carolinians with pre-existing conditions, rewarding his corporate special interest donors while working families get left further behind, and colossally botching the response to this pandemic, and now he’s trying to exploit a personal matter to make desperate attacks in hopes it saves his political career,” Cunningham campaign spokeswoman Rachel Petri said in a statement.
Nearly 400,000 North Carolina voters have already cast their absentee by-mail ballot for the November election.
For more North Carolina government and politics news, listen to the Domecast politics podcast from The News & Observer and the NC Insider. You can find it on Megaphone, Apple Podcasts, iHeartRadio, Stitcher or wherever you get your podcasts.
This story was originally published October 8, 2020 at 7:00 AM.
