In his first ad of Senate campaign, McCrory hits Budd over Putin comments

Ten weeks before North Carolina’s primary election, Republican Senate candidate Pat McCrory is airing his first television ad of the campaign, taking aim at his top GOP rival over comments about Russia’s war on Ukraine.

McCrory, a former governor, and U.S. Rep. Ted Budd, who is endorsed by former President Donald Trump, are the top two Republicans seeking the nomination in the race to replace retiring U.S. Sen. Richard Burr. Fourteen candidates filed for the race, including former U.S. Rep. Mark Walker.

The primary is May 17.

Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24 after weeks of troop movements near the border. The aggression has been met with near-universal condemnation from the United States and the West. Trump called Putin “very smart” for invading, a comment he made during a fundraiser at his Mar-a-Lago home attended by Budd, who later called Putin “a very intelligent actor” while condemning him as “evil.”

The McCrory campaign has been critical of Budd’s remarks and used them as the basis for its first ad, which is airing statewide on Fox News and will soon air on broadcast television in the state, according to the campaign.

“This was a major moment that shows that Ted Budd is unelectable in North Carolina quite frankly. There’s no credible path to winning a purple state for a guy who just alienated huge, huge majorities of voters in the Republican Party and unaffiliateds and Democrats, by the way,” said McCrory strategist Jordan Shaw said in a telephone interview. “Nobody thinks we ought to be complimenting Vladimir Putin while he’s dropping bombs on women and children in Ukraine. We think this makes him unelectable.”

In the 30-second ad, McCrory says he doesn’t “compliment our enemies.”

“These are serious times, and we need serious senators,” McCrory said in the ad.

Budd’s campaign dismissed the ad, calling Budd’s comments a level-headed assessment of a foreign crisis.

“Governor McCrory has a long track-record of underestimating the opposition which is why he’s already lost twice and is about to lose again,” said Jonathan Felts, Budd’s senior advisor, in a statement. “Ted Budd presented the sort of level-headed assessment of a foreign crisis you would expect from a US Senator because he knows these are serious times that require strength and substance, not the empty soundbites preferred by career politicians like Biden and McCrory.”

McCrory was the mayor of Charlotte, ran three times for governor and hosted a top-rated morning talk show in the Charlotte region after his term as governor, giving him near universal name recognition in the state. He has led in polling throughout the campaign, though Budd has closed the gap thanks in part to massive outside spending.

Club For Growth Action spent more than $3.6 million through the end of January in support of Budd — nearly triple what the group has spent in support of any other candidate this cycle — and about $650,000 against McCrory. The group is currently up with two ads on Fox, one promoting Trump’s endorsement of Budd and the other casting McCrory as sympathetic to Democrats. The group earlier promised to spend at least $10 million for Budd, a figure that could rise.

McCrory ended 2021 with about $2 million cash on hand, according to the most recent campaign finance reports. Budd had about $2.2 million cash on hand.

There may be some GOP apprehension about how Budd is doing in the race, Politico reported. It had audio, from Trump’s speech to Republican donors on Saturday, of comments the former president addressed to North Carolina GOP chair Michael Whatley.

“How are we doing? How’s Ted Budd doing? OK? All right, we gotta get Walker out of that race. Get him out of the race, Michael, right?” Trump said according to Politico.

Walker said he was offered a Trump endorsement to run for a U.S. House seat, but chose to remain in the Senate race. The candidate filing period ended Friday.

Former state Supreme Court Justice Cheri Beasley is the presumptive Democratic nominee for Senate.

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This story was originally published March 9, 2022 at 3:40 PM.