But most of all, the outlook looks bleak for fair play.
By Loren Troan ’20
Another important Super Tuesday primary just occurred — the NC Senate primary.
The incumbent Republican Senator Thom Tillis is up for reelection this cycle, and he is looking particularly vulnerable. His net approval ratings are underwater, and in early November general election polls, he’s trailing behind lesser-known Democratic primary winner Cal Cunningham. In fact, Morning Consult polls find that he has the lowest approval rating of any sitting Senator regardless of party. To put things bluntly, his outlook is bleak.
Thankfully for Tillis, some conservative supporters seem to lack qualms in choosing their methods. The Faith and Power PAC — which receives all of its funding from the Senate Leadership Fund — put out millions of dollars in advertisements for the Democratic primary. They appear to have marked their own candidate down as a lost cause, and instead are focusing on disrupting Democrats and pulling the Democratic frontrunner — Cunningham himself — to the left.
The Fund defended itself in a statement released on the 21st of February, declaring the tactic “an unqualified success” and pointing a finger at Democrats for supposedly pioneering their methods. While it is true some Democratic candidates have advertised against Republican primary candidates in the past, all of the provided examples show Democrats attacking — not feigning support — for a specific candidate. Additionally, their defense holds little weight; the saying is supposed to be “when you go low we go high,” not “when you go low we go lower.”
Lastly, the primary candidate who was supported by this advertising, one Erica Smith, went so far as to disavow the ads and to repudiate what her campaign called Republican interference. With general elections a face-off between Cunningham and Tillis, this will not be a clean fight.
Featured image via Associated Press.