Dem
47
GOP
53
Things don't look so good for Republican apparatchik Michael Whatley in North Carolina's U.S. Senate race. Here are the polls of the North Carolina Senate race since late March:
When Whatley first got in, nobody had ever heard of him and he was -18. Now he is better known and is only -8 or so. The top Republican super PAC, the Senate Leadership Fund, took a look and had to make a decision. It could have abandoned Whatley altogether and used the money in Texas, Ohio, or Alaska. But it decided to try to save Whatley and is now going to spend $17 million to try to save his neck. It will be tough because coming back from so deep in the hole is really, really hard because there aren't a lot of undecided voters left.
Also, what are the ads going to say? That Roy Cooper is a commie? He has been in state politics for a quarter of a century. People know him. No one will believe he is a commie. Will they tout Whatley's achievements? What achievements? Will they talk about how great Donald Trump is and he needs the Senate to stop fighting him? There is not a lot of material there.
The real reason for the ad blitz is that the NRSC and SLF have so much money they don't know what to do with it, so they are just throwing money at the wall and to see if any of it sticks. This is clearly not a good investment, but it does show that Republicans have money to burn, so burn it they will.
But do you know what is really weird? The SLF and MAGA Inc. haven't put a penny into the Texas Senate race. That one is very competitive, Ken Paxton is a poor fundraiser, James Talarico is a phenomenal fundraiser and Texas has 18 media markets, many of them expensive. When are they coming to the rescue? Part of the problem is that Whatley is merely boring, but Paxton is absolutely toxic. Each of the groups is hoping the other will pick up the ball and run with it. (V)