Traveling with Nikki Haley, Tillis assails Cunningham’s character. Is it working?
With the sun setting behind him and jets roaring over the Angus Barn, Sen. Thom Tillis was at the podium for only a minute before he dug into what he has made the closing argument of his reelection campaign: questioning Democratic challenger Cal Cunningham’s character.
“You can’t have it both ways. You can’t run a campaign on truth and honor and say that’s fundamental to your candidacy and then be untruthful and dishonorable,” Tillis said Friday at a rally with former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley. “If Cal Cunningham will lie to his supporters and betray his family, what do you think he’s going to do for the people of North Carolina?”
But the latest polling suggests voters haven’t been swayed since Cunningham’s extramarital affair became public earlier this month. In new polls released Friday by East Carolina University and High Point University, Cunningham has not only maintained his narrow lead on Tillis, but voters regard Cunningham more favorably.
In front of about 100 supporters in a breezy parking lot down a hill from the iconic restaurant, the Republican incumbent returned to the subject of Cunningham’s character over and over again in 10 minutes of remarks. Haley, a potential Republican presidential candidate in 2024, mentioned it directly only once, preferring to talk about Tillis’ record in Washington and her own, both as a governor of a neighboring state and as former ambassador to the United Nations.
Tillis, his campaign and Republican allies have tried to make the final weeks of the race a referendum on Cunningham’s personal life, discussing the scandal at every stop and attacking Cunningham for running a campaign that they call “one big lie.”
The 47-year-old Cunningham, a married father of two, admitted to sending sexual text messages to a California woman, who told The Associated Press the pair was intimate as recently as July. Cunningham has not answered questions about whether he had other affairs.
New polls in close race
There’s no question the race is close. Cunningham holds a narrow lead in polling, including a three-point edge in a New York Times/Siena College poll released Thursday and a one-point lead in East Carolina’s final poll, released Friday. That’s the same margin Cunningham held in that poll in mid-October; the ECU poll had the two candidates tied in September.
Meanwhile, a High Point poll also released Friday found registered voters considered Cunningham more favorably (41% against 39% unfavorable) than Tillis (33% against 47% unfavorable), a month after Cunningham’s texts became public. The survey was conducted between Oct. 9 and Oct. 28. The scandal first made headlines in-state on Oct. 2.
The same High Point poll recorded increasing dissatisfaction with Tillis’ job performance, with 50% of registered voters disapproving, up from 33% in HPU’s July poll. Voters approving were down slightly, from 32% to 30%.
Haley has been touring the country to support Republican candidates while burnishing her own national profile. Earlier Friday, she appeared in Georgia with Sen. Kelly Loeffler, another Republican facing a tough race. More than one cry of “2024” was heard from the crowd as she spoke on behalf of Tillis.
“You know him from seeing him around North Carolina, but I know what they think of him in Washington. Are you nervous?” Haley said Friday, to laughter. “When he goes to Washington, he’s known to be a worker. He’s known to be a fighter. He’s known to be a conservative. And he’s known to have moral clarity.”
The appearances with Haley are part of a statewide final-week public tour for Tillis, who campaigned with Vice President Mike Pence at two stops on Monday and Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas on Tuesday. Scheduled events with former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and President Donald Trump were canceled due to weather.
Senate in the balance
Cunningham, too, has been traveling the state meeting with small groups of voters, but he and his campaign have not alerted the media to any of their appearances.
“This is my third event today. I’ve invited press to every one of them,” Tillis said in remarks to the media afterward. “The best I can tell, he hasn’t had a discussion with the press by his own choice for nearly a month. This race is very important, the issues are very important, and I would invite him to come out and maybe debate or at least answer hard questions that you all should ask.”
Cunningham took questions from WRAL on Thursday at an early vote site in Wilson County, but as he has in previous media appearances since reports of marital infidelity surfaced, he declined to discuss his personal issues.
Instead, he focused on health care and the coronavirus pandemic, two main features of his campaign throughout the race.
“The folks we are talking to, voters, tell me they want a senator focused on expanding health care and bringing down costs. They want a senator who is going to provide COVID aid until we can defeat this virus,” Cunningham told the station. “Those are the things North Carolinians are talking to us about.”
More than 4.1 million North Carolinians have already voted in the election, according to the state board. In-person early voting ends Saturday at 3 p.m. Election Day is Tuesday, and polls are open from 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m., though any voter in line by 7:30 will be allowed to vote.
The race is the most expensive Senate campaign in U.S. history with total spending eclipsing $285 million spent by all candidates and outside groups. Both Tillis and Haley echoed the conventional wisdom that this race could determine which party controls the chamber come January.
“In 2014 it was the same thing,” Tillis said. “It was a $118 million race and all eyes were on North Carolina when we won the day and we made the majority.”
Another joint appearance in Charlotte
On a chilly Saturday morning in Charlotte, Tillis reunited with Haley to speak to about 100 supporters on the outdoor patio of a popular BBQ restaurant.
Tillis took aim at Cunningham’s low profile since the sex scandal broke, lampooning the retired military officer’s unwillingness to answer more news media questions about it.
“Don’t go AWOL, which is exactly what he’s done for a month,” Tillis told the crowd. “That guy could probably win an Olympic sprint race if he sees a TV camera, because he’s running from them.”
Haley stressed the importance for conservative voters to make sure Republicans continue to control the Senate.
“Next year, we’re going to have new (Senate) budget chairman,” she said. “If the Republicans have the majority, Lindsey Graham will be your budget chairman. If the Democrats get the majority — you’re not ready — Bernie Sanders.”
At the mention of Sanders, a democratic socialist who ran for president twice as a progressive, members of the GOP crowd in Charlotte gasped, groaned and booed.
Tillis and Haley also promoted Trump’s record and re-election.
Except when they were speaking, Tillis and Haley wore masks. As did most in the Charlotte crowd.
In a subsequent Q&A with Charlotte reporters, Tillis put a little distance between himself and Trump when he was asked whether he agreed with the president’s claims during recent rallies that many doctors are inflating COVID-19 death counts for money.
“I think the vast majority of the medical systems are treating patients appropriately,” said Tillis, who tested positive for the virus in early October after attending a White House event where few people wore masks. “When you have just the massive number of (COVID-19) patients, there may be some of that. But I think, on the whole, our health system here . . . (is) doing a great job and I support them 100%.”
But Tillis, in response to another question, said he did agree with Trump’s claim, amid current surges of COVID-19 cases in many states, that the country is “rounding the corner” on the virus.
“We have to recognize that we are on the brink of having a vaccine,” he said. “We have to continue to lean into the health crisis, but recognize that there are millions of victims of COVID who never got the virus.” He mentioned spikes in suicide, domestic violence, child abuse and drug use as consequences of the pandemic.
“We have to ... reopen the economy safely,” he said.
Haley told reporters that she did not agree with reports that female voters this year have abandoned Trump and Republicans.
“What I will say women who have to vote on Tuesday is, ‘You may not like the personality or style of the president.‘ But, at the end of the day, women vote for results — the results of the tax cuts, the results of education being more in their hands than in government’s hands, the results of having options for health care,” she said. “Families were lifted up under the Trump presidency.”
This story was originally published October 30, 2020 at 7:49 PM with the headline "Traveling with Nikki Haley, Tillis assails Cunningham’s character. Is it working?."
