Source: Politics<\/p>\n
Leading Republicans are pulling back from the North Carolina Senate race, sending a clear message: What was a top-tier battleground at the start of the cycle is no longer worth the money.<\/p>\n
The foremost Senate GOP super PAC, Senate Leadership Fund, is pausing its future spending in North Carolina and instead launching a seven-figure ad buy in deep-red Kansas, according to one person familiar with the move. The news was first reported by Semafor<\/a>.<\/p>\n The dramatic change in strategy \u2014 less than four weeks before the midterms \u2014 comes after SLF previously spent more than $30 million to boost GOP nominee Michael Whatley. It also comes as public polling<\/a> has continued to show Whatley unable to close the gap<\/a> against popular former Gov. Roy Cooper, the Democratic candidate.<\/p>\n Republicans are now deprioritizing a state that President Donald Trump carried in all three presidential runs, and that Democrats haven\u2019t won in the Senate since 2008.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are all clear-eyed about where North Carolina stands,\u201d said one national GOP operative working on Senate races, who like others in this article was granted anonymity to speak candidly.<\/p>\n SLF isn\u2019t the only major GOP group shifting away from North Carolina as Republicans focus on other must-win seats and deep-red states, amid the Iran war, high fuel prices and other economic fallout of the war in Iran.<\/p>\n Earlier Friday, the Koch-aligned Americans for Prosperity Action left North Carolina off its $22 million list of future spending across key Senate contests, as POLITICO reported<\/a>. Another major Republican group focused specifically on boosting Whatley \u2014 Old North Action \u2014 removed $6.5 million in ad reservations<\/a> from North Carolina\u2019s Senate race last month.<\/p>\n \u201cMichael Whatley is a good man who took one for the team \u2014 but with states like Alaska, Kansas, and Texas requiring continued resource commitments, there is only so much,\u201d said another national GOP operative working on midterm races. \u201cEspecially against a very popular former Governor in Roy Cooper.\u201d<\/p>\n The National Republican Senatorial Committee is currently running coordinated ad reservations with six of its battleground candidates. Whatley in North Carolina is not one of them, according to data from advertising tracking service AdImpact.<\/p>\n NRSC regional press secretary Nick Puglia said in a statement that \u201cWhatley will put North Carolina families first by cutting taxes and keeping criminals locked up.\u201d<\/p>\n Whatley for months has struggled to boost his name ID against the much better-known Cooper. Some recent public polls show Cooper leading Whatley by double-digit margins. Private polling has also hardly budged, despite the recent influx of spending, according to a person working on the race.<\/p>\n In a statement, Whatley spokesperson DJ Griffin said the team feels \u201cconfident we have the resources\u201d to win in November.<\/p>\n \u201cRoy Cooper recently said about federal elections in North Carolina, \u2018Democrats are often ahead until they are not,\u2019\u201d Griffin said. \u201cUndecided Voters who break late decide the election in North Carolina and the majority of those Late-Breakers typically go Republican.\u201d<\/p>\n AFP Action and Old North Action did not immediately respond to a request for comment about North Carolina. SLF declined to comment.<\/p>\n SLF\u2019s decision came as a shock to some, but not all, North Carolina Republicans \u2014 mostly because Senate Majority Leader John Thune has been scheduled to be in North Carolina for an event with Whatley on Thursday night. Thune ended up joining the event virtually, according to two people with direct knowledge of the matter.<\/p>\n For weeks, top Republicans acknowledged North Carolina may be slipping away. One Republican who attended a donor meeting with Senate Majority Leader John Thune and SLF during the Dallas convention told POLITICO that holding the state would be \u201ctough<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe map has shifted a little bit, and to be fair, we knew that was going to be a tough one from the beginning,” said one GOP operative working on Senate races, granted anonymity to speak candidly about the landscape.<\/p>\n Democrats are not letting up, recognizing that the contest in the purple state could still be close.<\/p>\n “A Democrat has not won statewide federal office here in nearly two decades, and North Carolina is a 50-50 state,\u201d Cooper campaign manager Jeff Allen said in a statement.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re building a campaign to earn every vote and make sure North Carolinians know that Roy Cooper will fight for them, while Michael Whatley will continue to enrich himself at their expense,\u201d Allen said.<\/p>\n One North Carolina GOP strategist said that while Whatley has been a \u201cfine\u201d candidate, the current political climate coupled with Cooper\u2019s long record in the state may be too much to overcome. And while Republicans have repeatedly hammered Cooper on crime, he still has strong favorability ratings from his time as governor.<\/p>\n \u201cHe’s really kind of hard to paint as a radical, ‘cause, you know, he’s like Aunt Martha. She’s just been there forever. And so it’s just very difficult to get any traction on that, because, you know, people say, ‘well, Roy’s okay,\u2019\u201d they said.<\/p>\n When told that SLF was moving money from North Carolina to Kansas, the strategist responded: \u201c$6.50 diesel fuel will kick your ass.\u201d<\/p>\n