The Senate Leadership Fund (SLF) has paused further ad spending in North Carolina’s US Senate race between former North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper and Republican nominee Michael Whatley, who formerly chaired both the Republican National Committee and the North Carolina Republican Party, according to a report by Semafor.
After spending more than $30 million on the race, SLF is putting further ad spending in the state and in Georgia on hold to increase spending on the Kansas US Senate race, the report said.
“There have been adjustments in independent expenditure spending earlier in the race,” Andy Jackson, director of the Civitas Center for Public Integrity at the John Locke Foundation, told the Carolina Journal. “This looks like a real withdrawal, however. While the gap between Whatley and Cooper will almost certainly diminish in the closing weeks of the campaign, this is a sign that national Republicans believe that Whatley cannot close it enough to win. This also clears the way for Democrats to spend their money elsewhere.”
Semafor reported that, according to AdImpact, a Trump-aligned group also has no further spending scheduled beyond this week.
“Senate Republicans are bailing on North Carolina,” Christyna Thompson, spokesperson for Senate Majority PAC, told the Carolina Journal. “After sinking more than $30 million into Michael Whatley, their top super PAC just hit pause in North Carolina, abandoning a fundamentally flawed candidate who was unable to make any sort of compelling case to families. Whatley is a D.C. political insider who’s extremely unpopular in North Carolina after failing Western North Carolina families following Helene, appointing a child sex predator to a political office, and cashing in on rate hikes that drove up North Carolina’s electric bills.”
While SLF has paused ad spending in North Carolina, it plans to invest seven figures in the Kansas race between Republican incumbent Sen. Roger Marshall and Democratic nominee Adam Hamilton. The decision to bolster Marshall while scaling back ad spending in North Carolina signals a shifting Senate battlefield, as Whatley faces a difficult contest against Cooper, according to Semafor. The shift follows another Republican group’s decision last week to reduce its North Carolina advertising reservations by millions of dollars. At the same time, some GOP strategists have encouraged allied groups to direct more resources toward other Senate contests.
“Roy Cooper spent 40 years in office enriching himself while pushing healthcare costs to the highest in the nation and releasing violent criminals from prison early,” Nick Puglia, regional press secretary for the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), told the Carolina Journal. “Michael Whatley will put North Carolina families first by cutting taxes and keeping criminals locked up.”
According to the latest Carolina Journal Poll released on Sept. 17, Cooper holds a 15.1-point lead with 49.2% of likely North Carolina voters saying they intend to vote for Cooper, while 34.1% intend to vote for Whatley. Libertarian Shannon Bray has 2.9% support, Green Party candidate Michael Dublin has 1.5%, and 12.3% of voters remain undecided. The poll surveyed 608 likely voters, with a margin of error of plus or minus 3.97 percentage points.