North Carolina’s Senate race, which had been playing out for months as a case study in how a Generic Democrat would do against a Generic Republican this cycle, was disrupted over the weekend by two opposing, extremely specific events. First, the Republican incumbent, Thom Tillis, joined the ranks of party members who’ve tested positive for the novel coronavirus in the White House–centered outbreak, leading him to close his campaign headquarters. Then his Democratic challenger, Cal Cunningham, confessed to exchanging extramarital sexts with a Democratic strategist.
For Tillis, the infection was just one more setback in a sagging campaign. For Cunningham, the sexting scandal seemed like a crack in his carefully crafted sapless public persona—until, that is, one considered the actual leaked messages.
Advertisement“Would make my day to roll over and kiss you about now,” one reads. And that “roll over,” with its implication that the two people would be lying down somewhere near each other, may have been the spiciest thing in the whole leak. In another message, Cunningham tells the woman he will “kiss back” and says she is “historically sexy,” whatever that means.
The sexts seem unlikely to affect Cunningham’s chances at winning, based on the first poll following the scandal. A new poll from Public Policy Polling has Cunningham up 48–42 overall. And only 12 percent of non-Trump supporters who participated in the poll said the sexts would make them less likely to cast a ballot for Cunningham. “It really is just Trump voters already predisposed against Cunningham who care about this episode,” the poll write-up argued.
“It’s unfortunate that he cheated, but his family is who should hold him accountable for this,” Tania De Los Santos, a Raleigh resident, told Slate. “His personal love life seems pretty insignificant in comparison to the harm done by Tillis to marginalized communities.”
AdvertisementSuch mild textual exchanges may not have become national news if North Carolina weren’t this election’s most important all-around battleground. The outcome of the Cunningham-Tillis race would be a major contributor to deciding which party controls the Senate, while the presidential election could end up hinging on the state’s results. Swings in party control within the state’s General Assembly could result in a political trifecta similar to Virginia’s, which would have major implications for policy and voting rights.
Advertisement Advertisement AdvertisementThroughout his bid for Senate, Cunningham has showcased himself as a tried-and-true North Carolinian—an Army vet who took church mission trips into Appalachia as a child to aid the less fortunate who live up in the mountains, who knows backbreaking work thanks to logging hours on his family’s brickyard, who graduated from UNC–Chapel Hill and moved back to his hometown to start a family. They now live in Raleigh.
AdvertisementWhen juxtaposed against such an image, the messages are still as scandalous as vanilla frozen yogurt. In the midst of betraying his own family, Cunningham wholesomely wishes his extramarital partner’s son a happy birthday. The way he cooks barbecue is potentially more scandalous. (He’s from Lexington; he knows better.) And while affairs are generally taken as measure of a person’s shortcomings of character, it’s unlikely to sway voters away from Cunningham when the opposition wants to bust health care, and when Tillis’ lack of seriousness surrounding the coronavirus pandemic led to his being infected as well.
Over the weekend, Cunningham’s campaign confirmed the validity of the messages. They also sent an apologetic statement to the News & Observer: “I have hurt my family, disappointed my friends, and am deeply sorry. The first step in repairing those relationships is taking complete responsibility, which I do. I ask that my family’s privacy be respected in this personal matter.”
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