RALEIGH — As the calendar flipped to October, the candidates for North Carolina’s open U.S. Senate seat sharpened their attacks on one another as the only debate in the race will see Cheri Beasley and Ted Budd meet for the first time.
Much of the race is now centered on Beasley’s record as a lawyer and judge. Budd and outside groups have focused on a string of controversial cases Beasley was involved in.
The Washington Free Beacon reported last month about Beasley’s involvement in a 1998 case where she was one of the “key defense attorneys” for Tilmon and Kevin Golphin, brothers who one year before the trial killed two North Carolina police officers during a traffic stop that came after they robbed a loan agency at gunpoint. The brother of one of the slain officers, Al Lowry, said it’s “B.S.” that the Democrat is portraying herself as a friend of law enforcement.
“It makes me sick every time I look at her because I know she’s not the right person for the job,” Lowry said in the report. “She’s for the criminals and not for the law officers. … [Beasley’s] ad says law enforcement stands behind her. I don’t believe that for one second.”
In another case, when she served on the N.C. Supreme Court, Beasley voted to vacate a career criminal’s habitual felon status just after the man was caught with a “weapon of mass death,” a move that would have seen him receive a lighter sentence if he committed another crime, the Free Beacon also reported. The majority of justices disagreed with her in that case, though.
Most recently, Beasley’s representation of Massage Envy just months before she jumped into the race also drew scrutiny. She was listed as counsel in during a court case involving the massage therapy chain. More than 100 women have accused massage therapists for the chain of sexual assault, including in North Carolina.
“Massage Envy stood accused of awful instances of sexual assault and Cheri Beasley still took them on as a client,” NRSC spokesman T.W. Arrighi said in a statement. “North Carolinians have no patience for politicians who say one thing but do another, especially when it comes to protecting victims.”
In a recent MSNBC interview, Beasley appeared to sidestep questions regarding those decisions, instead pivoting to discussing lower costs.
“There are a whole host of issues, but folks want to know their next senator will work to lower costs,” Beasley said, adding that the has been “unfairly attacked” over record. She did not directly rebut any of the attacks but to call them unfair and distortions.
Budd seems likely to bring those issues up during the debate, even as his main message is focused on the economy, inflation, and the Biden administration’s job performance.
Budd launched his first television ads in August in the race with that message – even a mock campaign rally for Beasley to welcome President Joe Biden to the state. Budd says in the ad in reality it would never happen and that Beasley is trying to not tie herself to Biden but would support his policies nonetheless.
Many pundits have said Budd’s campaign is not one of the highest-profile, drawing some comparisons to outgoing U.S. Sen. Richard Burr’s 2016 campaign, in which some thought Burr struggled before going on to win by six points – a margin only eclipsed by his 2010 margin of victory of 12 points in the last 20 years of U.S. Senate races in the state.
The money advantage is also tilted toward Budd.
Outside spending typically dwarfs the amounts candidates raise for themselves in the state’s U.S. Senate races. The Republican-aligned Senate Leadership Fund laid down a marker when they booked nearly $30 million in ads over the summer to boost Budd. The NRSC also laid down millions in the race.
The same kind of money has not been spent on Beasley’s behalf. The Democratic super PAC Senate Majority PAC has spent just over $6.5 million supporting Beasley.
In 2020, the race between Republican U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis and Democrat Cal Cunningham was the most expensive of the 2020 campaign cycle and was only exceeded by the Georgia U.S. Senate runoffs in early January 2021.
Friday’s debate will take place in Raleigh and will air on Spectrum News 1 stations. The channel’s Capital Tonight host Tim Boyum is moderating the debate.
This story has been updated to reflect over $6.5 million spent by Senate Majority PAC supporting Beasley, not $3.5 million.
