From July through September, as the U.S. Senate race in South Carolina went from contested to competitive, Democrat Jamie Harrison dropped more money on ads than any Senate candidate of either party has ever spent, on everything, in a single quarter. Harrison’s campaign reported an astonishing $44 million in television, radio, and digital advertising spending in the third quarter of 2020, when it also posted a fundraising record, bringing in more than $57 million in contributions backing Harrison’s challenge to Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham. The Democrat’s campaign also passed along more than $4 million to the state Democratic Party. They’ve invested […]
North Carolina
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GREENSBORO, N.C.—When he arrived at the polls to vote for the first time on Thursday, Ricardo Lopez-Salazar was on edge. “On the way over here I was kind of nervous,” Lopez-Salazar, an 18-year old student at Guilford Technical Community College, told The Daily Beast. Soon enough, a Republican poll observer stared directly at him, just days after Donald Trump encouraged his supporters to show up early and often at polling places across America. Under North Carolina law, each party is allowed to have up to two observers in each polling place. Dianne Doughty, a Guilford County GOP volunteer, told The Daily […]
When his text messages to a woman not his wife leaked last week, Cal Cunningham, the Democratic candidate for U.S. Senate in North Carolina, was immediately thrust into the time-honored cycle of shame, ridicule, evasiveness, and public apology that comes with political scandal. But there was an odd addition to that cycle this time around: profit. As Cunningham’s texts—which included racy gems such as “I kiss back, a lot”—made their way around Twitter and fueled Republican attacks, a number of people responded to the revelations by immediately opening their wallets and forking over cash to the guy who used the phrase […]
The U.S. Senate race in North Carolina has been thrown into turmoil: The incumbent, Thom Tillis, has COVID-19 and his opponent, Cal Cunningham, has been caught sending extramarital texts. The Democrat’s romantic messages to public relations strategist Arlene Guzman Todd were initially exposed by the National File, a right-wing website. But in a statement to the Raleigh News & Observer, Cunningham confirmed their accuracy. “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 […]
POTUS has repeatedly hinted that “sleepy” Democratic presidential hopeful Joe Biden is mentally unfit to be at the helm of the US, while the former vice president’s medical assessment described him as a “healthy” and “vigorous” individual. Speaking at a campaign rally in Fayetteville, North Carolina, on Saturday night, President Donald Trump told voters that he may ink an executive order to prevent Democratic presidential hopeful Joe Biden from running as POTUS’ opponent in the upcoming 3 November election. “We can joke, we can play games, we can have fun. You can’t have this guy as your president. […] Maybe I’ll […]
Dan Forest stood on stage presiding in front of the crowd that had come to see Donald Trump in North Carolina Tuesday, a potential public health nightmare of not enough masks and too many people, and declared: “This looks like freedom.” But before he could even start rattling off all the things he’d do as governor to people who weren’t there to hear him speak, the state’s Republican lieutenant governor chose to indulge once again in a baseless, strange, and shocking idea about Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden’s future. “We all know that Sleepy Joe’s not gonna make it. Not very long […]
Newly surfaced cellphone footage captured the moment in which three individuals aboard an American Airlines flight engaged in an all-out brawl before takeoff after a dispute arose regarding a face-covering policy. The incident unfolded on Monday between three unidentified passengers aboard American Airlines flight 1665, which was scheduled to transport travelers from Las Vegas, Nevada, to Charlotte, North Carolina. However, as the video shows, the trip did not exactly get off to the smoothest of starts, considering the brawl broke out in an aisle and eventually saw two of the three combatants exchange multiple blows and hair grabs before toppling over […]
Shortly before the summer kicked off, Donald Trump was hopeful. The president, his campaign, and his top lieutenants in his administration were busy branding Trump the face of an upcoming American rebirth. He and his White House staff made a big push to position him as the frontman for economic revival, as summertime employment upticks seemed on the horizon and as experts and politicians kept their fingers crossed that the season’s heat would help spur a respite from the global pandemic. Trump and his 2020 team kept promising that they were doing everything they could to get him back on the […]
“REQUEST YOUR ABSENTEE BALLOT TODAY,” reads a mailer sent to North Carolina Republicans earlier this week by the North Carolina Trump Victory campaign, the Trump campaign’s joint field operation with the Republican National Committee in the state. The mailer, part of a push to contact more than three million voters in the state, calls voting by mail “easy and secure,” and urges recipients to use the “Official Republican Party Absentee Ballot Application to safely and securely request your ballot.” “All North Carolina voters are eligible to vote absentee—no matter the reason,” states the mailer, which contains step-by-step instructions for applying for […]
A Wilmington, North Carolina police officer who was fired for taking part in a violently racist conversation has filed an appeal, claiming his comments were protected religious speech. Wilmington Police officer James “Brian” Gilmore was one of three officers fired last month for taking part in recorded racist conversations. One of those conversations, for which Gilmore was not present, involved racist slurs and talk of massacring Black Americans in a second Civil War. Gilmore claims that, because he only explicitly made reference to white people “worshipping” Black people, his comments were not racist but stemmed from his religious convictions against idolatry. […]
Three officers with North Carolina’s Wilmington Police Department were recently fired from the force after the individuals were recorded engaging in threatening and racially-charged conversations that touched on the desire to kill Black residents. The disturbing commentary, which was recorded via an accidental activation of a patrol car camera, was discovered on June 4 during a monthly department audit of video recordings. The nearly two-hour-long recording included remarks from former officers Kevin Piner, Jessie Moore and Brian Gilmore and was immediately reported after a reviewer flagged the “extremely racist comments” in a report. A summary of an internal investigation report reveals […]
North Carolina Republicans are making a last ditch effort to try and win back the marquee event of the Republican National Convention even after President Donald Trump made it abundantly clear he’s moving on from the state. The attempt amounts to the legislative version of the boombox scene in the 1980’s romcom Say Anything – a grand gesture to keep Trump’s affections in their state. But just like the romance in the film, no one really thinks it’ll work out in the end. “As far as the convention goes, as much as we want it here, I really don’t think it’s […]
Fortunately for him, Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) doesn’t have to answer for making questionable stock sales timed around the coronavirus outbreak. Unfortunately for him, he may have to answer for someone else’s: Sen. Richard Burr. Burr, Tillis’ fellow North Carolina GOP senator, is under federal investigation for selling up to $1.7 million worth of stock holdings before COVID-19 crashed financial markets. After his phone was seized by federal agents last week, Burr stepped down from his chairmanship of the powerful Senate intelligence committee, and his political future is in peril. But it’s Tillis who is facing North Carolina voters this fall, […]
A white sheriff’s deputy in North Carolina is facing criminal charges after allegedly leading an armed mob to the home of a black teenager and trying to force their way inside as part of a botched vigilante mission. New Hanover & Pender County District Attorney Ben David on Friday announced the charges against Jordan Kita, a New Hanover Sheriff’s Office detention officer accused of wearing his uniform while leading the group of people—one of whom was allegedly packing an AR-15—to confront a high school student at his home. Kita has since been fired from the sheriff’s office. The teenager, Dameon Shepard, […]