Senate Leadership Fund Pulls Ad Money From Whatley's NC Bid

The Senate Leadership Fund, the super PAC aligned with Senate Majority Leader John Thune, has withdrawn its television and digital ad spending backing Republican Michael Whatley's bid for North Carolina's open Senate seat, redirecting those dollars to other contested races, according to a Semafor report confirmed by the New York Times and CNN and cited by The Guardian.

What exactly did the Senate Leadership Fund do?

As an independent-expenditure super PAC, the Senate Leadership Fund (SLF) cannot coordinate directly with Whatley's campaign, but it can buy and cancel its own ad inventory in the state. The fund has now pulled that inventory out of North Carolina and moved it toward Republican candidates in other Senate races, per the Guardian's reporting of the Semafor account.

How far behind is Whatley in the polls?

Whatley, the former Republican National Committee chair handpicked by Donald Trump for the race, trails Democrat and former governor Roy Cooper by 11 points, according to the Guardian. The seat opened when Sen. Thom Tillis announced he would not seek re-election, and Cooper won the Democratic nomination without a serious primary fight, the Guardian reported.

How much had the PAC committed to the race before pulling out?

The Senate Leadership Fund had pledged $71 million to hold the North Carolina seat, the Guardian reported, and began running ads against Cooper before he had even secured the Democratic nomination. Those spots focused heavily on crime and public safety, including advertising that sought to tie Cooper to the killing of Iryna Zarutska, a 23-year-old Ukrainian refugee who was fatally attacked aboard a Charlotte light-rail train, according to the Guardian. Cooper was not in office at the time of the attack, the paper noted.

Is this part of a broader Republican retreat?

The Guardian's report frames the North Carolina pullback as part of a wider triage by national Republicans "amid increasingly dire midterm polling," linking the move to separate coverage of a tightening Alaska governor's race where the paper reports a "Democratic upset is brewing" as Trump's approval numbers decline. Neither the Senate Leadership Fund nor the Whatley campaign is quoted in the Guardian's account explaining the funding shift, and the PAC's internal rationale for which other races are receiving the redirected money was not detailed in the available reporting.

What happens to North Carolina's Senate race without the PAC money?

The Guardian's report does not specify whether Whatley's own campaign committee, the National Republican Senatorial Committee, or other outside groups will attempt to fill the advertising gap SLF leaves behind. CNN and the New York Times have confirmed the funding shift with sources close to the fund, the Guardian reported, but none of the outlets cited has published the dollar amount being redirected or a timeline for when the new ad buys in other states will go live.

Figures at a glance

• $71 million — amount the Senate Leadership Fund had pledged to the North Carolina race, per the Guardian.
• 11 points — Whatley's polling deficit behind Cooper, per the Guardian's report.