Republican Sen. Thom Tillis won a tough reelection battle against Democrat Cal Cunningham in North Carolina’s Senate race, increasing the GOP lead to keep the majority in the quest for balance of power.
Cunnigham conceded on Tuesday afternoon, saying in a statement that he called the Senator to “congratulate him on his victory.
“The voters have spoken and I respect their decision,” Cunningham said in a statement, shortly after calling Tillis to concede. “While the results of this election suggest there remain deep political divisions in our state and nation, the more complete story of our country lies in what unites us: our faith and sense of confidence in our democracy, our civic values and common humanity, our shared aspiration to care for one another, and our belief that we live in a country that does exceptional things.”
Tillis, in a statement, said he was “incredibly humbled” by his victory.
“Earlier this afternoon, Cal Cunningham called me to offer his concession,” Tillis said in a statement shortly after. “This was a hard-fought campaign and I wish nothing but the best to Cal and his family going forward.”
As of Tuesday, the race had yet to be called 7 days post-Election Day as Tillis was able to maintain the lead with absentee votes still being counted. Tillis in the latest count before his rival conceded with 97% reported had a small narrow lead of 48.7% or 2,642,833 of the votes to Cunningham 47% or 2,547,677 of the votes. The North Carolina Senator was currently up by 95,156 votes out of more than 5.4 million cast.
The Senate race became the political sex scandal of the 2020 cycle when it was revealed earlier in October that Cunningham, a married father of two was caught sexting with a woman married to a combat veteran — including which he referred to the woman as “historically sexy.”
The race was favored for Cunningham, a star recruit Democratic Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) handpicked and was posed to stage an upset victory. Trump voters in North Carolina were polled to be angry at Tillis who opposed the president federal funding appropriated to build the border wall in the southern border. This helped Cunningham lead in the polls for weeks until his sex scandal surfaced that saw the gap narrowing. Heading to Election Day, Real Clear Average had the race for Cunningham up by 2.6 points, ranking the race a toss-up
According to Advertising Analytics, North Carolina’s Senate race is on track to be one of the most expensive Senate races with more than $300 million spent on ads between both candidates.
With the Alaska Senate race appearing to be another win for Republicans as it has yet to be called, Democrats are putting everything in the twin runoff races in Georgia scheduled Jan. 5th. Winning both seats for the Democrats will see a 50-50 Senate with the possibility of Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) if confirmed the 2020 winner as the Vice President who will cast the tie-breaking votes and could help Joe Biden the Democratic candidate, if also declared the winner of the 2020 presidential election push liberal reforms and remove Trump effective policies.
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