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North Carolina Senate Race Upended by Sexting, Virus Diagnosis

Associated Press

   RALEIGH, NORTH CAROLINA - North Carolina's intensively competitive and
   expensive U.S. Senate race has been upended by personal and health
   disruptions that sent uncertainty through the campaigns and an
   electorate already casting ballots.

   Democratic nominee Cal Cunningham acknowledged and apologized for
   exchanging sexually suggestive text messages with a woman who's not his
   wife, but he said he wouldn't drop out of the race. And just a few
   hours earlier Friday evening, his opponent, Republican Senator Thom
   Tillis, announced he had tested positive for COVID-19. While the
   first-term senator said he had no symptoms, the news forced Tillis to
   cancel in-person events, and several members of his campaign staff
   headed into quarantine.

   "It's chaos," David McLennan, a political science professor at Meredith
   College in Raleigh, said in a Saturday interview.

   In the text message exchanges, Cunningham tells the woman he wants to
   kiss her and she says she wants to spend the night with him. The
   messages were first reported by the website NationalFile.com.

   "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," Cunningham said in his statement late
   Friday.

   Staying to fight

   Cunningham, who is married with two teenage children, added he's
   staying in the Senate race: "I will continue to work to earn the
   opportunity to fight for the people of our state."

   The race is the nation's most expensive Senate campaign and considered
   key to determining the power balance in the chamber. Democrats need to
   gain four seats in November to take control.

   Voting has been under way for four weeks in North Carolina, and 341,000
   completed mail-in absentee ballots have been accepted and will be
   counted. Early in-person voting begins October 15.

   McLennan and Gary Pearce, a longtime state Democratic consultant, said
   it's unclear how much of an effect Cunningham's text messages will have
   on the election.

   "Most Democrats are really scared by it, but then you wonder: Has
   everything changed in the age of [President Donald] Trump?" Pearce
   said, adding the electorate's increased polarization since 2016 could
   lead many Democrats to stick with Cunningham simply because the party's
   victory is paramount.

   Timing

   A spokeswoman for Cunningham's campaign, Rachel Petri, confirmed the
   authenticity of the text messages on Saturday. It's unclear when the
   messages were sent, but at one point Cunningham says he's "nervous
   about the next 100 days," which could be a reference to the Senate
   election. One hundred days before the election would be July 26.

   An email trying to reach Guzman Todd at the California-based
   communications firm that lists her as an employee and voice messages
   left with what public records indicate are her phone numbers weren't
   returned Saturday. Public records show she had a Raleigh residence
   briefly until 2015. Guzman Todd is married to someone who has served in
   the U.S. Army, according to the NationalFile.com report.

   Cunningham, 47, is an attorney and Iraq War veteran who still serves as
   an officer in the U.S. Army Reserve. He served one term in the state
   Senate in the early 2000s and lost a Democratic primary runoff for U.S.
   Senate in 2010.

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