CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Democrats are launching a new attack ad in the battle for North Carolina's U.S. Senate seat as campaign season heats up ahead of November's midterm elections.
Polls show the race between Democrat Cheri Beasley and U.S. Rep. Ted Budd is neck and neck. Now, the campaign will turn to abortion rights with a Democratic super PAC is launching a new TV ad that targets Budd's stance on abortion.
A super PAC is a political action committee that can take unlimited contributions from wealthy donors, but they may not coordinate with campaigns. Super PACs, unlike a standard political action committee, are allowed to raise and spend unlimited amounts of money, including from corporations and unions, to campaign independently for candidates for federal office.
"Budd wants abortion outlawed, with no exceptions for rape or incest," the ad states.
The ad targets Budd's comments earlier in his campaign that suggested he would not support such exceptions to abortion bans, NBC News reported.
“It’s a tragedy when somebody finds themself there, and I want to say, ‘Why would you want to add a second tragedy to an already very tough situation?’” Budd told Nexstar Media Group. “I don’t condemn anybody that’s ever been through that, but I want to say let’s not add more tragedy to a very tough situation.”
The new ad comes with recent polling showing a majority of Americans (61%) saying abortion will be extremely important to their vote in November. But the issue at the top of most voters' minds is still the economy.
Budd is trying to tie Beasley to Democrats at the federal level.
"Joe Biden, Cheri Beasley and the radical leftists who pull their strings are making America woke and broke," Budd's latest ad states.
Beasley's going a different route with a second new ad that was released Tuesday. She's backing a plan to ban congressional stock trading. That's a hot topic in the Tar Heel State after Sen. Richard Burr, who is retiring, faced accusations of insider trading before the COVID-19 pandemic.
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