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{"id":27416,"date":"2026-10-05T22:19:43","date_gmt":"2026-10-05T22:19:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/democrats-pull-back-some-north-carolina-senate-spending-after-gops-retreat\/"},"modified":"2026-10-05T22:19:43","modified_gmt":"2026-10-05T22:19:43","slug":"democrats-pull-back-some-north-carolina-senate-spending-after-gops-retreat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/democrats-pull-back-some-north-carolina-senate-spending-after-gops-retreat\/","title":{"rendered":"Democrats pull back some North Carolina Senate spending after GOP\u2019s retreat"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>Democrats have pulled back some of their ads in North Carolina\u2019s Senate race, days after the top Senate Republican super PAC <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2026\/10\/02\/republicans-slf-scale-back-north-carolina-senate-spending-01104964\" target=\"_blank\">paused its future spending<\/a> in the state.<\/p>\n<p>WinSenate, a group affiliated with the Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer-aligned Senate Majority PAC, has removed roughly $1.1 million in North Carolina ad buys this week, according to ad <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/AdImpact_Pol\/status\/2107200695183282418\" target=\"_blank\">tracking firm AdImpact<\/a>. The group still has roughly $18.8 million in future reservations through Election Day.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSenate Majority PAC is committed to seeing this race through to victory, and will continue to make spending decisions based on how to best build a strong Senate majority,\u201d Senate Majority PAC spokesperson Lauren French said in a statement.<\/p>\n<p>The move, combined with the GOP-aligned Senate Leadership Fund\u2019s decision to pause future spending, are a signal that both parties are shifting resources amid an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2026\/09\/22\/republicans-senate-house-map-midterm-fears-01086866\" target=\"_blank\">ever-expanding Senate map<\/a>. Democrats are increasingly confident in their North Carolina Senate nominee, Roy Cooper, as he continues to hold <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/interactive\/polls\/north-carolina-us-senate-election-polls-2026.html\" target=\"_blank\">a sizable lead<\/a> in public polling over Republican Michael Whatley \u2014 but some privately say <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2026\/09\/24\/democrats-midterms-money-worries-disagreements-01090770\" target=\"_blank\">states like Michigan and New Hampshire<\/a> need more resources.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, multiple Republican groups, not just SLF, have retreated from the state in recent weeks, effectively deciding that it\u2019s no longer worth the money to boost Whatley\u2019s campaign.<\/p>\n<p>The Koch-aligned Americans for Prosperity Action left North Carolina off its $22 million list of future spending across key Senate contests, and Old North Action <a href=\"https:\/\/www.semafor.com\/article\/09\/21\/2026\/republican-group-slashes-ad-spending-in-nc-senate-race\" target=\"_blank\">removed $6.5 million in ad reservations<\/a> last month.<\/p>\n<p>The Cooper campaign, however, is still treating the race as competitive, pointing to North Carolina\u2019s closely divided electorate and the fact that President Donald Trump won the state in each of the past three presidential elections.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNorth Carolina is a truly 50\/50 state and Democrats haven\u2019t won a US Senate race in 18 years. We can\u2019t take anything for granted or our eye off the ball,\u201d said Morgan Jackson, a senior adviser to the Cooper campaign. \u201cDC is broken and we\u2019re going to continue to run this race like we\u2019re ten points down to ensure North Carolinians get the change they desperately need.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Democrats have pulled back some of their ads in North Carolina\u2019s Senate race, days after the top Senate Republican super PAC paused its future spending in the state. WinSenate, a group affiliated with the Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer-aligned Senate Majority PAC, has removed roughly $1.1 million in North Carolina ad buys this week, according [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27416","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-congress"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27416","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27416"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27416\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}