A Pivotal Senate Race in North Carolina

The Daily

The New York Times

Daily News, News

4.4 • 102.8K Ratings

🗓️ 20 October 2020

⏱️ 27 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In the struggle to control the U.S. Senate, one race in North Carolina — where the Republican incumbent, Thom Tillis, is trying to hold off his Democratic challenger, Cal Cunningham — could be crucial. North Carolina is a classic purple state with a split political mind: progressive in some quarters, while firmly steeped in Southern conservative tradition in others. Two bombshells have recently upended the race: Mr. Tillis fell ill with the coronavirus after attending an event for Judge Amy Coney Barrett’s Supreme Court nomination without a mask. And Mr. Cunningham’s image was sullied by the emergence of text messages showing that he had engaged in an extramarital affair. Jonathan Martin, a national political correspondent for The Times, talks us through the race and examines the factors that could determine who prevails. Guest: Jonathan Martin, a national political correspondent for The New York Times. For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily Background reading: North Carolina is a linchpin in the 2020 election — the presidency and the Senate could hinge on results in the state.Here’s how the critical senate race was engulfed in chaos in a single night.

Transcript

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0:00.0	From the New York Times, I'm Michael Babaro. This is Daily.
0:10.0	Today.
0:12.0	In the battle for control of the Senate, it was the race with the highest stakes.
0:18.0	Now, it's become the race with the highest drama.
0:21.0	My colleague Jonathan Martin reports from North Carolina.
0:32.0	It's Tuesday, October 20th.
0:38.0	Jonathan, we spent a lot of time, I think, understandably talking about the presidential race,
0:42.0	but a handful of Senate races are happening on November 3rd as well.
0:47.0	And that's what we want to talk to you about. So give us the lay of the land when it comes to these races.
0:53.0	Well, the Republicans currently have a three seat majority.
0:56.0	So Democrats, if Biden does win, we'll have to net three seats to get a tie in which Kamala Harris, then the vice president, could break the tie.
1:06.0	So that's what Democrats need, three seats.
1:08.0	Now, get a little more complicated because there is one Democratic seat that the Republicans are widely expected to pick up.
1:15.0	And that's Doug Jones, who, of course, won 2017 beat Roy Moore in that special election.
1:20.0	Well, Doug Jones is facing a difficult re-election and a deep red state this year.
1:25.0	And so both parties are skeptical that he can hold on.
1:28.0	So if he does lose, that would mean that Democrats have to net four seats.
1:32.0	So that's where we start.
1:36.0	We're really focused on the presidential race, obviously, for November 3rd.
1:39.0	But the other thing we're looking at, control of the U.S. Senate, Republicans could go on.
1:43.0	The most competitive races, some of them we weren't expecting to be that tight and clueless.
1:48.0	Are the following.
	...

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