Race for 2022 NC United States Senate seat heats up
The race for North Carolina's 2022 United States Senate seat continues to heat up as more and more candidates focus on fundraising and at least one is already on television.
There is a lot riding on the 2022 U.S. North Carolina Senate race for these candidates – it very well could be the race that tips the balance of which party controls the Senate after 2022.
The race for Sen. Richard Burr’s seat is already heated up as major players like Democrats Jeff Jackson, Cheri Beasley and Republicans Pat McCrory Mark Walker and Rep. Ted Budd push to be the next U.S. senator.
“We might say 'oh, the November 2022 seems so far off' but of course the campaigns and the ads that you see now aren’t necessarily geared towards winning the general election in November they are geared toward winning the primary election that is trying to become the key Republican that goes forward or the key Democrat,” said John Dinan, a professor of politics at Wake Forest University.
Candidates are continuing to fundraise and push for money. Many of them are also traveling around the state and are running ads on social media. At least one, Rep. Ted Budd is already running an ad on television after former President Donald Trump endorsed him.
“Ted Budd does not have the same recognition around the state as Pat McCrory does but he does have a very important endorsement and so one of the key efforts of the Budd campaign is to let people around the state know that he is Donald Trump's favorite candidate,” Dinan said.
And whether you are a Democrat or Republican Dinan said right now a lot of advertising money, especially on the Republican side, is being devoted almost entirely toward winning the Republican nomination.
“You have three candidates who all see that they have a potential path to winning the nomination they cannot even start looking ahead to the general election until they first have to win the nomination so there are going to be some pretty big battles among republicans and among democrats,” he said.
Dinan said it’s gonna be one of five or six races that could determine whether or not Republicans take over the majority of the Senate after 2022. But he also said it’s too early to make predictions about the primaries.
"It is not too early to be advertising but it is too early to start making a forecast about who is going to emerge from these respective primary races,” he said.
Dinan said he believes there is also going to be a lot of national and local interest in this race and a lot of funds will be coming from national groups to try and influence the outcome of the 2022 North Carolina Senate election.