Candidates around the state made their initial pitches to voters as filing began for the 2020 races. Democrat Cal Cunningham appeared in Lexington to announce his long-anticipated bid for U.S. Senate.
Cunningham made multiple stops across North Carolina including one at the Barbecue Center restaurant in his hometown where he talked about representing a state that has featured close races in recent years.
“I want to make sure I'm a voice for a state that is an evenly divided state, and that's gonna take extra work and a lot of listening,” he says.
Democrats see a good chance to flip the seat. A recent poll from High Point University found incumbent Republican Thom Tillis with just a 31 percent approval rating statewide, but Tillis got some good news when prospective primary challenger Garland Tucker decided not to enter the race.
Cunningham's entry in the race is not a surprise; he's been campaigning for months. He's a former state senator and a veteran of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
This is Cunningham's second run for the U.S. Senate. He lost in a runoff to Elaine Marshall in the 2010 Democratic primary.