Clyburn, Stabenow to campaign for Beasley in North Carolina Senate race

Two Washington heavyweights are set to campaign with North Carolina Democratic Senate hopeful Cheri Beasley, lending the former state Supreme Court justice a bit of star power in the closing weeks of her campaign.

Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.) will make three stops with Beasley on Wednesday, while Rep. James Clyburn (D-S.C.), the highest-ranking Black member of Congress, will join them for their second event of the day, Beasley’s campaign announced.

The race between Beasley and Budd has been a dead heat for months, with polling averages showing the two candidates separated by only a couple percentage points. Beasley has also outpaced Budd in the money race, raking in some $29.1 million for her campaign to Budd’s $11 million.

Still, Democrats have been outgunned in the race by Republican groups, who have pumped tens of millions of dollars into ads boosting Budd.

In an effort to narrow the spending gap, Senate Majority PAC, a super PAC aligned with Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.), announced last week that it was putting an additional $8 million in spending into the race after dropping $15 million earlier this year.

The race in North Carolina will determine who will replace retiring Sen. Richard Burr (R) at a time when the Senate majority is up for grabs. But while North Carolina remains a near evenly divided state politically, it’s also handed Democrats a series of close defeats when it comes to the Senate.

The last Democrat to win one of North Carolina’s two Senate seats was former Sen. Kay Hagan (D), who was ousted in 2014 by Sen. Thom Tillis (R). Tillis dealt a blow to Democrats two years ago when he defeated Cal Cunningham in a hotly contested race.