NC-SEN: Tillis fights to close gap in critical Senate battleground
BOLIVIA, N.C. — Thom Tillis has struggled to mollify conservatives in North Carolina since joining the Senate six years ago. But standing onstage and addressing volunteers in a county Republican headquarters here this week, he had a message for any base voters still wary of him: You may not love me, but I guarantee you'd hate Chuck Schumer running the Senate.
“Set aside your differences on any minor issue,” Tillis said to the crowd of nearly four-dozen Republicans. “Is there anyone in this room who thinks there's any good scenario where Chuck Schumer gets the gavel? Any? Is there any scenario where it makes sense for President Trump not to get reelected? None. So what we have to do is come together.”
Tillis had just returned from an official event with Trump in nearby Wilmington, where hundreds of Trump supporters braved scorching heat and no shade to see Air Force One touch down at the local airport and hear briefly from the president before he went to a battleship to dedicate the city as an “American World War II Heritage City.”
The first-term senator made his in-person appeal hours later to a crowd seated in folding chairs set up a few feet apart inside the local headquarters, with most but not all attendees wearing masks — including Tillis, who took his off before speaking. The pitch came at an urgent moment in the race: Voting is underway after more than 533,000 absentee ballots were sent to voters on Friday — with Democrats holding an enormous edge in the number of requests so far — and the first debate between the candidates a week from Monday.
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/09/05/thom-tillis-cal-cunningham-north-carolina-senate-race-409305