ICYMI: NEW CLUB FOR GROWTH ACTION OLYMPICS AD EXPOSES MCCRORY’S HANDOUTS TO CHINA
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Washington, D.C. – In case you missed it, Club for Growth Action launched a new TV ad, “Fool,” exposing failed former North Carolina Governor and current Senate candidate Pat McCrory’s subsidies to Communist China. Brian Murphy wrote an exclusive report on the new ad in The Raleigh News & Observer.
The $60,000 ad buy will air on NBC primetime during the Olympics beginning Thursday in the Raleigh, Charlotte, and Greensboro media markets.
Club for Growth PAC endorsed Ted Budd for Senate back in April.
EXCERPTS
Group backing Ted Budd for Senate calls Pat McCrory ‘fool’ in Olympics-themed ad
By Brian Murphy; The Raleigh News & Observer, 7/28/21
North Carolina’s 2022 primary election is more than eight months away, but the negative ads are starting this week — with an Olympic-themed attack on former Gov. Pat McCrory to air on NBC during one of the Games’ signature events.
A group backing Rep. Ted Budd is behind the ad that takes aim at McCrory, the early leader in polling and fundraising in the Republican field, for awarding $1.7 million in taxpayer subsidies to a Chinese-owned company while he was North Carolina’s governor from 2013 to 2017.
“Who took home the honors when Pat McCrory was governor?” asks the ad, which features Olympic imagery throughout. “China. And you paid for the medal.”
Club For Growth Action is running the ad in the Raleigh, Charlotte and Greensboro markets during Thursday night’s primetime Olympics coverage on NBC affiliates. The high-profile women’s gymnastics all-around finals will be televised during the coverage, though gold medal favorite Simone Biles of the United States will not be competing.
The group is spending $60,000 on the ad, a relatively small amount in what promises to be an expensive campaign. It will only run Thursday. Club For Growth Action announced in June that it had raised $5.125 million to support Budd’s candidacy for Senate and said it planned to raise and spend even more.
McCrory, Budd and former U.S. Rep. Mark Walker are the highest-profile candidates in the GOP primary to replace retiring Republican Sen. Richard Burr. The primary election is scheduled for March 8.
“China made a fool of Pat McCrory, and we’d be foolish to make him senator,” is how the ad ends.
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China and its ruling communist party has become a target for politicians, particularly Republicans, for a host of issues, including theft of American technology, cyberattacks and its rising economic and military might. The emergence of the coronavirus from China as well as the nation’s horrific treatment, including possible genocide, of Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities.
China has become an issue in previous races and in the Senate. In the 2020 U.S. Senate race in North Carolina, Republican Thom TIllis released an 18-point plan to hold China accountable for its role in the global pandemic. The Senate passed a $250-billion bill earlier this year aimed at combating China and increasing American competitiveness with the Asian nation.
In October, 73% of Americans held a negative view of China, according to polling by Pew Research Center. And the majority of Republicans, particularly conservative Republicans, consider China not just a “competitor” but an “enemy,” according to an April poll from Pew.