A few weeks ago, PPP said "Richard Burr's the most vulnerable Republican Senator that no one's talking about," because he's in a statistical dead heat with Democratic challenger Deborah Ross. Well, people are talking about it now. This race just broke into National Journal's top ten (subscription) Senate races, at number eight.
This race didn’t even make our top 10 list last time, largely because former state Rep. Deborah Ross was not considered a first- or even second-tier recruit. Since then, Ross has impressed party leaders with a strong campaign, outraising Burr in the first quarter. That gives Democrats some hope that she could repeat the success of another little-known state senator from 2008, Kay Hagan. Clinton and her allies have made the state a top priority in her presidential road map—campaigning there alongside President Obama for the first time Tuesday in Charlotte—forcing both parties to take the down-ballot contests more seriously.
There's no question Ross benefited from being included in the huge Charlotte rally featuring Clinton and Obama. She took to the main stage in front of the crowd of thousands and declared, “North Carolina is on the map and we are going to be blue in November. […] We are going to keep the White House. We are going to take back the governor's mansion and we're going to take back the U.S. Senate, starting right here."
Beating an incumbent who isn't embroiled in scandal is always an uphill battle. But 2016 isn't just any year and Burr has a lot to work against—namely his own participation in the Supreme Court blockade, and being on the same ticket with Donald Trump. This could easily be the year North Carolina goes blue, and Deborah Ross goes to the Senate.
Please spend $3 to help Deborah Ross get to the Senate.