The Associated Press has declared that no candidate has reached the 40% threshold required to win the Democratic Senate primary in North Carolina. That means that the top two winners, secretary of state Elaine Marshall and Iraq War vet Cal Cunningham, will face voters again on June 22.
Elaine Marshall, who lost her bid for the nomination in 2002, received the most votes, though not enough to win the nomination outright. Cunningham, who had the support of national Democrats, fared more poorly in the contest than his supporters might have hoped, according to early returns. Attorney Ken Lewis, who had the support of many of the state’s most prominent African American leaders, failed to break 20% by the time the AP called the race.
Democrats have hoped that incumbent Sen. Richard Burr’s (R) relatively low approval ratings gives them the chance to defeat the first-term Senator in the first election since President Obama won North Carolina in 2008.
But rather than shift their focus to Burr, Democrats must prepare for several more weeks of campaigning before they finally choose a nominee. The runoff will pit Marshall — who was the first woman to win statewide office in North Carolina and carries the support of the progressive group Democracy For America — against Cunningham, who national Democrats hope can win over independents with his personal story.
Polling data suggests Marshall might carry her lead into the runoff. The North Carolina-based firm PPP (D) reported Marshall led a potential runoff with Cunningham by a margin of 43-32 in a poll taken May 2.
Regardless of the outcome, though, most experts say that Democrats have an uphill climb to defeat Burr. The extra month he gets to campaign on his own while the Democrats slug it out probably won’t help the party’s chances for an upset.
