North Carolina Secretary of State Elaine Marshall has won the Democratic primary runoff for Senate, defeating the national Democratic Party’s favored candidate Cal Cunningham in the race to go up against incumbent Republican Sen. Richard Burr.
With 49% of precincts reporting, Marshall leads by 61%-39%. In the first-round primary back on May 4, Marshall led with 36%, short of the 40% needed to avoid a runoff, with Cunningham in second with 27%. Looking ahead to the general election, the TPM Poll Average gives Burr a lead over Marshall of 47.6%-38.2% — which was actually quite similar to his 47.1%-36.0% lead over Cunningham
So does this result represent a rejection of the party establishment? Not exactly. A Public Policy Polling (D) survey from mid-May found that both Marshall’s and Cunningham’s supporters thought that their candidate was the establishment’s choice — likely projecting their own opinions onto the party as a whole. Another way to look at it is that Marshall, who was first elected to statewide office in 1996 and unsuccessfully sought the Senate nomination in 2002, had been around long enough and earned her turn with the party’s base, without committing any disqualifying sins.
