For much of the 2022 campaign, the race between Cheri Beasley, a Democratic former chief justice of the State Supreme Court, and Representative Ted Budd, a three-term Republican congressman, has been a sleepy one.
The two contenders are polished and low key. They don’t tend to use incendiary rhetoric.
But with the polls showing them in a dead heat, Mr. Budd and Ms. Beasley on Friday turned up the volume in their first (and likely only) debate: Mr. Budd tried to make the race a referendum on President Biden, while Ms. Beasley sought to cast it as chance to vote against election denialism and extremism.
The race has flown below the radar nationally compared to other electoral contests considered key to control of the Senate, likely because Democrats have not won a statewide federal contest in North Carolina since 2008. But in an evenly divided state, where the numbers of young and Latino voters have been growing and retirees have been flocking to the coasts, both candidates have strong paths to victory.
Ms. Beasley and Mr. Budd did not appear to cover new ground that could potentially sway new voters to their side, but they were quick with talking points and jabs. They also seemed to effectively convey the messages they needed to turn out their own party’s voters, though, there were no obvious needle-moving moments.
Keeping Biden and Trump at an arm’s length.
Both Ms. Beasley and Mr. Budd tried to distance themselves from the presidents so closely linked to their fates: Ms. Beasley from President Biden and Mr. Budd from former President Donald J. Trump.
Ms. Beasley said she would welcome President Biden to the state, though she avoided saying whether she wanted the president to campaign with her.
She sidestepped questions about whether she would have voted for all the stimulus and spending packages proposed by the Biden administration, instead speaking of the pain North Carolinians felt because of the pandemic and acknowledging that federal aid had brought many relief.
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When asked whether Mr. Biden shared some blame for inflation levels, Ms. Beasley said, “I certainly believe that the president and Congress could work a whole lot harder to make sure that prices are being lowered.” Then she worked in a shot at her opponent: “Congressman Budd has been there for six years, and so he’s partly to blame.”
Mr. Budd, who clinched the Republican nomination with the endorsement of Mr. Trump, at times echoed the rhetoric on policing, foreign policy and social issues that have animated Mr. Trump’s base.
“I am honored to have President Trump’s endorsement,” he said, but he tried to qualify Mr. Trump’s backing as recognition for Mr. Budd’s contributions to the state’s economic wins.
He mostly kept in line with his general election strategy, portraying himself as a generic Republican campaigning against President Biden’s policies, which he argued were leading the country down the wrong path. He sought repeatedly to cast Ms. Beasley as “an absolute rubber stamp” for those policies.
Abortion is a flash point.
Mr. Budd came out swinging on abortion, calling himself a protector of “unborn lives” and criticizing Ms. Beasley as “extreme” for her support of the Women’s Health Protection Act, which he called one of the most “radical” in legislative history. The legislation, which passed the House, is intended to enshrine abortion rights into federal law.
He also dodged a question about whether he would approve a 15-week ban on abortion with no exceptions to protect the life of the mother. “I just want to save unborn lives,” he said. “I want to protect lives.”
Ms. Beasley defended herself against his attacks on the issue, saying she supported codifying the framework of Roe v. Wade, which would protect a woman’s right to abortion. She also argued that Mr. Budd wanted to stand between a woman and her doctor.
“Congressman Budd has been very clear and has said he supports and is leading the charge on an absolute ban on abortion without exceptions for rape, incest or risk to a mother’s health,” she said, adding that under those conditions “women will die.” Mr. Budd did not deny the charge, as he again sought to portray Ms. Beasley as the extreme one on the issue.
Accepting the election results.
In a recent interview with The New York Times, Mr. Budd declined to say whether he would uphold the 2022 results. On the debate stage, he repeated comments he gave days after the interview. “Why wouldn’t I?” he asked.
But Ms. Beasley sharply attacked Mr. Budd as an election denialist, quoting him as having said the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol was “patriots standing up” and pointing to his vote against certifying the 2020 election. “He continues to spread the big lie,” she says.
Crime and immigration remain in focus.
Ms. Beasley was pushed into uncomfortable terrain for Democrats as the questions turned to crime, immigration and security at the nation’s southwestern border. Mr. Budd, who owns a gun store, waged a familiar attack, accusing her of wanting to “defund the police.”
Ms. Beasley pushed back, saying she wanted to “fund the police.” She also sought to thread the needle between calls for securing the border and arguing in favor of visas for farmworkers and protections for young undocumented students and workers known as Dreamers. “We need immigration reform and the border needs to be fixed and we absolutely need to secure the border,” she said.
Asked about guns, Mr. Budd returned to the border, echoing a familiar Republican refrain. He said that sheriffs have told him, “every single county is North Carolina is now a border county because of Biden’s policies,” referring to the idea that drugs, cartel members and guns that cross the border make their way to the state.
At another point, Mr. Budd was asked if he was “in favor of the Trump wall.”
“I don’t care what you call it, but I am in support of a wall,” he said. “It’s not the whole solution, but it’s a large part.”
