SLF plans seven-figure spend to defend Sen. Roger Marshall in Kansas

WASHINGTON — A super PAC aligned with Senate Majority Leader John Thune is pausing its advertising in North Carolina’s Senate race and redirecting its resources to defend Sen. Roger Marshall (R., Kan.) in deep-red Kansas, according to people familiar with the matter.

The Senate Leadership Fund’s decision frees as much as $19 million the group had set aside for October through Election Day in North Carolina, based on data from AdImpact. The North Carolina race had been the super PAC’s second-biggest recipient of advertising money this cycle, behind only Ohio.

The shift comes as Republican nominee Michael Whatley has trailed former Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper, a popular former governor, in opinion polls, raising Democratic hopes of flipping the open seat that retiring Sen. Thom Tillis (R., N.C.) is vacating.

At the same time, SLF is planning to spend seven figures to support Marshall in a state President Trump won by 16 percentage points in 2024, one of the people said. The fund recently increased its spending in Ohio and Iowa as well.

“We feel confident we have the resources to highlight Career Politician Roy Cooper’s 40 years of failures and win in November,” said DJ Griffin, a spokesman for the Whatley campaign.

Cooper’s campaign manager Jeff Allen pushed back in a statement: “We’re building a campaign to earn every vote and make sure North Carolinians know that Roy Cooper will fight for them, while Michael Whatley will continue to enrich himself at their expense.”

The Marshall campaign did not respond to a request for comment.

The Senate Leadership Fund has raised more than $600 million this cycle and spent more than $30 million on advertising in North Carolina, based on AdImpact data. Overall, the group has spent roughly $300 million in advertising through September, according to the data.

“I think the writing has been on the wall for a while in North Carolina, but the fact that they have to shift this to Kansas when there’s already other states like Maine and Ohio and Iowa as well, just tells us far the map has shifted in the last few months,” said Jessica Taylor, who tracks Senate races for the nonpartisan Cook Political Report.

The shift in spending was reported earlier by Semafor.

Senate Republicans have long prided themselves on their outsize financial resources in keeping control of the chamber, where they currently hold a 53-47 edge. Democrats need a net four seats to claim the majority, and Republicans are eyeing possible flips in Michigan and New Hampshire.

Some Republicans say their party simply has to be hard-nosed about where to spend.

“You’ve gotta go where you can win,” Tillis said earlier this week. “We shouldn’t be spending any money on sure winners or sure losers.”