Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) predicted Lara Trump will benefit from his second acquittal in an impeachment trial this weekend, The Hill reports.

Said Graham: “The biggest winner of this whole impeachment trial is Lara Trump. My dear friend Richard Burr, who I like and have been friends to a long time, just made Lara Trump almost the certain nominee for the Senate seat in North Carolina to replace him if she runs, and I certainly will be behind her because she represents the future of the Republican Party.”

Freshman Rep. Madison Cawthorn (R-NC), who has served just over a month in Congress, is already jumping into the N.C. Senate primary race to endorse Mark Walker (R), Politico reports.

“The endorsement announcement comes as former North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory is strongly weighing his own Senate bid, which would make him a strong competitor for a seat that is a must-win for the GOP.”

“The 2022 US Senate race in North Carolina could provide an early test of whether the Republican Party will continue to embrace President Donald Trump after his loss, potentially featuring Lara Trump, the President’s daughter-in-law, against a field of current and former Republican officials unwilling to step aside,” Politico reports.

“Her public interest in the seat has not scared off a number of Senate Republican aspirants, who are driven in part by the alluring prospect of running for an open seat in the first midterm election of a Democratic president, which usually favors the opposing party.”

Rep. Mark Walker (R-NC) announce he’ll run for the Senate in a race that may end up becoming the most hotly contested and expensive Senate battle in the 2022 midterm elections, Fox News reports.

“Walker is the first candidate to launch a campaign in the race to succeed retiring three-term Republican Sen. Richard Burr. But it’s doubtful he’ll be the only Republican to declare his or her candidacy. The president’s daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, is mulling a bid for the Senate in the state where she was born and raised.”

White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, who represented far-western North Carolina in the U.S House, said Friday he would not run for U.S. Senate in 2022, the Raleigh News and Observer reports.

Said Meadows: “I love the people of North Carolina. But I not only have no plans, I have no intentions to run for the Senate in 2022.”

He added: “I’ve had a number of people talk about running for that seat, if indeed Sen. Burr retires. My conversations have included some of the sitting House members as well as Lara Trump, and, to my knowledge, no one’s made a definitive decision on whether to toss their hat in the ring or not. But in terms of my hat, it won’t be in the ring.”

“Lara Trump, the president’s daughter-in-law who emerged during the 2020 presidential campaign as a defender of President Trump’s basest political instincts, is now eyeing a political future of her own in her home state of North Carolina,” the New York Times reports.

“Ms. Trump has been telling associates she is considering a run for Senate in 2022, in what is expected to be a competitive race for the first open Senate seat in a very swingy swing state in a generation. Sen. Richard Burr, an unobtrusive Republican legislator who was thrust into the spotlight as chairman of a committee investigating the president’s ties to Russia, has said he will retire at the end of his term.”

A new SurveyUSA poll in North Carolina finds Cal Cunningham (D) leading Sen. Thom Tillis (R) in the U.S. Senate race by 10 points, 49% to 39%.

Cunningham was up by seven points in the September poll.

“The husband of the woman who confirmed an extramarital affair with Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Cal Cunningham said he should drop out of the North Carolina race,” the Raleigh News & Observer reports.

Said Jeremy Todd: “Mr. Cunningham chose to repeatedly engage in activities that would hurt his family and a fellow junior officer and veteran… I firmly believe Mr. Cunningham should drop out of the Senate race and ask that his behavior and actions be reviewed under the Uniform Code of Military Justice.”

The Associated Press obtained new text messages between Arlene Guzman Todd and a friend, describing how she was intimate with married North Carolina Senate candidate Cal Cunningham (D).

In the text messages to her friend, Guzman Todd told her she was intimate with Cunningham in his home, which she characterized as “weird.”

In another exchange, Guzman Todd indicated that she was frustrated by the limited attention that he showed her: “I’m just going to send to his opponent his naked photos. That will teach him.”

A new Reuters/Ipsos poll in North Carolina finds Cal Cunningham (D) leading Sen. Thom Tillis (R) in the U.S. Senate race, 47% to 42%.

Cunningham last week issued a public apology after sending sexually themed text messages to a woman who is not his wife.

A new Public Policy Polling survey finds Cal Cunningham (D) leading Sen. Thom Tillis (R) in North Carolina’s U.S. Senate race, 48% to 42%.

The news that Cunningham was sending sexually explicit texts to a woman who was not his wife is having somewhat of an impact on Cunningham’s favorability rating, with 37% saying they have a positive opinion of him to 39% with a negative one. But that -2 net favorability rating is still 21 points better than Tillis’ — he’s at -23 with 31% of voters having a favorable opinion of him to 54% with an unfavorable one.

North Carolina Senate candidate Cal Cunningham (D) “admitted to sending intimate text messages to a woman who is not his wife — but said he would not drop out of one of the key races that will determine which party controls the Senate next year,” Politico reports.

“Cunningham sent several text messages to a woman in which the two discussed kissing and hypothetically spending the night together.”

A new Monmouth poll in North Carolina finds Joe Biden just ahead of Donald Trump in the presidential race, 47% to 45%.

“Under a likely voter scenario with a somewhat higher level of turnout than 2016, Biden stands at 48% support and Trump is at 46%. The results are an identical 48% to 46% when using a likely voter model with lower turnout. Each of the last three presidential elections were decided by fewer than four percentage points in North Carolina.”

In the U.S. Senate race, Cal Cunningham (D) edges Sen. Thom Tillis (R), 46% to 45%.

Said pollster Patrick Murray: “North Carolina has been in play for each of the last three presidential elections and it is going to be that way again this year, especially with a pivotal Senate race sharing the ballot.”

A new Public Policy Polling survey in North Carolina finds Cal Cunningham (D) leading Sen. Thom Tillis (R) in the U.S. Senate race, 48% to 40%.

A new Cardinal Point Analytics poll in North Carolina finds Cal Cunningham (D) leading Sen. Thom Tillis (R) by three points, 47% to 44%.

In the presidential race, Donald Trump edges Joe Biden by one point, 49% to 48%.

Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC) suggested Hispanics are less likely to wear masks and social distance amid the coronavirus pandemic, CNN reports.

Said Tillis, who is up for reelection this year, was caught on audio: “Just wear the mask out of respect. Now I will tell you I’m not a scientist and I’m not a statistician, but one of the concerns that we’ve had more recently is that the Hispanic population now constitutes about 44% of the positive cases, and we do have some concerns that in the Hispanic population we’ve seen less consistent adherence to social distancing and wearing a mask.”

“The stakes are very high this election, but you know why I know we’re going to win? Because people remember how good their lives were back in February.”

— Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC), speaking at the virtual North Carolina Republican convention.