Democratic Senate candidate Cal Cunningham backs out of town hall after second cheating allegation

Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Cal Cunningham withdrew from a town hall before North Carolina voters Monday, after a second cheating allegation emerged days after he admitted to sexting a woman who is not his wife.

Cunningham, who is married with two children, is challenging incumbent Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.).

What are the details?

On Friday, Cunningham apologized after his campaign confirmed reports that he had exchanged texts of a sexual nature with a public relations strategist who is also married.

TheBlaze reported:

Cunningham said he won't drop out of the Senate race following the sexting scandal. According to seven different polls, Cunningham leads his opponent, Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), by between 4 to 10 points heading into the election.

Then on Monday, National File — the publication that first broke the sexting scandal — reported that former Cunningham advocate and attorney Erin Brinkman said on Facebook of the Democrat, "He's been having an affair with a good friend of mine since 2012. Not the woman mentioned in the story. Needless to say, my friend was devastated. But my feeling is, if they'll cheat WITH you, they'll cheat ON you!"

Brinkman added a quote from the late President John F. Kennedy, "Let us not seek the Republican answer or the Democratic answer, but the right answer."

After the story broke about the second accusation of unfaithfulness, Cunningham backed out of a town hall hosted by WUNC-FM that had been slated for the same day.

WUNC capitol bureau chief Jeff Tiberii tweeted, "A U.S. Senate town hall scheduled for Monday afternoon is off. Unfortunately @CalforNC has backed out. Organizers will try to reschedule."

Tiberii appeared not to have heard the latest allegations at the time. He continued, "I'm disappointed for the organizers who worked hard to put this together; also that we will not hear from Cunningham about sexually suggestive texts he sent to a woman (not his wife, nor mother of his children). Fascinated to see when he publicly addresses this."

Cunningham's opponent, Tillis, was one of three Republican senators to test positive for the coronavirus over the weekend, and is currently in quarantine.

Tiberii clarified that fears of contracting the virus had nothing to do with Cunningham ditching the town hall on short notice, writing, "One important addendum (because twitter being twitter): This was a virtual event that Tillis had declined an invitation to. So, the threat of COVID (while reasonable upon first blush) is not a factor in Cunningham canceling."