From rivals to friends: Tillis, Cunningham to talk about across-the-aisle friendship
North Carolina politics is rarely dull, and one thing you can count on is being surprised.
Did you know that U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis and Cal Cunningham are friends now? Seriously.
On Thursday evening, they will appear together at a “fireside chat” at UNC.
A hybrid event, you can watch in person at the Nelson Mandela Auditorium of the FedEx Global Education Center, 301 Pittsboro St. in Chapel Hill. You can also watch it online via Zoom after registering at this link. Register at the same link if you plan to go in person.
Tillis is a Republican who served as state House Speaker before winning a seat in the U.S. Senate in 2014. In 2020, he was challenged by Democrat Cunningham, who lost.
Their event together defies a trend of divisive rhetoric ratcheting up in the post-Trump era.
Thursday evening’s event starts at 5:30 p.m. It is called the “Abbey Speaker Series: Conversation with Cal Cunningham and Senator Thom Tillis,” and described as a conversation between them about “how to build and maintain friendships across the political divide.”
The discussion is co-sponsored by the UNC Institute of Politics and will be moderated by Sarah Treul Roberts, an associate professor of political science and faculty director of UNC’s Program for Public Discourse.
Cunningham is a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army Reserve and served in the state Senate. His campaign to unseat Tillis received national attention, not just because North Carolina is a swing state, but because of drama ahead of the election.
And no, we’re not talking about all the jokes about Cunningham’s egregious barbecue error. (Here in the Old North State, barbecue is a food. Not an activity. In other parts of the country, people who grill out or cook out call it “barbecuing.” That’s not how it works here, but Cunningham shared a social media post about “BBQ” with a photo of him at a grill that clearly did not contain barbecue.)
The actual drama came later. In a single campaign season weekend, Tillis announced he had COVID-19, back when that was news. Hours later, Cunningham confirmed that he had exchanged sexual texts with a woman who was not his wife.
But all that was more than two years ago, and now Cunningham and Tillis will share with the public how they’ve become friends.
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