CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The largest super PAC that supports Republican Senate candidates will say in a filing with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) late Thursday it spent millions of dollars to boost a liberal Democratic candidate running for the right to face Sen. Thom TillisThomas (Thom) Roland TillisKoch-backed group launches ad campaign to support four vulnerable GOP senators The Hill’s Campaign Report: It’s primary night in Georgia Tillis unveils new 0,000 ad in North Carolina Senate race MORE (R-N.C.) in November. The Senate Leadership Fund, the super PAC run by close allies of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnellAddison (Mitch) Mitchell McConnellSenate advances public lands bill in late-night vote GOP senator to try to reverse requirement that Pentagon remove Confederate names from bases No, ‘blue states’ do not bail out ‘red states’ MORE (R-Ky.), will reveal in the FEC filings that it was behind a secretive new group created earlier this month that has spent millions on television advertising ahead of the March 3 Democratic primary, The Hill has learned. Those advertisements touted state Sen. Erica Smith (D), a candidate who has raised about $210,000 for her campaign. Smith is the more liberal candidate in the field, openly embracing “Medicare for All” and the Green New Deal. She is also an African American candidate running in a state with a primary on Super Tuesday, a day when the bulk of the North Carolina’s Democratic presidential primary electorate will be African American. But she is not the favorite of national Democrats, who back former state Sen. Cal Cunningham (D) as their strongest potential nominee against Tillis. The FEC reports will show the Senate Leadership Fund spent about $3 million on television and radio spots boosting Smith, funneled through a group calling itself the Faith and Power PAC. The filings show the entirety of the Faith and Power PAC’s contributions came from the Senate Leadership Fund. “Who’s the Democrat for U.S. Senate endorsed by progressives and unions? Erica Smith. Who’s got the courage to vote for Medicare for All? Erica Smith. The number one supporter of the Green New Deal? Erica Smith again. Erica Smith is one of us,” a narrator says in the ad. “Vote Democrat Erica Smith for U.S. Senate, the only proven progressive.” Even before the FEC filings, the Faith and Power PAC appeared to have ties to national Republicans. It opened an account at Chain Bridge Bank, a small financial institution run by a former Republican senator that is used by Republican candidates and causes including President TrumpDonald John TrumpSenate advances public lands bill in late-night vote Warren, Democrats urge Trump to back down from veto threat over changing Confederate-named bases Esper orders ‘After Action Review’ of National Guard’s role in protests MORE’s reelection campaign. The group bought advertisements through a Republican media buying firm based in Alexandria, Va. In an interview, Steven Law, who heads the Senate Leadership Fund, said his group had decided to meddle in the Democratic primary after polls showed Cunningham running only narrowly ahead of Smith and after Democrats dumped millions of their own dollars into early advertising on Cunningham’s behalf. “The opportunity to engage in Democratic primaries is comparatively rare, because Democrats have managed to exert what I think is an admirable iron-fisted discipline over their primary fields. It’s rare that you have a field where there’s a potential for actual competition,” Law told The Hill. “We had donors who were interested in taking on such a project.” One party meddling in another’s primary is uncommon, but not unheard of. Democrats spent more than $2 million on behalf of two conservative candidates running against Tillis in the 2014 primary. Democrats also ran advertising that helped weak Republican candidates beat back stronger foes in states like Missouri and Nevada in recent years. “We basically stole a page out of Chuck SchumerChuck SchumerOvernight Health Care: US showing signs of retreat in battle against COVID-19 | Regeneron begins clinical trials of potential coronavirus antibody treatment | CMS warns nursing homes against seizing residents’ stimulus checks Schumer requests briefing with White House coronavirus task force as cases rise Schumer on Trump’s tweet about 75-year-old protester: He ‘should go back to hiding in the bunker’ MORE’s playbook. We’ve been thinking about it for a long time,” Law said. Democrats have been unusually active in North Carolina this year. Cunningham’s campaign has spent more than $1.3 million on television spots so far. Outside groups including Vote Vets and an affiliate of the Senate Majority PAC have added about $10 million more, long before primary voters go to the polls. Vote Vets launched a major ad campaign in December, a move Law said piqued his interest. “I think the tipping point for us was Vote Vets’ multi-million dollar TV buy before Christmas last year. That signaled to us that Democrats themselves knew that Cunningham was dangerously weak and they felt the need to spend millions of dollars to prop him up. We thought that with a relatively small investment we could force them to spend a lot,” he said. “The goal was less to change the ultimate outcome in the Democrat primary than to force the Democrats into a high-spending situation.” Several recent public polls have showed Cunningham pulling ahead of Smith, who represents a district in the Raleigh area. But those same polls show a huge percentage of Democratic voters remain undecided, potentially throwing into question a race that will feature high voter turnout because it will take place concurrently with the presidential primary. “Republicans are in full-blown panic mode over Thom Tillis and the fact that they’re not even hiding it tells you everything you need to know about his chances in November,” said Rachel Irwin, a spokeswoman for the Democratic-aligned Senate Majority PAC. The unusually costly and competitive Democratic primary is something of a reversal of fortune in North Carolina, where Tillis faced the prospect of a primary challenge from a wealthy businessman and a conservative U.S. congressman. Tillis prepared a major advertising blitz to seize the offensive against the businessman, Garland Tucker, and the congressman, Rep. Mark WalkerBradley (Mark) Mark WalkerDemocrats press OSHA official on issuing an Emergency Temporary Standard John Ratcliffe is the right choice for director of national intelligence — and for America NCAA backs plan to allow college athletes to cash in on name, image and likeness MORE (R). Both men ultimately declined to run. Click Here: camisetas de futbol baratas