A Sex Scandal for the Democrat Who Seemed to Have Incumbent Thom Tillis on the Ropes!

The Democratic challenger in North Carolina’s closely contested U.S. Senate contest has admitted to exchanging sexually suggestive text messages with a woman who’s not his wife, but he said he will not drop out of the race.

Cal Cunningham apologized late Friday for the text message exchanges in which he tells the woman he wants to kiss her and she says she wants to spend the night with him. The messages were first reported by the website NationalFile.com.

“I have hurt my family, disappointed my friends, and am deeply sorry. The first step in repairing those relationships is taking complete responsibility, which I do,” Cunningham said in a statement.

But Cunningham, who is married with two children, added that he’s not dropping out of the Senate race: “I will continue to work to earn the opportunity to fight for the people our state.”

Cunningham’s admission regarding the text messages, along with his opponent U.S. Senate Thom Tillis announcing Friday night he has tested positive for COVID-19, could reshape the nation’s most expensive Senate campaign , which is considered key to determining the power balance in the Senate. Democrats need to gain four seats in November to ensure control of the chamber.

“It’s chaos — it’s really what I see it is,” David McLennan, a political science professor at Meredith College, said Saturday. More than 319,000 mail-in absentee ballots already have been accepted by county election boards.