[FOXNEWS] The critical and expensive Senate race in North Carolina, central to determining which party controls the upper chamber, was thrown into uncertainty this weekend.
Within the span of just a few hours on Friday, Republican incumbent Thom Tillis announced that he had tested positive for the coronavirus (aka COVID19 or Chinese Plague)
 ...the twenty first century equivalent of bubonic plague, only instead of killing off a third of the population of Europe it kills 3.4 percent of those who notice they have it. It seems to be fond of the elderly, especially Iranian politicians and holy men...
, while his Democratic challenger, Cal Cunningham, acknowledged and apologized for exchanging sexually suggestive text messages with a woman who is not his wife.
Tillis has "mild symptoms," a spokesperson said Saturday, and the diagnosis forced the first-term senator to cancel in-person events with just one month until the election. He is one of several Republican officials to contract the virus in recent days, including President Trump and Sens. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., and Mike Lee, R-Utah.
"It’s chaos — it’s really what I see it is," David McLennan, a political science professor at Meredith College in Raleigh, said Saturday.
Cunningham, who has led in polls throughout the summer and raked in a record-setting $28.3 million in donations over the past three months, apologized Friday for the romantic text messages that he sent. A spokeswoman for Cunningham’s campaign, Rachel Petri, confirmed on Saturday the authenticity of the text messages, which 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, who is married with two teenage children, said in a statement late Friday.
Screenshots of the messages show Cunningham told public relations strategist Arlene Guzman Todd, "Would make my day to roll over and kiss you about now," to which she replies, "You’re so sweet. I would enjoy that."
Another shows Guzman Todd tell Cunningham, "the only thing I want on my to do list is you," to which Cunningham replies, "Sounds so hot and so fun!"
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