In the race for North Carolina's open United States Senate seat, Erskine Bowles' message strategy combined prominent local issues with themes from Bowles’ background. The Bowles campaign wove Erskine’s experience balancing the federal budget into a message that included issues important to North Carolinians, like jobs, homeland security, and health care. In the end, Bowles' message was that he had “North Carolina Values,” and that he would put “North Carolina First” (Bowles). His values led him to voice his opposition to gay marriage and to distance himself from Clinton over the Lewinski scandal, both hot issues among the traditionally conservative NC electorate. Bowles would put NC first by fighting to prevent jobs from going overseas and provide affordable health care for more people. He also reached out to rural North Carolinians by lobbying for a tobacco buyout. Bowles' overall message wisely tied in the concerns of his constituents with the strengths of his background.

The strengths of Bowles' strategy were that the message catered to the issues important to the voters, such as job loss and health care, and that it was based on the candidate's background, such as Bowles' role in balancing the federal budget. The strengths, though, could not outweigh the weaknesses. There were no real "mirror image strengths" for Bowles. His support for trade agreements in the 90s left him open to criticism that he was responsible for the current outsourcing of NC jobs and his support for the tobacco buyout was a moot point considering his opponent was actually in Congress when it passed. Furthermore, the Bowles campaign could never fully inoculate their candidate from the perception that he did not share the conservative values of North Carolinians. For all the positive things Bowles accomplished under Clinton, it meant that he was also linked to the scandals of the administration. Every upbeat thing that Bowles could use to promote himself was countered by his opponent's stance, imagery associating Bowles with Clinton, or Republican issue ownership of values issues. Similarly, the negative attacks launched by Bowles never seemed to stick.

Bowles had little choice but to go negative in the race. His opponent, Richard Burr, could tie himself in with his party's nominee for president and could take the lion's share of the credit for the tobacco buyout. Burr would have the advantage if the race came down to appealing to the voters as a nice guy who is just like his constituents. Therefore, Bowles' negative message made sense strategically. In the end, Bowles put forth a message strategy that did a good job of connecting with the voters and highlighting his strengths but did a poor job of undercutting his opponent.