The major Republican super PAC that plays in House races is airing its first ad in North Carolina this week, signaling that GOP Rep. George Holding faces a real race in the 2nd District. 

Congressional Leadership Fund, the super PAC backed by House GOP leadership, is attacking Democrat Linda Coleman in a TV ad, shared first with Roll Call, that will air in the Raleigh market beginning Wednesday. 

CLF opened a field office in August in the district, where it has reserved $1.4 million. Elsewhere in the state, it opened a field office in the open 9th District.

The group is going after Coleman, a former state representative who lost races for North Carolina lieutenant governor in 2012 and 2016, as part of its strategy to define Democratic candidates early and put them on defense. The attack on Coleman is that she supports higher taxes.

“Career politician Linda Coleman costs us too much,” the narrator says in the spot. 

Holding is bidding for a fourth term in Congress, but it’s only his first run for re-election to this district, which was redrawn in 2016. He won the general election two years ago by 13 points, outperforming President Donald Trump, who carried the district by 6 points.

But recent polling from both sides of the aisle has shown a close race. A late August poll from the Coleman campaign by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research gave her a 1-point edge, 45 percent to 44 percent. On Aug. 20, Holding’s campaign sent out fundraising emails raising the alarm about a poll it had conducted showing the congressman down by 3 percentage points.

Inside Elections with Nathan L. Gonzales rates the race Leans Republican. 

Watch: 12 House Ratings Changes — Democrats Are More Likely Than Not to Win Majority