The nation’s largest business lobby endorsed embattled Sen. Elizabeth Dole (R) this week, calling the lawmaker “a champion for the people of North Carolina and an invaluable leader on important business issues.”

“The Chamber believes she will be an effective legislator and supporter of businesses of every size if re-elected,” U.S. Chamber of Commerce spokesman Bill Miller said in a statement. “Dole has been a leading voice in the Senate for keeping taxes down and spending under control [and] North Carolina’s business community will continue to have no better friend in Washington than Elizabeth Dole.”

The first-term Senator continues to fight for her political life in a battle with state Sen. Kay Hagan (D), whose cause the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee has picked up this cycle to the tune of more than $6 million.

Dole hit the airwaves on Wednesday with a new ad suggesting her opponent chums around with atheists, undoubtedly an unpopular stance in the Tar Heel State and other areas of the Bible Belt.

“A leader of the Godless Americans recently held a secret fundraiser in Kay Hagan’s honor,” Dole’s new ad begins, followed by soundbites from a Godless Americans spokesman on cable news shows saying, “There is no God to rely on” and “there was no Jesus.”

“Godless Americans and Kay Hagan,” the ad continues, “she hid from cameras, took Godless money. What did Hagan promise in return?”

According the group’s Web site, Godless Americans is a political action committee that supports “candidates for public office who support the First Amendment separation of church and state, defend equal rights and protections for our nation’s godless Americans, inform our community of the voting records of their elected representatives on issues of concern and support our goal of having ‘a place at the table’ in formulating public policy.”

The PAC has not given Hagan a contribution this cycle, according to Federal Election Commission records.

According to a Democratic operative, Hagan teaches Sunday school at her church.