Free Republic

When the UAW failed miserably in Chattanooga and was not able to unionize the Volkswagen plant, even with a staked deck, it started a chain reaction and the next domino has fallen. The news that the AFL-CIO has decided to keep its money and not even try to save three Southern Democrat Senators comes as no real shock. The powerful union reviewed the polls and the political climate in North Carolina, Louisiana and Arkansas and decided backing the Democrats in these states would be throwing good money after bad. The decision left Democrat Senators Mark Pryor in Arkansas, Mary Landrieu...

The familiar Washington narrative on the scrum for the U.S. Senate has been rinsed, recycled and delivered once again: Republicans are primed to pick up the six seats necessary to capture control of the upper chamber. The midterm atmosphere sure looks ripe, the polling appears favorable but, as it did in 2010 and 2012, the most competitive batch of races will likely come down to candidate quality. It’s the key component that stifled GOP chances before, and could very well again. .... .... A closer look at the most competitive contests demonstrates why a Senate majority in 2014 is again...

**SNIP** Senator Hagan released the following statement to ABC11: "When this law was written, we established a three-year transition period so that insurance companies had time to begin offering plans that met the requirements of the law for the 5 percent of people on the individual market. As I've made clear, I didn't know that some insurance companies would use that transition period to sell outdated plans without fully notifying consumers that they would no longer be available in 2014. But as soon as it came to my attention last fall when I heard from constituents who felt blindsided by...

**SNIP** Midterm elections are often a reflection of the approval rating of the incumbent president and now President Obama stands at 42.8%. And elections in the 6th year of a PresidentÂ’s term are usually not good for the incumbentÂ’s party. To make things even worse for Democrats, the issues of a weak economy and Obamacare make November look bleak for Harry Reid and his Senate Democratic cohorts. â—¾Alaska, Mark Begich â—¾Arkansas, Mark Pryor â—¾Louisiana, Mary Landrieu â—¾Michigan, Open Seat (liberal Democrat Carl Levin retiring) â—¾Montana, John Walsh â—¾North Carolina, Kay Hagan â—¾South Dakota, being vacated by retiring Democrat Tim Johnson...

The general election picture has entered into a holding pattern over the last three months, with Kay Hagan trailing her potential Republican opponents by small margins as she continues to suffer from poor approval ratings. 39% of voters in the state say they approve of the job Hagan is doing to 49% who disapprove. She has 1 or 2 point deficits against each of her potential GOP foes. She's down by 1 to Heather Grant (42/41) and Thom Tillis (43/42), and trails by 2 against the rest of the field (43/41 against Greg Brannon and Mark Harris, 44/42 against Bill...

**SNIP** In recent weeks Sen. Hagan has attempted to distance herself from President Obama and his administrations failed policies.

In what may be a sign to come for the midterm elections, Democratic Sen. Kay Hagan of North Carolina, who faces a tough re-election battle this year, stayed far away from President Barack Obama's visit to her home state on Wednesday. And Republicans didn't let the snub go unnoticed. Americans for Prosperity, a conservative group backed by the billionaire Koch Brothers, released a new web video Wednesday, labeling Hagan and Obama as best friends because of their support for the Affordable Care Act. The ad blasts Hagan for repeating what's been dubbed Obama's "lie of the year": the President's broken...

It wasn’t so very long ago — as in, last September — that Democratic senator and enthusiastic ObamaCare cheerleader Kay Hagan was posting fairly comfortable margins leading all of the Republican challengers to her reelection bid this year. Cue the ObamaCare initiation sequence, however, and that all started to change pretty quickly. These past few months have been whittling away at her erstwhile lead, and even as the Republican primary race is starting to solidify, Public Policy Polling‘s latest update indicates that all of her potential opponents are seriously gaining on her: For the first time in our polling of...

The Republican National Committee began running ads in 40 media markets Tuesday mostly targeting incumbent senators who supported President Barack Obama’s health care program. Billionaire former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, meanwhile, gave $2.5 million to help Democrats defend their majority in the Senate. The early action suggests Republicans see the president’s signature domestic achievement as their way to keep control of the House and perhaps win the Senate. With more than 300 days remaining before Election Day, both sides are looking to set the agenda before voters start paying attention. “Obamacare is going to be the issue in 2014,”...

Democrats and Republicans are amassing enormous war chests for a midterm battle that will decide who controls the Senate for the remainder of President Obama’s term. Republicans need a net gain of six seats to reclaim the Senate majority, and are gunning for Democratic incumbents in conservative-leaning states like Arkansas, Alaska, North Carolina, West Virginia and Louisiana. Democrats are mostly playing defense, but see a few opportunities to peel away seats from the GOP column. Here are the five Senate races to watch in 2014. KENTUCKY The reelection bid of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) is the marquee race...

The Senate Majority PAC is up with another big ad buy on behalf of Sen. Kay Hagan (D-N.C.), a top GOP target in 2014. The ad focuses on stressing Hagan's support of aspects of ObamaCare — without once mentioning the law by name — and criticizing her most likely opponent, North Carolina House Speaker Thom Tillis (R), on healthcare issues. "North Carolina can count on Kay Hagan. She protects my Medicare and Social Security. She took on drug companies to lower the costs of prescriptions for seniors, voted to cut waste and fraud in Medicare, forced insurance companies to cover...

Democratic leaders in counties across the state say they don’t think problems with the health care law will hurt their party or Democratic Sen. Kay Hagan’s re-election efforts next year – even as they work on a post-holiday game plan to change the conversation. **SNIP** Local Democrats haven’t done a lot to get their message out yet, but Campbell said it will be along these lines: “Why wouldn’t we want health care for everyone? Isn’t that a good thing? Yes, it’s complicated and yes it’s having problems launching. We hate that, and I’m ever hopeful it will start working better...

We mentioned earlier this week how red state Democrat Senator Kay Hagan of North Carolina had watched as a previously slim but solid lead in the polls had evaporated of late. It seems that this was no momentary glitch in the numbers and the situation continues to deteriorate. The slide continued with what could only be described as a disastrous conference call with reporters, eager to pepper her with questions about her role in the development and launch of Obamacare, which even the Washington Post’s Dana Milbank saw as a ship taking on water. Well, her problem begins with Obamacare,...

Two months ago, polls showed Democrat Kay Hagan leading prospective opponents by double digits in her quest for a second term representing North Carolina in the Senate. So why is she so nervous? Well, her problem begins with Obamacare, ends with Obamacare and has a whole lot of Obamacare in between. Hagan hosted a conference call for reporters Tuesday morning to discuss the problems with the health-care law’s rollout, and the Q&A session was so painful that the senator should qualify for trauma coverage under the Affordable Care Act.

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: You know, the... No, no, no. What's interesting about that is like Kay Hagan, Democrat senator from North Carolina. All these Democrat senators now want to be exempted from all the fallout of this. There are 13 of 'em, a baker's dozen. They knew when they voted for this. I don't think they deserve to be let off the hook. The Democrats that now want this all delayed -- they want the individual mandate delayed -- they want things delayed 'til after the 2014 election. They've trooped up to see Obama. Folks, they knew. Everybody knew that...

Having lost a 17 point lead in a month, North Carolina’s Democrat Senator Kay Hagan is in big political trouble. Her blood is in the water and the sharks are closing in on her. North Carolina is swimming in the opposite direction of its neighbor Virginia. The Tar Heel State is run by Republicans and many of them are conservatives. One of them who is not a conservative is Thom Tillis and predictably he is Karl Rove’s candidate in the coming Republican primary to run against Hagan. Although he is the Speaker of North Carolina’s House, Tillis is not a...

House Republicans are pouncing on President Obama’s apology for cancelled insurance plans to push him into backing legislation that would change ObamaCare. The president on Thursday said he was “sorry” that Americans were losing their healthcare plans despite his frequent assurances that individuals with insurance could keep them. Obama said he was seeking an administrative fix, but Republicans say they have a ready-made solution in the Keep Your Plan bill that they plan to bring up for a vote next week. A spokesman for Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said the president can’t address the problems plaguing the healthcare law through...

Tennessee Senator Lamar Alexander (R) Montana Senator Max Baucus (D) Alaska Senator Mark Begich (D) Georgia Senator Saxby Chambliss (R) Mississippi Senator Thad Cochran (R) Maine Senator Susan Collins (R) Texas Senator John Cornyn (R) Massachusetts Senator William "Mo" Cowan (D) Illinois Senator Dick Durbin (D) Wyoming Senator Mike Enzi (R) Minnesota Senator Al Franken (DFL) South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham (R) North Carolina Senator Kay Hagan (D) Iowa Senator Tom Harkin (D) Oklahoma Senator Jim Inhofe (R) Nebraska Senator Mike Johanns (R) South Dakota Senator Tim Johnson (D) Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu (D) Michigan Senator Carl Levin (D) Kentucky...

Democratic Sen. Kay Hagan’s approval rating has dropped, according to a new poll. Hagan has an approval rating of 36 percent, with 41 percent of voters disapproving of the job she is doing, according to a new survey by Public Policy Polling, a Democratic-leaning firm based in Raleigh. Another 23 percent were not sure. That is down from last month, when her approval rating was at 43 percent, her disapproval rating was 39 percent and 18 percent were not sure. Hagan still leads her prospective Republican opponents. She would defeat House Speaker Tom Tillis by a 47-40 percent margin, Charlotte...

Raleigh, NC – In a demonstration of the Brannon campaign’s surging strength and support, the campaign announced today that it will report third quarter fundraising totals that more than double the previous quarter. Since the last filing in mid-July the campaign raised over $150,000 and heads into the fourth quarter with more than $100,000 cash-on-hand. The pro-life Obstetrician’s fundraising shows an impressive base of support with more than 3,000 individual contributors accounting for more than 4,000 contributions with an average contribution of less than $70. This brings the total raised to over $275,000 since the start of the campaign, solidifying...