Free Republic

Clay Aiken came in second yet again. The American Idol and Celebrity Apprentice runner-up was defeated by incumbent Rep. Renee Ellmers in Tuesday's election, losing his bid to represent North Carolina's 2nd Congressional District, The Associated Press reports. Aiken, 35, won the Democratic nomination after his opponent in the race died suddenly during the primary campaign. If the Idol alum had won, he would have been the first openly gay congressman elected in the South.

“Of all of the undercover investigations I’ve conducted, this was by far the easiest. They were willing to pass out fraudulently obtained ballots like it was Halloween candy,” said James O’Keefe. “With almost three-quarters-of-a-million inactive voters and no Voter ID law in place, we could have turned the election results for most major candidates in the state. What we uncovered in this video illustrates how easy it would be for a well-orchestrated campaign with no regard for the law to change the outcome of a major election. Voter laws across the country need to be changed immediately to prevent this...

There is no doubt that Tom Tillis, Karl Rove’s candidate in the North Carolina Senate race next month, was forced on us and many Tar Heel State conservatives deeply resent both of them. This is not an argument in favor of Tillis election, but rather an examination of the political rules both Tillis and the incumbent Democrat have to operate under. A few cycles ago North Carolina became the last Southern state to flip to Republican control. The rampant corruption of the last Democrat governor and many of her cohorts in the State’s Legislature caused a blow back that brought...

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) rallied 400 North Carolina pastors Tuesday evening, explaining to them why he is pro-life—an issue that, given Paul’s libertarian leanings, could be a point of attack from other conservative candidates in his likely 2016 presidential campaign.

Republican U.S. Senate candidate Thom Tillis is getting help from New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie as part of Christie's multiple-stop swing through the Carolinas to raise money and meet voters. Christie and Tillis were slated to hold a meet-and-greet Tuesday morning in Wilmington before holding a private fundraiser for Tillis' campaign. Christie will head on to South Carolina for several fundraisers on behalf of incumbent Gov. Nikki Haley, who is seeking re-election this fall.

WILSON, N.C. — Thom Tillis, the Republican candidate for Senate in North Carolina, wouldn’t commit to supporting Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, if both of them win this fall. “I’m not going to look past the most important election and that’s the election in November,” he told BuzzFeed News on Saturday. “I think there are a number of people in Republican caucus who would be great leaders and it would be great for them to be in that position.” He may not be looking past election day, but Tillis did try and lay out part of his vision for the Senate...

Is Senator Kay Hagan getting nervous? The incumbent Democratic U.S. Senator from North Carolina is the proud beneficiary of a $9 million dollars worth of media buys from the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC). Hagan is vulnerable this cycle, with polls showing her in a dead heat with her Republican opponent, Speaker of the North Carolina House of Representatives Thom Tillis. Media buys are common in elections, but this is the biggest one in this race so far, which has some people wondering if Hagan is hitting the “panic button” (via Charlotte Observer) [emphasis mine]: The ad buy, the largest...

RALEIGH, N.C. — Thom Tillis thought his last day as speaker of the North Carolina House would be weeks ago, after which he would devote all his energies to running for the U.S. Senate. Instead, on Saturday morning, Tillis stood gavel in hand in the state House chamber, presiding over the passage of a budget that kept lawmakers at work well into the summer. Now, finally, he is finished — unless something else comes up to demand his time at the State Legislative Building. Republicans have bemoaned the fact that their candidate was tied down in the state house, but...

Republican challenger Thom Tillis has pushed slightly further ahead of Democratic incumbent Kay Hagan in North Carolina’s U.S. Senate race. The latest Rasmussen Reports statewide telephone survey of Likely North Carolina Voters shows Tillis earning 45% support to Hagan’s 40%. Six percent (6%) prefer another candidate in the race, and nine percent (9%) are undecided.

PPP's newest North Carolina poll finds Kay Hagan continuing to grow her lead over Thom Tillis as the legislative session drags on. Hagan now has 41% to 34% for Tillis and 8% for Libertarian Sean Haugh. Her lead is up from 2 points in May and 5 points in June. The protracted legislative session with Tillis at the helm of it can't be doing him any favors. Only 19% of voters approve of the job the General Assembly is doing to 57% who disapprove, and legislative Republicans specifically have a 31/52 favorability rating. Those things are working together to help...

Craven County Democratic candidates for the North Carolina Legislature and an Onslow County Democrat running for the U.S. House must at moments have felt like Daniel in the lion’s den in front of Craven-Pamlico Christian Coalition Monday. The expressly conservative and mostly Republican group’s meeting packed about 50 people into a New Bern Golden Corral room, which usually sees a smaller crowd, to hear and question U.S. District 3 House candidate Marshall Adame; N.C. Senate District 2 candidate Carr Ipock; and N.C. House District 3 candidate Whit Whitley. The meeting opened with a prayer, the Pledge of Allegiance, and a...

Democrat and "American Idol" runner-up Clay Aiken is running to unseat Rep. Renee Ellmers in North Carolina's 2nd congressional district and has also scrubbed his Twitter account of his public desire to punch conservative columnist Ann Coulter in the face. "Anyone else watching Piers Morgan want to punch Ann Coulter in the face," Aiken wrote in a tweet in October of 2012. SooperMexican, who reconstructed and posted the tweet, writes: It’s so funny how liberals look the other way when a Democrat is caught advocating violence on women that I thought I’d give them another chance to show their hypocrisy...

RALEIGH, N.C. - North Carolina Congressional candidate Keith Crisco died suddenly at his home on Monday, WNCN confirmed. MOREAdditional Links A woman at his company, Asheboro Elastics Corp. in Asheboro, confirmed that he died at his home Monday around 1 p.m. She said employees at the company were being told what had happened. Crisco had faced Clay Aiken in a tense battle for the Democratic nomination in the 2nd Congressional District.

A hotly contested Democratic congressional primary in North Carolina ended in a standoff last week when the race between former American Idol contestant Clay Aiken and Asheboro businessman Keith Crisco resulted in a draw. With just 369 votes separating the two candidates, the race was slated to head to a runoff. On Monday, however, it was confirmed that Crisco suddenly passed away. “Information is incomplete,” the Asheboro Courier-Tribune reported on Monday. “However, early information indicates he suffered injuries from a fall around 1 p.m. at his home at 1263 Thayer Drive in Asheboro. He was reported dead at the scene...

ay Aiken won millions of votes more than a decade ago as a contestant on “American Idol." Now he’s singing a different tune after a career shift into politics, fighting instead for support in Tuesday’s North Carolina primary. ‪Aiken, 35, is running for Congress in his home state, asking Tar Heels to support him once again. With a difficult race against fellow Democrat Keith Crisco, he also risks ending up in the same place that he earned from "American Idol" viewers: runner up. ‪“I've had an entertainment career that's lasted 11 years, longer than I ever dreamed it would," Aiken...

North Carolina House Speaker Thom Tillis is holding a steady and substantial lead over his nearest challengers in a new survey of the Republican Senate primary there. In the poll, conducted by the right-leaning National Research, Inc. for the conservative Civitas Institute, Tillis takes 38 percent support among GOP likely voters, with his next-closest primary opponent, Physician Greg Brannon, taking 17 percent support. Baptist Pastor Mark Harris takes 14 percent, and about a third of respondents said they still don’t know who they prefer as the Republican nominee. The survey tracks closely with another poll out last week from Civitas...

North Carolina Republican Senate contender Greg Brannon is a first-time candidate for public office who has flirted with conspiracy theories about the Sept. 11 attacks, suggested the mentally ill have the right to bear arms and is being sued for allegedly misleading investors about a startup company he founded. Yet in just over a week, when voters trek to the polls in the Tar Heel State’s GOP primary, Brannon has a realistic shot at a victory, if not a victory in the traditional sense. The tea party-backed obstetrician certainly won’t capture the most votes next Monday, but he needs just...

Political action committees representing U.S. Sen. John McCain and the Koch Brothers helped Republican Thom Tillis to a 3-1 fundraising edge over his GOP rivals heading into the final month of their U.S. Senate campaign. Donations from McCain’s “Country First” PAC and the Koch Industries PAC contributed to Tillis’ total fundraising of $3.1 million, according to a report posted Thursday by the Federal Election Commission.

It wasn’t supposed to be this way. Republicans in Washington wanted North Carolina House Speaker Thom Tillis to quickly win the party’s Senate nomination and focus entirely on vulnerable Democratic incumbent Kay Hagan. Instead, Tillis faces a May 6 primary that’s so crowded it may be hard for any candidate to muster the 40 percent needed to avoid a mid-July runoff. The race also pits two leaders -- Kentucky U.S. Senators Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul -- against each other in a proxy battle over the party’s future. Tillis must balance support from national Republicans against the Tea Party’s anti-Washington...

Is American Crossroads giving North Carolina Senate candidate Thom Tillis one last push before the state's Republican primary? The group has reserved $1.1 million in advertising in North Carolina for April, its political director, Carl Forti, confirmed Monday. The ads, the content of which Forti would not disclose, will air in the pricey Raleigh and Charlotte media markets. That influx of spending will hit just before Tillis, the Republican frontrunner, faces off May 6 against a field including Greg Brannon, a physician who has been endorsed by Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., and Mark Harris, a Baptist pastor who has received...