Free Republic

RALEIGH (WTVD) -- After a grueling months-long campaign that saw the candidates and outside groups spend over a $100 million on advertising, Democratic Sen. Kay Hagan and Republican challenger Thom Tillis were waiting for the final results after the polls closed Tuesday evening. The race seesawed back and forth through the evening with just a couple of percentage points separating the main contestants.

This started as a top ten list.Let's face it, with President Obama's awful approval ratings and the unfortunate consequences of Obamacare felt like a sting around the country, Democrats were already vulnerable in this year's midterm elections. These gaffes certainly won't help. Let's take a look at some of the worst mistakes Dems have made on the campaign trail so far:1.) That awful/insensitive/shameful and now infamous ad from the Wendy Davis (D-TX) gubernatorial campaign. 2.) Those colorful campaign memos from Michelle Nunn’s (D-GA) campaign, in which her own campaign referred to her as a “lightweight.” 3.) Sen. Mark Udall (D-CO) saying he was...

As you may have heard, we’re now only four days away from the 2014 midterms and gubernatorial races mercifully coming to an end, save for a likely runoff in Louisiana. And as you’ve also heard lately, race–for all the wrong reasons–has become a central theme for the party in blue. Speaking of the Bayou State, its likely-to-be-unemployed-after-said-runoff and current senator Mary Landrieu (D-LA) had this to say to Chuck Todd (a good get via hustle by the new MTP moderator, by the way) regarding the reason behind her not inviting President Obama for help on the campaign trail: “The South...

Clinton Decries Outside Spending In Pricey N.C. Senate Race By Dan Merica, CNN October 25, 2014 Charlotte, North Carolina (CNN) -- Negative, expensive campaigns is something Sen. Kay Hagan is getting an education in this year. And something Hillary Clinton knows very well. Clinton campaigned Saturday for her fellow Democrat at a Charlotte rally of about 1,800 supporter. The former U.S. senator and secretary of state -- and widely presumed 2016 presidential contender -- used her appearance for Hagan to decry Thom Tillis, the Republican looking to unseat Hagan in November, as someone who will answer to big business, not...

A debate in North Carolina that was supposed to feature incumbent Senator Kay Hagan and her Republican challenger state senator Thom Tillis ended up with Tillis sitting next to an empty chair because Hagan declined to participate. From Fox News: The program initially billed as a debate between Tillis and other candidates turned into a one-hour conversation with him and two reporters, as well as responses to emailed or recorded questions from the public. Hagan announced over the summer her decision not to participate, while Libertarian Sean Haugh didn't meet a 15 percent polling threshold to join Tillis. An empty...

Dawn McNair said she was surprised Sunday when her daughter pointed out the background on a political flier urging people to get out and vote. The front of the flier blares: "Kay Hagan doesn't win! Obama's impeachment will begin! Vote in 2014." The words are superimposed over a grainy reproduction of a photograph of what appears to be a lynching. Someone tucked the flier under McNair's windshield wiper while her car was parked at her church, Kingdom Impact Global Ministries on Murchison Road. "My daughter said, 'Mom, look in the background. They're lynching somebody.' It's the lynching of an African-American...

With less than four weeks until Election Day, the National Republican Senatorial Committee’s independent expenditure arm is shifting resources to increase its investment in six states, including South Dakota and Georgia. The NRSC has moved $1 million to South Dakota, plus another $1.45 million to Georgia. In South Dakota, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee made a $1 million television ad buy this week, on the heels of tightening poll numbers that showed its candidate, Rick Weiland, gaining ground. In Georgia, a new poll suggests a runoff is likely. The NRSC also is upping its investment in four other states: Alaska,...

Campaigning for the Senate in 2012, former Harvard law professor cum left-wing populist Elizabeth Warren touched down in North Carolina and told voters, “The game is rigged.” She was more right than she knew. As it turns out, North Carolina’s Democratic senator was doing some of the rigging. Now, Kay Hagan’s political future may depend on how voters react to the story. Hagan’s vote for the 2009 stimulus, coupled with revelations that the legislation resulted in taxpayer funding for her family’s businesses, has emerged as an October surprise in a race hitherto marked by her unexpected resilience in a difficult...

When the North Carolina State Assembly set out to pass a resolution in 2007 expressing the body’s regret for its participation in the institution of slavery, conservatives objected on the grounds that black North Carolinians would use it to advance the cause of reparations. Republican Assemblyman Thom Tillis, who is now challenging Democrat Kay Hagan for her U.S. Senate seat, sought to allay those conservatives' concerns by flipping the argument. Reparations already exist in the form of welfare programs, he noted, and Republicans would be better positioned to oppose them if they purchased some goodwill with conservative Democrats by acknowledging...

Republicans need to pick up six seats in November to gain control of the Senate. Consensus to date points to good prospects of this happening. But one state where the picture remains unclear for Republicans is North Carolina. Republican challenger, speaker of the North Carolina House of Representatives Thom Tillis, has failed to pull ahead of Democrat incumbent Senator Kay Hagan and average of latest polling shows him behind 3 to 4 points. Mitt Romney won North Carolina in 2012 by three points. In the last ten presidential elections, Republicans prevailed in North Carolina eight times. North Carolina is anything...

Politico’s scoop on Kay Hagen is a couple of days old, but it’s worth mentioning in a tight Senate race in North Carolina, and not just for the scoop itself. Hagan’s vote on the 2009 stimulus package has come under fire after Politico discovered that $390,000 in ARRA grants went to a firm owned in part by her husband Chip: When Kay Hagan voted for President Barack Obama’s 2009 economic stimulus package, the Democratic senator hailed it as “the best way forward for working families across North Carolina.”One of the families that later benefited is her own.JDC Manufacturing, a...

PPP's newest North Carolina Senate poll finds the race steady compared to a month ago. Kay Hagan continues to lead by 4 points, with 44% to 40% for Thom Tillis and 5% for Libertarian Sean Haugh. Haugh's impact on the race is waning- since June his support has dropped from 11% now down to this 5% standing. He's also no longer disproportionately drawing supporters away from Tillis- when Haugh's supporters are reallocated to who they would choose between Hagan and Tillis, Hagan continues to hold a 4 point lead at 46/42.

Jim Geragthy, acclaimed author and National Review’s chief campaign analyst, has been grousing about the lack of quality polling in key Senate races this year. His frustration is well-founded. So yesterday must have felt like Christmas in September for Jim and political junkies everywhere, as two pollsters released a deluge of surveys covering the most contested races in the country. In light of the results, I’d expect that national Republicans are kicking off the week with an extra spring in their step, as well. We were leaked an advance copy of last week’s much-anticipated Politico/GWU Battleground poll, which was packed...

The Speaker of The House tried to ram through a bill containing a smorgasbord of odds-and-ends spending desired by the governor and various special interests. It got shot down once in the GOP caucus. It got shot down on the House floor Friday in a late-in-the-day revolt. Speaker Tillis and his allies took the hardball route this week. They loaded up the legislation with even more pork, and threatened non-compliant conservatives with a potential ouster from the GOP caucus. Once that shenanigan went public, things continued to go south for the speaker. He took some tough questions during a Monday...

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.

During this year’s second quarter, Democrat Kay Hagan raised more than twice the money for her re-election campaign for one of North Carolina’s two seats in the U.S. Senate than her Republican challenger Thom Tillis, the speaker of the N.C. House. Hagan’s campaign has reported that she raised $3.6 million from April to June, and she has $8.5 million cash on hand. Tillis’ campaign reported that he raised $1.6 million during the same period and has $1.5 million in the bank. The candidates were required to submit their campaign finance data to the Federal Election Commission by July 15, but...

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...

National Right to Life, like National Rifle Association, has gone full Washington establishment. NRL has endorsed Lindsey Graham - and they endorsed Thom Tillis in NC for their primary. Clearly there are better candidates for the cause they pretend to care about….but they have their Washington HQ's and they have been corrupted. Thoughts?

Establishment favorite Thom Tillis’s win in the North Carolina Republican Senate primary Tuesday night actually indicates the Tea Party has won the war with the establishment, Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) argued on Wednesday. “The Tea Party has won the civil war that has been raging inside the Republican Party,” she told reporters at a Christian Science Monitor breakfast on Wednesday. Wasserman Schultz said that Tillis "is no longer, if he ever was, an establishment candidate,” having been pulled to the right during his time as speaker of the North Carolina House. “As the Speaker of the...

North Carolina House Speaker Thom Tillis won the Republican Senate nomination in the Tar Heel State on Tuesday evening, comfortably surpassing the 40 percent threshold to win the nomination. His victory ratifies the aggressive strategy adopted by establishment-oriented outside groups, led by American Crossroads, to spend millions on behalf of favored candidates and attack their rivals when necessary. North Carolina was the opening battleground in the fight between the Republican Party's two main factions, and it's a sign the establishment's no-holds-barred strategy is paying off. American Crossroads spent $1.6 million on behalf of Tillis, significantly more than the resources of...