Free Republic

Once is a coincidence, but twice is something else entirely. Less than 24-hours after the rapidly imploding Wendy Davis campaign in Texas warned that the interracially married Greg Abbott may just try to ban interracial marriage as governor, Sen. Kay Hagan (D-NC) supporters in North Carolina are also engaging in a bit of inelegant race-baiting. The North Carolina-based Fayetteville Observer reported on Monday that churchgoers in Cumberland County were appalled on Sunday when they were treated to an image of a Jim Crow-era lynching on a flyer warning of what may occur if Republicans take control of the Senate....

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...

An Obama administration health official said Sunday that U.S. protocols on Ebola failed because they originally were intended for African field hospitals, while the White House came under another round of attacks for its refusal to restrict travel from nations suffering epidemic outbreaks. Dr. Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said the original Centers for Disease Control and Prevention instructions for dealing with the virus were taken from the World Health Organization’s protocol for Africa, where conditions are much different from those in U.S. hospitals. Two nurses caring for an Ebola patient flown into...

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...

Not again! After being for a travel ban, then changing her position to say such restrictions would not work, Sen. Kay Hagan (D-NC) is back on board with a travel ban. “I am calling on the Administration to temporarily ban the travel of non-U.S. citizens from the affected countries in West Africa,” Hagan, who is running for reelection,

As Ebola’s arrival in America becomes a more pervasive story, some candidates in the 2014 election are weighing in on the subject. Democratic Sen. Kay Hagan of North Carolina took some time to say that the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) is “giving us great guidance, but we've got to make sure the implementation is perfect.” Hagan Praises CDC's Handling of Ebola These remarks come after a second nurse caring for Thomas Eric Duncan, the Liberian citizen who became the first person diagnosed with Ebola in the United States, had become infected with the virus. The nurse, Amber Vinson, was...

A company owned by the husband of Democratic senator Kay Hagan of North Carolina received taxpayer money for a green energy project through the federal stimulus of 2009, later revising down the project's estimated cost and keeping the difference. Don Carrington at the Carolina Journal, a publication of the conservative John Locke Foundation, has the scoop on how JDC Manufacturing, co-owned by Chip Hagan kept savings from a stimulus grant instead of returning the money to taxpayers: The company’s original application stated the total project would cost $438,627, and said JDC would contribute “leveraged funds” amounting to $187,983, or 43...

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...

Latinos' furor with red-state Senate Dems escalated this week when the grassroots advocacy group Presente Action began running radio ads against Sen. Kay Hagan (D-N.C.), targeting her push against executive action on immigration. The Spanish-language ads will air for a week on two stations and tells listeners: "Senator Hagan voted with the most anti-immigrant senators in Congress in support of the continued deportations of our community." Hagan, locked in one of the most competitive Senate races this cycle, has for months publicly resisted Obama moving unilaterally on immigration and that has earned her the wrath of groups like Presente -...

Today Women Speak Out PAC, partner of the national pro-life group Susan B. Anthony List (SBA List), launched an 11-day, $620,000 television ad campaign in the Raleigh, North Carolina media market to expose Senator Kay Hagan’s position on abortion. kayhagan“This hard-hitting television campaign is air support for our extensive ground game. To date, our field team has knocked on more than 104,000 doors and made more than 245,000 phone calls to turn out pro-life voters who don’t typically vote in midterm elections,” said Women Speak Out PAC President Marjorie Dannenfelser. The ad featuring Ned and Rebecca Ryun and their daughter...

Solar company formed weeks before Chip Hagan's business received grant. RALEIGH — Sen. Kay Hagan’s husband and son created a solar energy contracting company in August 2010, and then, using $250,644 in federal stimulus grant funds, her husband hired that same company to install solar panels at a building he owns. Public records show that Green State Power was formed seven weeks before JDC Manufacturing — a company owned in part by Greensboro attorney Charles “Chip” Hagan III, Sen. Hagan’s husband — received the stimulus grant for the solar project at a 300,000-square-foot facility in Reidsville, N.C. ... Hagan, a...

Not long ago, it would have been unusual for a Democratic senatorial candidate in Iowa to run a powerful abortion-rights television ad like the one recently broadcast by Representative Bruce Braley. The ad lists in detail the anti-abortion positions taken by Mr. Braley’s Republican opponent, Joni Ernst. In the State Senate, the ad says, she sponsored a “personhood” amendment (declaring a fertilized egg to be a person) that would have the effect of outlawing abortion even in cases of rape or incest, and would also ban many common forms of birth control. Ms. Ernst is even shown saying at a...

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...

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...

“Gun Owners of America [has] blasted the bill as a ‘fake pro-gun bill designed to re-elect endangered anti-gun [Senators] up in 2014 in pro-gun states.’” -- Roll Call, July 9, 2014 Earlier today, the “Harry Reid Preservation Act,” S. 2363, went down to defeat, as pro-gun Senators successfully filibustered the bill by a vote of 56-41. As you know, S. 2363 was a “nothing-burger bill” which existed solely to elect anti-gun Democrats in Red States. This includes Senators like sponsor Kay Hagan (D-NC) -- pluscosponsors such as Mark Begich (D-AK), Mark Pryor (D-AR), Mark Udall (D-CO), Mary Landrieu (D-LA), Al...