With five days left before Election Day, Democratic incumbent Sen. Kay Hagan and Republican challenger Thom Tillis stopped by Wilmington to rally supporters in one of the tightest and most expensive midterm election races of 2014.
Both responded to polls suggesting the two candidates vying to represent North Carolina in Washington are tied.
Tillis used a sports analogy, describing his campaign as in the final quarter, but in possession of the ball, when he addressed a crowd at New Hanover County GOP Headquarters.
“Back in August, we were three, four points behind, but we’ve moved up. We’re literally dead even and we have the ball, and we have momentum on our side,” Tillis said.
Hagan, who spoke at the Coastline Convention Center two hours later, borrowed Tillis’ analogy.
“He fumbled that ball in Raleigh and he knows it. The state knows it,” Hagan said, listing laws that came out of the N.C. General Assembly under Tillis’ tenure as speaker of the House that cut public education funding to afford teacher raises, rejected a federally funded Medicaid expansion, and approved voting law reform requiring ID at the polls and eliminating same-day registration.
Tillis touted his record as speaker during his talk with supporters as proof of his ability to lead and govern, citing tax reform, regulatory reform and medical malpractice reform achieved under a Republican-controlled legislature as examples. He questioned Hagan’s accomplishments in Washington since her election in 2008.
“There’s a stark contrast between the way Sen. Hagan’s running her campaign and the way that we’re running ours: Sen. Hagan’s running away from her record, and I’m running on mine,” Tillis said. “Since we’ve been in the North Carolina House, since we’ve taken the majority, we’ve fulfilled the promises that we made.”
Hagan emphasized her efforts to raise the minimum wage, provide equal pay for men and women, support access to preventable healthcare, and reform crippling student loan laws as achievements.
An Elon University poll released Oct. 30 attributes to Hagan a 4 percent advantage over Tillis, while NBC News and High Point University polls released earlier this week show a tie between the candidates.
Both candidates stressed the importance of early voting in such a tight race while in Wilmington. Early voting ends Saturday, Nov. 1 at 1 p.m.
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See that Pay to play tillis is back up to his old tricks again
“Four members of the Cooney family, which runs EUE/Screen Gems, gave Tillis’ campaign a combined $20,800, citing the state tax issue as a factor.”
Read more here: http://www.newsobserver.com/2014/04/03/3755514/thom-tillis-campaign-money-overlaps.html#storylink=cpy