North Carolina GOP Senate candidates Thom Tillis, from left, Heather Grant, Greg Brannon and Mark Harris debate in Raleigh. (Gerry Broome, AP)
Voters in Indiana, North Carolina and Ohio go to the polls Tuesday, but all eyes are on the fight between the GOP establishment and the Tea Party in the Tar Heel state’s Senate primary.
The battle among eight North Carolina Republicans hoping to take on Democratic incumbent Kay Hagan is the first of several primaries in May testing Republican loyalties.
House Speaker Thom Tillis has racked up support from Mitt Romney, Jeb Bush and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Tillis needs 40% of the GOP vote to avoid a runoff, and asurvey by the Public Policy Polling released Monday showed him right at that mark.
Sen. Rand Paul, a 2016 presidential hopeful and Tea Party darling, made a last-minute appeal Monday on behalf of Greg Brannon, an obstetrician who shares many of the same libertarian views. “Send us a dragon slayer,” Paul told Brannon supporters gathered at the NASCAR Hall of Fame in Charlotte.
Clay Aiken (Gerry Broome, AP)
The other Republican Senate hopeful to watch: Mark Harris, a Charlotte pastor and former president of the North Carolina Baptist State Convention. Harris has the support of former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, a favorite of religious conservatives.
In a key congressional race, singer Clay Aiken of American Idol fame is vying for the Democratic nomination in North Carolina’s 2nd District. Aiken is facing an uphill battle in a district that Romney carried in the 2012 presidential election with 58% of the vote.
Aiken, a political novice, is running against Keith Crisco, a former North Carolina Commerce secretary who has outraised and outspent the singer. Mental health counselor Toni Morris is also in the Democratic field.
The Democrats are hoping to unseat GOP Rep. Renee Ellmers, a Tea Party favorite elected in 2010 and chairwoman of the Republican Women’s Policy Committee. She must first get past a primary challenge from Frank Roche, who has been attacking Ellmers on immigration.
In Ohio, House Speaker John Boehner is expected to easily defeat two primary challengers aligned with the Tea Party.
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