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CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Senator Kay Hagan and Republican challenger Thom Tillis are ironing out key points of their argument ahead of their next debate Tuesday, October 6. The race is heating up with more political ads, but WCCB’s political contributor Mary C. Curtis says fact-check when you see them.
If anyone can take the long view of history, it’s U.S. Rep. James E. Clyburn (D-S.C.). The assistant minority leader of the House has lived it, from his childhood in segregated Sumter, S.C., through the civil rights movement that benefited him, sometimes in unexpected ways — he met wife-to-be Emily in jail after both were arrested for protesting for civil rights — to his election to Congress in 1992.
Clyburn, 74, tells his story in “Blessed Experiences: Genuinely Southern, Proudly Black.” He and Emily recently spent an evening at the Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Arts + Culture in Charlotte, greeting admirers, posing for photos and adding signatures to personal copies of the book.
At the Gantt Center, he shared his thoughts on the pace of change in America: “The country from its inception is like the pendulum on a clock. It goes back and forward. It tops out to the right and starts back to the left — it tops out to the left and starts back to the right. I can tell you the country has topped out to the right, and the country is moving back to the left.” And remember, he said, it “spends twice as much time in the center.”
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — The first of three senate debates between candidates Senator Kay Hagan and House Speaker Thom Tillis is in the books. As with all debates, there were highlights and low blows. So, did their arguments give them enough momentum? Our WCCB Polticial Contributor Mary C. Curtis breaks down what worked and what didn’t. Hagan and Tillis weren’t at odds over everything – they agreed that President Obama needs to take action against ISIS.
In North Carolina, Republicans see a prime opportunity for a U.S. Senate win in November. So national and state party leaders, anxious to broaden the base, are again turning to African American voters. The latest effort is a North Carolina Black Advisory Board “to strengthen the party’s ties with diverse communities and expand engagement efforts across the state,” the Republican National Committee said in a statement Thursday.
RNC Chairman Reince Priebus said of the 11 board members, “Their knowledge and roots in black communities across the state will be invaluable as we share our message of empowerment and expanding access to the American Dream.”
They have their work cut out for them.
Very few issues can bring contentious Democrats and Republicans in the North Carolina general assembly together. But this week, marking national military appreciation month, a joint resolution expressing gratitude and appreciation for “the men and women of the United States armed forces” won unanimous support.
Those men and women and their families are important constituents and the military ranks as a major economic driver in a state with, as the resolution mentioned, six major military bases, nearly 800,000 veterans, and the third largest military force in the country, with close to 120,000 active duty personnel and another 12,000 members of the North Carolina National Guard.
So the current investigation of allegations of slow wait times and false record-keeping at the VA that is being closely watched all over is of special interest in North Carolina. In the midst of a tight U.S. Senate race, it’s inevitable politics as well as concern would be part of the reaction.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — WCCB’s political contributor, Mary C. Curtis, has been watching the race develop between Senator Kay Hagan and State House Speaker Thom Tills.
The Republican effort to unseat Senator Hagan will kick into overdrive leading up to the November election.
Tillis is the man the party hopes can make it happen. Curtis gives us some insight on the race.
an anything upset the script of the 2014 U.S. Senate election in North Carolina, as it’s now being written? It may depend on whether a 2014 renewal of the “Moral Monday” coalition and an accompanying voter registration effort will increase dissatisfaction with the state’s rightward legislative shift and motivate enthusiasm for the Democratic incumbent.
Because of diverse opposition to issues that range from a refusal of the Medicaid expansion to education cuts to limits on unemployment benefits to new voting rules now being fought in the courts, the nationalized partisan voting trends hardening in a recent Washington Post/ABC News poll may not be as firm in North Carolina.
The 2014 midterm election is already shaping up as a litmus test for the political state of the state. With voters angry at different faction for different reasons, politicians from both parties calibrate their messages with care.
