By Emily Bruzzo, Staff Writer

Published in print Oct. 29, 2014

With Election Day just around the corner, North Carolinians are wondering whom they can trust in this brutal senatorial race between the incumbent, Democratic Sen. Kay Hagan, and her adversary, Republican Speaker of the North Carolina House of Representatives Thom Tillis.

In an election that is arguably the most costly in the country, with NBC reporting a whopping $100 million in spending, it doesn’t appear North Carolina voters are that excited about either candidate.

In a recent NBC poll, Hagan’s disapproval rating is at 48 percent, with Tillis not far behind at 44 percent.

Regardless of the obvious dissatisfaction amongst voters and how close the race has become, Sen. Hagan is confident that she will win.

In a phone interview with The Carolinian, Hagan defended her right to another term and explained why she thinks Tillis’ policies are detrimental to North Carolina.

“I put North Carolina first every day,” Hagan said in a response to a question about Tillis’ aggressive portrayal of her as a polarized democrat.

“I think people need to understand that the president is not on the ballot,” asserted Hagan.

Tillis’ campaign has capitalized tremendously on voters’ frustrations with President Obama, painting Hagan has an extreme liberal who, as Tillis’ official campaign website puts it, “is a rubber-stamp for President Obama, voting with him 96 percent of the time over the last two years.”

But Hagan thinks Tillis is the polarized one. “Speaker Tillis has actually said he could not name one issue where he would disagree with his party,” Hagan argued.

Citing The Non-Partisan National Journal, an organization that ranks senators based on their ideological tendencies, Hagan said, “I am smack dab in the middle. That shows that I can work across the isle to get things done.”

Hagan claims that she has contradicted her democratic colleagues on a number of occasions, saying that she supports the Keystone Pipeline and has voted against the Democratic budget because “it had too deep of cuts to the Department of Defense.”

To further support her claim that Tillis has a polarized agenda, Hagan referenced the Koch brothers’ support of the republican.

Hagan argues that the amount of money coming into North Carolina from the Koch brothers suggests that Tillis “has done their special-interest bidding in Raleigh.”

“There is more outside money in North Carolina than any other state,” Hagan said, calling that a “red flag.”

However, Tillis isn’t the only one who has relied on outside money to help him.

Planned Parenthood has pledged its support for Hagan since the beginning of her race, with many news sources, such as Raleigh’s the News and Observer and D.C.’s The Hill, reporting that the organization would devote up to $3 million for furthering her campaign.

Hagan doesn’t think the endless stream of outside revenue coming into her campaign has slanted her. She’s more concerned with how Tillis’ policies at the state level will affect North Carolina if they are implemented at the national level.

“I think his polices have hurt middle class individuals in North Carolina,” Hagan argued. “He kept pitting the system against small businesses over and over again so that he gave tax cuts to the wealthy.”

To further demonstrate the contrast between her policies and Tillis’, Hagan cited student debt.

“This is one area that we could, very quickly, make a huge difference in people’s pocket books,” Hagan said.

Hagan, who voted on a bill to cut student interest rates in half, referred to recent debates where she says Tillis refused to agree on allowing student debt to be refinanced.

Republicans in the Senate wouldn’t support the bill, and Hagan says neither would Tillis, claiming student debt is yet another issue about which Tillis refuses to differ from his party.

Hagan didn’t stop there in her attack on Tillis’ policies about education.

She argued he has supported tuition increases at institutions in North Carolina, placed taxes on college meal plans, eliminated 529 tax credits and advocated for dissolving the Department of Education.

“I think the student debt issue is very telling of how Speaker Tillis doesn’t understand how the outcome of his polices are having a direct impact on the people of North Carolina— a negative impact,” Hagan said.

As to what Hagan thinks about her prospects for winning this election, the senator says: “I’m going to win this race. The democrats will continue to hold down the Senate.”

Thom Tillis, Republican Speaker of the North Carolina House of Representatives and the Republican yin to Sen. Kay Hagan’s Democratic yang in the 2014 senatorial election, declined The Carolinian’s request for an interview; however, his stances are no secret.

On Tillis’ official campaign website, the Republican lays out his platform in its entirety.

Tillis argues that he will “push for repeal of Obamacare, a balanced budget and conservative economic policy.”

Consistent with his aggressive critique of Hagan as too liberal, Tillis argues that Washington needs “a dose of effective reform conservatism.”

Tillis asserts that he will fight for the private sector and a free market, and he will start by working “to shrink the size of our federal government.”

Regarding social issues, Tillis supports pro-life agenda and believes “marriage is between one man and one woman…”

Tillis has also pledged to oppose firearm and ammunition bans, as well as vote against legislation requiring federal authorization of firearm transfers between family members and friends.

Concerning the budget, Tillis’ campaign asserts, “After a long career in private business, balancing budgets is not just theory: it’s what he does.”

Tillis argues that he has been consistently successful in balancing the North Carolina budget and as such the state has watched its debt drop.

Tillis says he supports a “‘Cut, Cap and Balance’ approach.’” Such an approach would require the federal government to “cut spending now, cap spending in the future and require a balanced budget every year.”

Tillis has also made the repeal of the Affordable Care Act—often referred to as ObamaCare—a focal point of his campaign.

Tillis argues, “ObamaCare is a cancer on our national economy and it threatens the quality of every American’s health care.”

Tillis has pledged to fight for a full repeal of the health care bill and for the implementation of “private sector solutions to reduce healthcare costs for North Carolinians.”