2014 United States Senate election in North Carolina

The 2014 United States Senate election in North Carolina took place on November 4, 2014, to elect a member of the United States Senate to represent the state of North Carolina, concurrently with other elections to the United States Senate in other states and elections to the United States House of Representatives and various state and local elections. The primary took place on May 6, 2014.

Incumbent Democratic Senator Kay Hagan ran for re-election to a second term in office and lost to Republican Thom Tillis, Speaker of the North Carolina House of Representatives by about 45,000 votes and a margin of 1.6%. This made the election the second-closest race of the 2014 Senate election cycle, behind only the election in Virginia.

Declared

 * Kay Hagan, incumbent U.S. Senator
 * Ernest T. Reeves, retired U.S. Army captain
 * Will Stewart, small business owner

Withdrew

 * Fred Westphal, retired University of Miami professor and political activist

Candidates
The eight Republican candidates on the 2014 U.S. Senate primary ballot were the most in party history in North Carolina, more than the seven on the ballot in the 2002 Republican primary won by Elizabeth Dole.

Declared

 * Ted Alexander, former mayor of Shelby
 * Alex Bradshaw
 * Greg Brannon, physician and Tea Party activist
 * Heather Grant, nurse practitioner
 * Mark Harris, pastor of First Baptist Church of Charlotte and president of the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina
 * Edward Kryn, retired physician
 * James Snyder Jr., former state representative, candidate for U.S. Senate in 2002 and nominee for lieutenant governor in 2004
 * Thom Tillis, Speaker of the North Carolina House of Representatives

Withdrew

 * Terry Embler, police detective
 * Bill Flynn, radio host and candidate for North Carolina's 6th congressional district in 2012

Declined

 * Phil Berger, President pro tempore of the North Carolina Senate
 * Cherie K. Berry, North Carolina Commissioner of Labor
 * Peter S. Brunstetter, state senator
 * James P. Cain, attorney and former United States Ambassador to Denmark
 * Renee Ellmers, U.S. Representative
 * Dan Forest, Lieutenant Governor of North Carolina
 * Virginia Foxx, U.S. Representative
 * George Holding, U.S. Representative
 * Patrick McHenry, U.S. Representative
 * Sue Myrick, former U.S. Representative and former Mayor of Charlotte
 * Robert Pittenger, U.S. Representative
 * Kieran Shanahan, attorney
 * Lynn Wheeler, former member of the Charlotte City Council and former mayor pro tempore of Charlotte

Polling

 * Primary


 * Runoff

Results
[[File:North Carolina Senate Republican Primary, 2014.svg|300px|thumb|Results by county: {{legend|#E27F7F|Tillis}}

{{legend|#FFC8CD|30–40%}}

{{legend|#FFB2B2|40–50%}}

{{legend|#E27F7F|50–60%}}

{{legend|#D75D5D|60–70%}} {{legend|#ff9955|Brannon}}

{{legend|#ffcca9|30–40%}}

{{legend|#ffb580|40–50%}} {{legend|#FACA33|Harris}}

{{legend|#FFEEAA|30–40%}} ]]

Declared

 * Tim D'Annunzio, businessman, Republican candidate for NC-08 in 2010 and Republican nominee for NC-04 in 2012
 * Sean Haugh, pizza delivery man and nominee for this seat in 2002

Certified write-in candidates

 * Barry Gurney, small business owner
 * John W. Rhodes, former Republican state representative
 * David Waddell, Constitution Party member and former Indian Trail town councilman

Candidates

 * Kay Hagan (D), incumbent U.S. Senator
 * Sean Haugh (L), pizza delivery man and nominee for the U.S. Senate in 2002
 * Thom Tillis (R), Speaker of the North Carolina House of Representatives

Outside spending
In July 2014, Jim Morrill of The Charlotte Observer calculated that as of the end of June, more than $26 million had been spent by outside advocacy groups on the election, with $17 million of it attacking Hagan or supporting Tillis and less than $9 million supporting Hagan or attacking Tillis. By contrast, outside groups spent $25 million during the entire 2008 election. He reported that only $11.4 million had been reported to the FEC, with the rest of the "dark money" coming from groups that did not have to disclose their donors. 27% of the money spent supporting Tillis came from groups required to disclose their donors whereas 69% of the money supporting Hagan did so.

OpenSecrets placed the final cost of outside spending at $8.5 million for Hagan and $35.5 million attacking Tillis, and $13.7 million for Tillis and $20.9 million attacking Hagan, placing the totals by candidate at $44 million for Hagan, and $34.6 million for Tillis.

Debates
Three televised debates between the candidates were held: the first on September 3 moderated by Norah O'Donnell of CBS, the second on October 7 moderated by George Stephanopoulos of ABC, and the third (the only one to feature Sean Haugh) on October 9 moderated by Jon Evans of WECT-TV.

Video of the first debate is available here, with the second here and the third here.

Counties that flipped from Democratic to Republican

 * Caswell (largest city: Yanceyville)
 * Duplin (largest city: Wallace)
 * Franklin (largest city: Wake Forest)
 * Haywood (largest city: Waynesville)
 * Jones (largest city: Maysville)
 * Madison (largest city: Mars Hill)
 * Montgomery (largest city: Troy)
 * Chowan (largest municipality: Edenton)
 * Columbus (largest municipality: Whiteville)
 * Nash (largest municipality: Rocky Mount)
 * New Hanover (largest municipality: Wilmington)
 * Watauga (largest municipality: Boone)
 * Alamance (largest municipality: Burlington)
 * Brunswick (largest municipality: Leland)
 * Greene (largest municipality: Snow Hill)
 * Lee (largest municipality: Sanford)
 * Person (largest municipality: Roxboro)
 * Rockingham (largest municipality: Eden)
 * Yancey (largest municipality: Burnsville)
 * Pender (largest municipality: Hampstead)
 * Sampson (largest municipality: Clinton)
 * Swain (largest municipality: Cherokee)
 * Washington (largest municipality: Plymouth)