Last night, reports came that Kay Hagan would not seek the seat held by her former colleague Richard Burr after all. That’s what she’s been telling donors. It’s definitely a blow to the DSCC, who sorely wanted to see her run again.
Though Hagan was by far the top choice of national Democrats, in my view odds were always less than 50/50 that she’d run. Why? Because the 2014 race was a brutal one, and usually candidates need some time to recover before going back to the campaign trail. Add to that the fact that Burr was leading her in the polls and her favorables were still underwater, you have what should have been an easy decision. It only took this long for her to decide because Washington Democrats were begging, pleading her to run again.
Despite Hagan’s decision, it’s not all gloom and doom for Democrats. They’re next going to turn to Janet Cowell, State Treasurer, who has already declined a bid but could change her mind. My predictions aren’t worth much, but I’m guessing she’ll be tough to persuade.
Interestingly, the Roll Call report which first broke the Hagan news cites an anonymous national Democratic strategist who says the Democratic bench is pretty strong. Among the potential candidates he or she named: Cowell, Anthony Foxx, Tom Ross, Josh Stein, and Heath Shuler. Of those, both Foxx and Cowell have both said they won’t run; Stein is running for Attorney General, and Shuler is a lobbyist at Duke Energy.
Whoever Democrats go with, one thing looks certain: you won’t have Kay Hagan to kick around anymore.
John Wynne is the “conservative voice” at PoliticsNC, where he also provides polling analysis and commentary on legislative campaigns. When not writing about politics, he enjoys gardening and listening to opera. Contact: johncwynne@gmail.com.
64% of voters may have supported an increase in the minimum wage, but 64% did not vote on that issue alone. Let’s stop with the conspiracy theories.
I think you guys give the voting populace too much credit. Voters, particularly middle class ones, have been voting against their own economic self-interest since voting began. Given that the complete absence of voter ID fraud was not enough to stop the right wing nuts from passing draconian voter obstacle laws, I am nervous about saying our version of voter fraud is more plausible than theirs.
As a Working Class Independent Scholar who has as a politician the true experience of work and has met the challenge and insults of “flawed” Greenspan world views to become a “Creative Economist” inventing a Nationalistic currency: The Insurodollar, I am actually perfect if Democrats are serious about wanting to represent the interests of working people.
I would advance the realistic options of alternatives to the Petro Industry as given us by our Engineers, both from the NCSU departments, MIT, and Internationally who I have become aware of.
Energy is the basis of our civilization.
I would advance port theory pushing the US to be capable of sending its own anywhere in the world within 4 hours.
I would fight to end the War on Drugs, in reality a War to Make Hate and kill.
It is an insult to all working people in the world that weapons of mass destruction threaten us.
The only sane battlefield for the revolutionary of today is that that Youtube enables. I continue my Transcendian channel there with the Intendor Radio show, a feed read from FB or other sites such as Linked In.
The necessary newspaper is http://transcendia.org/wordpress. The necessary book of a politician is Poor Buzz & Stories from Warnings for My Daughter.
The legacy of John Edwards is something NC suffers terribly from. Hagan didn’t overcome it nearly with her “bipartisanship”.
Nothing is going to change in the NC. political arena until the voters demand paper trails at the ballot box. 64% of all voters polled in the last election favored a minimum wage increase and yet miraculously the anti- minimum wage, pro-corporate, right-wing Neanderthal won the election? How many more times do we have to see this before we wake-up to the right-wing transformation that is taking this country toward corporate authoritarian rule?
Yes, voter fraud deniers need to get real. Computerized voting is inherently anti-democratic, too many high tech ways to cheat.
doom and gloom because Hagan is out? Hysterical. Sad thing now is what will you talk about? as for Roll Call, they know about as much as you.