North Carolina state House Speaker Thom Tillis won the most expensive Senate race in U.S. history, eking out a victory Tuesday over Democratic incumbent Kay Hagan.
The GOP victory in North Carolina, called by the Associated Press just before 11:30 p.m., ensured a Republican takeover of the Senate. Republicans picked up at least six seats in the upper chamber, with additional gains expected as more returns trickle in.
Hagan was considered by many political handicappers to be the most vulnerable Senate Democrat nationwide, considering President Obama’s massive unpopularity in the Tar Heel State. However, she found some success in linking Tillis to the equally unpopular Republican-led state House in North Carolina.
According to campaign watchdogs, more than $100 million has been spent on the Hagan-Tillis slugfest.
The race put to the test the question of whether voters cared more about national problems — Ebola, the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, and immigration reform — or local issues, such as education cuts and reproductive rights in North Carolina.
Also influencing the contest, Hagan has been under the microscope after a report that her family benefited inappropriately from stimulus funding.
Obama narrowly lost North Carolina to Mitt Romney in 2012, after pulling an upset in the state four years earlier, but has since seen his approval ratings plummet there since his re-election.
Democrats held their 2012 convention in Charlotte to showcase the expanded map under Obama, but such confidence has diminished during the president’s second term.
Despite distancing herself from Obama throughout the campaign, Hagan, in a last-second play for votes, approved a radio ad from the president promoting her record.
