Ebola, Islamic State shift dynamics for Hagan, Tillis in North Carolina’s Senate race

Sen. Kay Hagan (D-N.C.), left, and Libertarian Party candidate Sean Haugh, center, listen as Republican candidate Thom Tillis speaks during a debate at WECT studios in Wilmington, N.C., on Oct. 9. (Gerry Broome/Associated Press)

By Matea Gold October 19 at 10:08 PM

CHARLOTTE — Thom Tillis sent a deep sigh and a shudder rolling through the crowd of Republican activists with just one word: ­“Ebola.”
“Can we all agree that it would make sense temporarily to have a travel ban?” the Republican Senate candidate asked about 100 supporters gathered Saturday afternoon at the local GOP headquarters in Guilford County. The crowd burst into hearty applause.
The specter of Ebola in the United States, on the heels of stories about the violent militants of the Islamic State, has made security a late-breaking wild-card issue in North Carolina’s Senate race.
For much of the year, the incumbent, Sen. Kay Hagan (D), and her allies had successfully framed the campaign as a referendum on the sharp conservative turn taken by the state legislature under the leadership of Tillis, the House speaker. But in the past few weeks, the conversation has pivoted amid alarming headlines about terrorism and a virulent epidemic, further tightening what is expected to be the most expensive Senate race in U.S. history.
Tillis has latched onto criticism of President Obama’s handling of the crises and sought to connect them to Hagan, part of his campaign’s broader aim to turn the race into a vote on the Democratic administration.

Sen. Kay Hagan (D-N.C.) makes a point while participating in a debate with Republican candidate Thom Tillis at UNC-TV studios in Research Triangle Park, N.C., on Oct. 7. (Gerry Broome/Associated Press)

“This president has failed the American people,” he told volunteers in Raleigh on Saturday. “Senator Hagan has been with him, with her rubber stamp, every step of the way. Our safety and security is more threatened now than it has ever been.”
Hagan has found herself on the defensive, acknowledging that she missed a classified briefing about national security threats to attend a campaign fundraiser in New York in February. On Friday, she called on Obama to temporarily ban the travel of non-U.S. citizens from affected countries in West Africa, just days after saying that such a tactic “is not going to help” unless it was part of a broader strategy.