Senator Kay Hagan (D., N.C.) has spent months emphasizing her independence from the White House, but with her reelection in doubt, she is turning to President Obama for last-minute help.
Hagan is running a radio ad featuring Obama’s endorsement. “Just stand with me, President Obama, and take responsibility of moving North Carolina forward by voting for Kay Hagan on November 4th,” the president says in the ad.
The North Carolina lawmaker’s appeal for help must have made Obama feel good, given his annoyance with the strategy most Democrats have followed.
“Obama, for so long the man with the bright future, has hated being relegated to a sidelined pariah in the midterms—even if it is the inevitable lot of a second-termer with approval ratings hovering in the low 40s—according to a dozen current and former Obama advisers we spoke with in recent days,” Politico reported Sunday.
Hagan’s embrace of Obama certainly pleased Republican Senate candidate Thom Tillis.
“After desperately attempting to run away from her record of rubber-stamping President Obama 96 percent of the time, Kay Hagan is ending her campaign by featuring Obama’s endorsement of her liberal partisanship and lack of independence,” Daniel Keylin, Tillis’ spokesman, said in response to the ad. “As Kay Hagan’s ad makes clear, a vote for her is a vote to continue President Obama’s failed policies. A vote for Thom Tillis is a vote to change direction and make America great again.”
Hagan leads Tillis 45 to 43.9, according to the Real Clear Politics polling average.