As North Carolina's Senate race heads into its final days, Democratic incumbent Kay Hagan and Republican Speaker of the N.C. House Thom Tillis remain nearly neck-and-neck. The race has attracted significant national attention and has been deemed the most expensive Senate race ever, with many outside groups providing considerable funding as both parties battle for control of Congress. With less than a week until Election Day, take a look at how the two candidates stack up on key issues.
- Hagan: Chairwoman of Armed Services Emerging Threats subcommittee. Supports pulling U.S. troops out of Afghanistan by the end of the year, airstrikes against ISIS in Syria and arming moderate Syrian rebels.
- Tillis: Says all options should remain open, including ground troops in Iraq and Syria, but hasn’t explicitly stated a position on ground intervention. Supports withdrawal from Afghanistan but criticized the Obama administration’s timeframe as too hasty.
- Hagan: Wants to increase teacher pay and reduce classroom sizes. Supports allowing students to refinance their loans and making early education a priority.
- Tillis: Is against allowing students to refinance their loans. Wants to repeal Common Core.
- Taxes
- Hagan: Favors higher taxes for the wealthy and tax cuts for middle-income families and closing loopholes for big corporations.
- Tillis: Wants to reduce the corporate income tax and state government spending. Supports rolling back on gas tax increases.
- Minimum wage
- Hagan: Supports increase in federally-mandated minimum wage to $10.
- Tillis: Opposes the federally-mandated minimum wage. Believes individual states should be able to decide on minimum wage but has not explicitly stated whether the current state minimum wage is sufficient.
- Abortion
- Hagan: Supports making abortions safe and legal. Wants to focus on preventing unwanted pregnancy in the first place.
- Tillis: Supports stricter abortion policies, including mandatory ultrasounds and requiring physicians to provide certain information 24 hours prior to the abortion such as description of the fetus, alternatives and medical risks.
- Contraception
- Hagan: Supports companies covering contraception in their insurance policies and expanding Medicaid’s coverage of family planning services.
- Tillis: Supports making oral contraceptives available over the counter.
- Hagan: Supports leaving definition of marriage up to states and prohibiting sexual identity discrimination in schools. Opposed Amendment One.
- Tillis: Believes in constitutionally defining marriage as one man and one woman. Supported Amendment One.
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