CHARLOTTE, N.C. — (AP) Thom Tillis has won North Carolina's Republican Senate primary and will take on Democratic Senator Kay Hagan in November.
2014 N.C. Primary Results Page
The state House speaker and favorite of national Republican leaders beat seven other candidates Tuesday. He received 45 percent of the vote with more than one-third of precincts reporting unofficial results. He needed more than 40 percent to avoid a runoff.
Tillis ran on his legislative record as an architect of the Republican takeover of state government starting in 2011. Hagan easily won her primary Tuesday against two opponents. There will also be a Libertarian candidate in the fall election.
Tea party favorite Greg Brannon was second at 26 percent, followed by Charlotte pastor Mark Harris at 18 percent.
Hagan said in a statement, “It is an honor to once again be selected as the nominee for United States Senate. For the past five years, I have worked tirelessly to seek out bipartisan, commonsense solutions for North Carolina’s middle class families, and I have focused on efforts to create jobs and grow the economy. With the help of people from Murphy to Manteo, my campaign will be working to reach North Carolinians to talk about my track record of results for our state and my pledge to continue putting North Carolina first."
Supreme Court Associate
In the N.C. Supreme Court Associate race—Robin Hudson, the incumbent, received 43 percent of the vote and Eric Levinson received 37 percent. They were the top vote-getters and this will go to a run-off election.
Mecklenburg County Commission
For Mecklenburg County Commission, Ella Scarborough, Pat Cotham and Trevor Fuller will all move on to November's race. Cotham and Fuller are incumbents.
Mecklenburg County Commission District 2
In Mecklenburg County Board of Commissioners District 2, Vilma Leake has been on the board since 2008 and she will hold on to that seat.
Mecklenburg County Sheriff
In the Republican Mecklenburg County Sheriff race, Chris Hailey won with 74 percent of the vote against Louis Rango, Jr.
In the Democratic Mecklenburg County sheriff race, Irwin Carmichael won the seat against Antoine Ensley.
They will face off in November’s general election
House 9th District
Incumbent Robert Pittenger will hold on to the U.S. House 9th District seat after beating Michael Steinburg on election night. There is no Democratic challenger in November.
U.S. House 12th District
Another major race is for Mel Watt's seat. He stepped down in January once he was finally confirmed to head the Housing Finance Agency in Washington, D.C.
On Tuesday night, Alma Adams from the Greensboro area beat state Sen. Malcolm Graham from Charlotte in the Democratic race for the nomination.
On the Republican side, Vince Coakley won the nomination over Leon Threatt.
Watt’s seat will remain empty until one of the candidates is elected in November.
Gov. Pat McCrory decided against holding a special election for the District 12 seat saying it would cost taxpayers more than $1 million.
__
Associated Press writer Gary Robertson and AP television news reporter Alex Sanz in North Carolina contributed to this story.