NORTH CAROLINA -- In the day following Democratic incumbent senator Kay Hagan's loss to Republican challenger Thom Tillis, voters speculate what role Libertarian candidate Sean Haugh played in the end result.
North Carolina House speaker Tillis clinched victory by two percent over incumbent Hagan, who was favored in the majority of polls leading into Tuesday's Mid-Term Elections. Final numbers indicated Tillis received 49 percent of the vote. Hagan received 47 percent. Haugh received four percent -- a historically large number for a third party in Mid-Term Elections.
Past elections and party platforms suggest Libertarian candidates tend to take away votes from Republican candidates. But, the trend might have been the opposite in this Senate race, according to a political poll.
Elon Poll director Kenneth Fernandez, Ph.D. said, "We (Elon Poll) did an online survey, and we found that basically two-thirds of the votes were being stolen from Hagan."
Fernandez speculated Hagan's campaign might have feared this would happen but did not do enough to appeal to Sean Haugh voters.
However, Fernandez said even if Haugh had not run, the end result likely would be the same.
He explained, "I think it would be much closer. I think if it came down to 1 percent, we could say that Sean Haugh was a spoiler. Would Hagan have been able to catch up for two points? That would be a tough call. I think a lot of people are going to revisit this. Is this a 2000 race just like Gore lost because of a third-party candidate?"
He added, "I think this is a tough, tough decision for Hagan to think--could I have done something different to woo those Sean Haugh voters or maybe have tacked Tillis to woo some independents? Tillis did much, much better with independents."
On the Good Morning Show Wednesday, Fernandez assessed a number of other Mid-Term Elections results.
Of the lack of close congressional district races in North Carolina, Fernandez said, "They were pretty predictable. Basically after re-districting we found that there were solid Republican districts that were drawn up and solid Democrats. So none of these races were really in contention, but Republicans still did very well throughout the state and throughout the country. We would call this a "wave election."
The Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives strengthened its majority in the Mid-Term Elections. Republicans gained 10 seats as of Wednesday morning, and Democrats lost 24. In the currently Democrat-controlled U.S. Senate, seven states--including North Carolina--tipped the balance of power in favor of a Republican majority.
This is the first time Republicans will control both chambers of Congress since 2006.
Fernandez said, "I think this was a judgment on Barack Obama, which was not that surprising. After six years, most presidents —we get tired of them. Also, we see voters were upset about gridlock—Democrats controlling the Senate, Republicans controlling the House. Nothing was getting done, and I think voters decided we needed to change that. And they made a drastic change."
View post-Elections analysis of local races:
See full list of Mid-Term Elections results on WFMYNews2.com.
Complete North Carolina Election 2014 Results
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