The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee launched a hard-hitting ad Wednesday against the Republican challenger to Sen. Kay Hagan, D-N.C., the first spot of a $9.1 million investment in the state through Election Day.  

The spot attacks state Speaker Thom Tillis on education, saying the budget passed by the state Legislature last year had negative impacts. Hagan has leveled similar attacks against Tillis, tying him to laws that emerged from last year’s legislative session.  

“House speaker Thom Tillis drew a bull’s-eye on public schools, cutting nearly $500 million,” a female narrator says. At the same time, the narrator says, he gave “tax breaks to yacht and jet owners.” www.youtube.com/watch?v=tr_9kx2-qLs  

The ad began airing today. North Carolina is the second state the DSCC has launched an independent expenditure ad, following Arkansas last week .  

The North Carolina Senate race is one of the most competitive this cycle and one of the GOP’s top targets as it seeks to pick up six Senate seats. Allies of both candidates have already spent millions in North Carolina, which President Barack Obama lost narrowly in 2012.  

The race is rated Tilts Democrat by the Rothenberg Political Report/Roll Call.  

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