This cycle's best bellwether for Senate control is North Carolina, where Sen. Kay Hagan, a Democrat, is seeking re-election in this increasingly frequent battleground state. Senate Republicans must pick up a net of six seats to win control, and the Tar Heel State has served as that chamber's best barometer in recent cycles. Since 2000, the party of North Carolina's Senate victor has picked up seats across the country. That's what happened in 2008, when Hagan defeated then-Sen. Elizabeth Dole, and Democrats picked up several Senate seats on the coattails of President Barack Obama's first election. Hagan won't have that benefit in 2014, when the president's poor approval rating will not help her re-election efforts. (more…)
