Now that GOP Primary is Over, North Carolina Senate Moves to Pure Toss-Up

by Nathan L. Gonzales May 7, 2014 · 10:45 AM EDT

State House Speaker Thom Tillis won the GOP nomination outright on Tuesday, setting up a general election match-up against Democratic Sen. Kay Hagan in one of the top Senate races in the country. Even though Hagan’s polling numbers have been mediocre at best, we gave her a slight edge in the race because of uncertainty in the Republican primary.

But now that Tillis is the nominee and avoided a costly July runoff that could have pushed him further to the right, Hagan does not have a significant advantage in the race. We are changing our rating of the race from Toss-Up/Tilt Democrat to Pure Toss-Up.