Tillis wins North Carolina GOP senate primary

In the first of a springtime series of primaries testing the strength of a tea party movement that first rocked the Republican Party four years ago, North Carolina Republican Thom Tillis, backed by the party establishment, fought off tea party and Christian conservative rivals on Tuesday to win the nomination to take on vulnerable Democratic Sen. Kay Hagan in November.

The Tillis victory sets up a general-election fight against Hagan that will be among the country's most hard-fought and closely watched U.S. Senate races. Republicans must pick up six seats to win a Senate majority.

Establishment figures made little or no secret of their desire for Tillis to prevail, fearful that any other challenger to Hagan could mean a replay of 2010 and 2012, when Republicans lost winnable Senate races in Nevada, Indiana and Missouri.

"You can't defeat Kay Hagan with a factionalized [party]," Tillis said at one point, making a case for his own nomination.

Hagan is among the Democrats' most vulnerable incumbents in a campaign season full of them, a first-term lawmaker in a state that is ground zero in a national debate over the health care law that she and the Democrats voted into existence four years ago. Americans for Prosperity, a group funded by the billionaire Koch brothers, has run about $7 million worth of television commercials criticizing Hagan for her position on the law.

Also in North Carolina, former "American Idol" runner-up Clay Aiken had a narrow lead on opponent Keith Crisco as he sought the Democratic nomination to oppose Republican Rep. Renee Ellmers in the fall. A Democratic runoff was possible.

Aiken's campaign says he's confident of eventual victory in the 2nd Congressional District. Crisco's camp says he's waiting for North Carolina election officials to check vote counts in Tuesday's race.

The state elections board on Wednesday showed its latest unofficial results giving Aiken the 40 percent of the tally he needs to avoid a runoff election in July and a margin large enough to deny Crisco a recount. 

Democratic State Rep. Alma Adams was comfortably ahead for a pair of nominations at the same time: In a special election to fill the unexpired term of former Rep. Mel Watt, and also for the November ballot in the heavily Democratic district. Republican Rep. Walter Jones, known for his vocal opposition to the Iraq war, defeated challenger Tyler Griffin, a political consultant.

The North Carolina vote was the first test of a new state measure that Gov. Pat McCrory signed in August requiring government-issued photo identification at the polls and curtailing early voting, but as of Tuesday night, there was scant analysis of how the law may have influenced outcomes in the primaries.

While North Carolina grabbed the spotlight on Tuesday, voters in Indiana and Ohio also chose candidates for November.

In Ohio, Cuyahoga County Executive Ed FitzGerald, a former FBI agent, won the Democratic nomination to challenge Gov. John Kasich in the fall, while U.S. House Speaker John Boehner, a Republican, rolled to renomination for another term in Congress, his 13th.

Boehner's nomination was never in doubt, despite challenges from tea party adherents J.D. Winteregg and Eric Gurr. His seat is safely Republican for the general election as well, and it will be up to fellow Republicans — assuming they hold their House majority — to decide if the 64-year-old Ohioan serves a third term as speaker.

Kasich was unopposed for nomination to a second term as governor, a race viewed as a possible prelude to a 2016 run for the White House. FitzGerald wasted no time in pocketing his primary triumph, blasting out an email that declared, "As of tonight, this race is officially between me and Gov. Kasich."

On a night that was kind to Republican incumbents, GOP Rep. Susan Brooks of Indiana easily fended off a challenge from the right, rolling up 75 percent of the votes in a three-way race. First-term Rep. David Joyce of Ohio had a slightly tougher time but was running well ahead of his tea party rival.

Wire services