The North Carolina Republican primary results are in, with a big victory for the U.S. Senate candidate backed by the party's national establishment — and also for an incumbent House member whom many others in the party were trying to take down.
With 82 percent of precincts reporting statewide, according to the The Associated Press, State House Speaker Thom Tillis has won the Senate primary with 46 percent of the vote — well above the 40 percent threshold he needed to avoid a runoff election against one of his insurgent challengers. Tillis is himself quite strongly conservative, and will face a competitive race against the incumbent Democrat, Sen. Kay Hagan. Indeed, ads run by Hagan and other Democrats against Tillis during the primary gave quite a strong impression that they had rather wanted to face one of those Tea Party opponents instead.
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