Greensboro News & Record reports:
Richard Burr won re-election to his Senate seat in 2010 by historic proportions. His 54.8 percent vote was the biggest ever received by a Republican in a North Carolina Senate race.
No wonder he thinks North Carolina is a red state. For him, it is!
Senate Democrats have yet to produce a candidate to challenge Senator Burr in 2016, but many Democrats are urging Kay Hagan to run again:
So far, [North Carolina Democrats] haven’t come up with a candidate to run against him next year.
That apparently is prompting some, such as New York Sen. Chuck Schumer, to encourage Greensboro’s Kay Hagan to take a shot.
In fact, University of Virginia political scientist Larry Sabato lists only Hagan as a possible opponent for Burr. The Cook Political Report currently lists the North Carolina Senate race squarely in the "Lean Republican" column.
However, as Politico Pro reports, Hagan, who lost to Senator Thom Tillis in 2014 is already trailing Senator Burr by 9 points.
Recently, American Crossroads polled Burr against potential Democratic challengers. Here’s what they found:
It finds Burr leading former Sen. Kay Hagan 49-42 percent, which is similar to last week’s survey by Public Policy Polling, which put the spread at 49-40 percent.
The American Crossroads poll also puts Burr ahead of state Sen. Dan Blue, a Raleigh Democrat, by 50-36 percent.
Should either of these candidates decide to run, they will have a lot of ground to cover in order to close that gap. It’s telling that North Carolina’s two top candidates are so far down in the polls.
All signs point to smooth sailing for Senator Richard Burr as North Carolina Democrats continue their struggle to find a candidate.