North Carolina Republican candidate for the Senate Thom Tillis told "Fox & Friends" his opponent, Democratic Sen. Kay Hagan, had "misplaced priorities," where she failed to attend more that half of the Senate Armed Services Committee meetings, even as the country faced a threat posed by the Islamic State (ISIS).
Tillis said Hagan had missed one committee meeting to attend a fundraiser in New York City.
"Sen. Hagan saw her way clear to miss a classified briefing on ISIS on the Armed Services Committee to go to a cocktail fundraiser, literally, on Park Ave. This is an example of her misplaced priorities," Tillis said Monday. "Not showing up for the Armed Services Committee meetings for more than half of the time, and this past year as ISIS has emerged as a threat, is a disgrace."
Tillis, a state representative and speaker of the House, is in a tight race to unseat Hagan, with recent polls on
Realclearpolitics.com showing him slightly behind.
Tillis said his campaign would "continue to focus on Sen. Hagan and her failed policies," stressing that her voting record fell in line with President Barack Obama's priorities.
"She votes with the president 96 percent of the time, and the president says his policies are on the ballot," he said. "She has doubled down and rubber stamped President Obama's policies that's destroying the economy. It's making our world less safe and secure."
During a debate Oct. 7, Hagan accused Tillis of cutting $500 million from the state's education budget. He maintained they were "false attacks," and that Hagan would "stop at nothing to distract people from her failed policy."
"When Sen. Hagan cast her last vote for a budget in 2008, she ended up leaving behind a deficit where Democrats, who were in the leadership at that time, cut almost $800 million in education spending. We've increased spending by a billion dollars a year," he said.