add site
services
publishers
database
health videos
toolbar
stats
live show
health store
more stuff
JOIN/LOGIN
| advertise add site services publishers database health videos
| | about toolbar stats live show health store more stuff JOIN/LOGIN |
Dr. Kay Kalantari, Kennesaw Dentist, Marietta Dentist, Dr. Kay,... dentistryatkennesawpoint.... | Kevin F. Hagan, M.D., F.A.C.S. - Tummy Tuck Nashville, Davidson County,... mytummytuckusa.com |
Kay Ruthven Hagan (pronounced /ˈheɪɡən/), born May 26, 1953[1]) is the junior United States Senator from North Carolina and a member of the Democratic Party. Before her election, she was a five-term member of the North Carolina Senate. Hagan defeated first-term Republican incumbent Elizabeth Dole in the 2008 United States Senate election. She is the second female senator from the state of North Carolina, and the first female Democrat to represent the state in the Senate. She is also the first woman to defeat a female incumbent in a Senate election, and her election makes North Carolina the first state to have elected female senators from more than one political party.
[edit] Early life and educationHagan was born in Shelby, North Carolina, to Joe, a tire salesman, and Jeanette (née Chiles) Ruthven, a homemaker. Both her father and her older brother served in the Navy.[2] She spent most of her childhood in Lakeland, Florida, of which her father later became mayor.[3] She also spent summers on her grandparents' farm in Chesterfield, South Carolina, where she would help string tobacco and harvest watermelons.[1] Hagan's earliest political activity was as a child placing bumper stickers on cars for her uncle, Florida Governor and U.S. Senator Lawton Chiles. In the 1970s, she was an intern at the Capitol, operating an elevator that carried senators, including her uncle, to and from the Chamber.[1] She attended Florida State University, earning a Bachelor's degree, and Wake Forest University, where she earned a Juris Doctor and also met her husband Chip Hagan, a Vietnam veteran attending Wake Forest with help from the G.I. Bill.[2] They married and she moved to Greensboro, North Carolina, where the Hagan family lived.[4] She then entered private practice as an attorney for North Carolina National Bank (now Bank of America), eventually rising to become Vice President in the estates and trust division. Upon the birth of her first child, she left the bank to become a stay-at-home mother. She also served as the Guilford County manager for Jim Hunt's 1992 and 1996 gubernatorial campaigns. [edit] Personal lifeHagan has three children with her husband, Jeanette, Tilden, and Carrie, all three of whom attended private schools.[4] Jeanette studied geology at California Institute of Technology[citation needed],Tilden attended Duke University and will be attending medical school, and Carrie studied business at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.[1] Hagan's husband, a transaction lawyer[5], is worth between $10.7 million and $40 million.[4] [edit] State legislatorHagan was first elected to the North Carolina General Assembly as state senator for the 32nd district in 1998; due to redistricting, her constituency later became the 27th district.[1] During the 1998 campaign, her uncle Lawton Chiles walked the district with her. She represented most of central Guilford County, including most of Greensboro. Serving five terms in the General Assembly, she was the chairwoman of that body's Appropriations Committee and Pensions, Retirement & Aging Committee, and supported legislation raising teachers' salaries and increasing funding for early childhood education.[6] She was known as a "pro-business Democrat" in the state Senate.[4] [edit] 2008 U.S. Senate campaignMain article: United States Senate election in North Carolina, 2008 After Hagan first decided not to run against Elizabeth Dole,[7] the Swing State Project announced on October 26, 2007, that two independent sources had reported that Hagan would, in fact, run.[8] Hagan made her candidacy official on October 30, 2007.[9][10] She defeated investment banker Jim Neal of Chapel Hill, podiatrist Howard Staley of Chatham County, Lexington truck driver Duskin Lassiter, and Lumberton attorney Marcus Williams in the May 2008 Democratic primary.  Hagan was initially given little chance against Dole, and she was recruited to the race only after more prominent North Carolina Democrats such as Governor Mike Easley, former Governor Jim Hunt and Congressman Brad Miller all declined to compete against Dole.[11] However, most polling from September onward showed Hagan slightly ahead of Dole, although Hagan had previously fallen behind by as many as 17 points at one point.[12] Hagan was helped by Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama's aggressive push for North Carolina's 15 electoral votes[13][14] and by 527 groups lobbying on her behalf.[11] The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee expended more money in North Carolina than in any other state during the 2008 election season.[11] In the November election, Hagan won by an unexpectedly wide margin, winning 53 percent of the vote to Dole's 44 percent—the largest margin of victory for a Senate race in North Carolina in 30 years, and the largest margin of defeat for an incumbent Senator in the 2008 cycle. It has been speculated that the wider-than-expected margin was partly due to anger over Dole's negative tactics in the latter stages of the race (see "Godless" ad below).[15] Hagan trounced Dole in the state's five largest counties—Mecklenburg, Wake, Guilford, Forsyth and Cumberland[16]. She also did very well in the eastern part of the state, actually outperforming Obama in that region. Hagan's victory returned Jesse Helms's former Senate seat to the Democrats; Helms held the seat from 1973 until Dole won in the 2002 election. Ironically, Helms had won largely by dominating the eastern part of the state, a region Hagan dominated in 2008 as mentioned above. It also means that North Carolina now has two Senators from the Piedmont Triad; senior Senator Richard Burr is from Winston-Salem. [edit] Husband's dealingsIn October 2008, The Politico reported that Hagan's husband Chip Hagan III, a former Democratic county leader, had been a member of 1,000-member Greensboro Country Club for years, despite the club's de facto segregation and refusal to admit black members.[17] Hagan herself was not a member of the club. Greensboro Country Club admitted its first black member in 1995.[17] Over the summer, Chip Hagan had also been criticized by Republicans for part ownership of domestic oil wells as gasoline prices increased for consumers.[17] [edit] "Godless" adIn late October, the Dole campaign released a television ad which stated that the leader of the Godless Americans PAC had held "a secret fundraiser in Kay Hagan's honor." The ad showed sound bites of group members espousing their views, then stated that Kay Hagan "hid from cameras, took Godless money... what did Hagan promise in return?" It ended with a photo of Hagan and a female voice like Hagan's saying, "There is no God."[18][19] The ad aired across North Carolina[18] Hagan's campaign says the ad sought to put inflammatory words in their candidate's mouth; The Dole campaign says the ad correctly shows who Hagan will associate with in order to raise campaign funds. On November 1, Bob Dole also defended it, asserting that "it never questions her faith," and that "the issue is why she was there. There's no question about her faith. I think it's [the ad's] fair game."[20] Hagan, a member of First Presbyterian Church of Greensboro and a former Sunday school teacher,[19] condemned the ad as "fabricated and pathetic."[21] Hagan also filed a lawsuit in Wake County Superior Court accusing Dole of defamation and libel.[22][23] Following Hagan's victory, the lawsuit was dropped.[24] The ad met exceptionally strong criticism from the public as well as many local and several national media outlets. CNN's Campbell Brown said about the ad: "[A]mid all the attack ads on the airwaves competing to out-ugly one another, we think we've found a winner."[25] The ad was described as "ridiculously outrageous,"[26] "indecent,"[27] a "gross misrepresentation,"[28] "worse than dishonest"[29] and "beyond the bounds of acceptable political disagreement,"[29] among other harsh criticism.[30] Another ad issued by the Dole campaign in mid-October 2008 was described by The Fayetteville Observer as "[setting] the low mark in negative political campaigning."[31] [edit] Senate career[edit] Committee assignments
[edit] Political positionsHagan differs from the Democratic Party on the issue of FDA regulation of the tobacco industry. Hagan opposed the Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act, which was cosponsored in the 110th Congress by Barack Obama. Lorillard Tobacco Company is based in her hometown of Greensboro, North Carolina.[32] Hagan was the only democratic senator to oppose the bill when it came to a vote in the Senate. The bill passed with seventy-nine votes in favor to seventeen in opposition, including Hagan.[33] Hagan at first refused to take a position on the Wall Street bailout bill, but said she opposed it after the Senate passed the bill.[4] Hagan voted against a resolution to establish a national consumer credit usury rate.[34] [edit] Electoral history
[edit] References
[edit] External links
Categories: 1953 births | American Presbyterians | Female United States Senators | Florida State University alumni | Living people | North Carolina Democrats | North Carolina lawyers | North Carolina State Senators | People from Greensboro, North Carolina | United States Senators from North Carolina | Wake Forest University alumni | Women state legislators in North Carolina | People from Shelby, North Carolina | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ↑ top of page ↑ | about thumbshots |
