Primaries displays Republican tug-of-war

CHARLOTTE, North Carolina (AP) — A Republican political insider backed by former presidential nominee Mitt Romney captured the nomination fending off two anti-establishment challengers Tuesday in the North Carolina race to oppose imperiled Democratic Sen. Kay Hagan, in the first of a spate of primaries testing the strength of the small-government tea party movement that first rocked the party for years ago.

The North Carolina Republican primary is a key test in the 2014 elections for control of the Senate. The Republicans, who are expected to retain control of the House of Representatives in November, are six seats away from a Senate majority and determined to put electable candidates on the ballot. Democratic Sen. Kay Hagan's defeat in North Carolina is all but necessary if the Republicans want to take back control of the Senate.

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

Elsewhere in the state, Rep. Walter Jones, an anti-war Republican, was running ahead of his challenger.

Sen. Hagan, whom Republicans have made a top target in their drive to win a Senate majority in the fall, won re-nomination over a pair of rivals with about 80 percent of the primary vote.

Tuesday marked the beginning of the political primary season in earnest, and over the next several months Republicans will hold numerous contests featuring incumbents or other establishment figures against tea party challengers.

Republicans are divided between more moderate, mainstream leaders and newcomers aligned with the small-government tea party movement, which has pulled the party farther to the right on issues such as immigration and taxes. During the 2012 elections, tea party-backed candidates unseated establishment-backed Republicans in some primary races, only to lose to Democratic challengers who had been considered vulnerable in the general election. The Democrats retained control of the Senate.

In Ohio, U.S. House Speaker John Boehner has defeated two tea party challengers as he seeks his 13th term in Congress. First-term Rep. David Joyce of Ohio, had a slightly tougher time but was running well ahead of his tea party rival.

The Virginia-based Tea Party Leadership Fund spent some $320,000 in support of high school teacher J.D. Winteregg amid dissatisfaction among some Republic voters over Boehner's stances on immigration and the national debt. But Boehner never faced a major threat, whose campaign headed into the last month with some $3.3 million available.

In Indiana, Republican Rep. Susan Brooks easily fended off a challenge from the right, rolling up 75 percent of the votes in a three-way race.

On the eve of North Carolina's primary, Romney, the 2012 Republican presidential nominee, threw his weight behind the Tillis' candidacy, calling him "a conservative" with deep roots in the state. Meanwhile, Sen. Rand Paul, a tea-party favorite, campaigned for one of Tillis' main challengers, obstetrician Greg Brannon, calling him a "dragon slayer" and the "true believer" in the eight-person primary race.

The election-eve push was all about inspiring Republicans to vote in a primary in a state that narrowly chose President Barack Obama in 2008 and Romney four years later.

The primary might not answer the question of who gets to challenge Hagan. If no candidate gets more than 40 percent of the vote Tuesday, Republicans continue their contest through a July runoff — costing the party time and money that could otherwise be spent attacking Hagan, one of the Democrats' most vulnerable incumbents,

"You can't defeat Kay Hagan with a factionalized (party)," Tillis said.