Down the Homestretch: N.C.’s 8th District (GOP Incumbent)

Washington Wire takes a look at what’s at stake in key House races. Easha Anand reports on the 2008 elections. The Situation: North Carolina’s Eighth District is textile country, and incumbent Republican Rep. Robin Hayes may find that the free trade votes he cast while holding his nose will come back to haunt him. Scion of a large textile family, Hayes cast the tie-breaking vote in the Central American Free Trade Agreement after going on the record as “flat-out, completely, horizontally opposed to CAFTA.” Hayes will have to convince voters that the concessions he wrung from the White House were worth it as he once again faces Democrat Larry Kissell , a former textile worker and high school civics teacher, who came close to beating Hayes in 2006. The Republican: Rep. Robin Hayes hung onto his seat by 329 votes in 2006, against come-from-behind challenger Larry Kissell. Though he’s held North Carolina’s Eighth District seat since 1999, Hayes, ... (link)