Hillary Clinton, Alma Adams campaign for Hagan 

Marcela Hawkins and Ashley Bohle

“North Carolina is not for sale.”

Voters chanted this phrase Saturday at the Kay Hagan rally in the Charlotte Convention Center.

With Election Day just 10 days away and early voting already underway, NC incumbent Senator Kay Hagan and supporters (former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and NC Congresswoman Alma Adams) addressed the crowd about the importance of being politically active.

Adams, who was first to speak, encouraged voters to bring their families and friends to the polls. Hagan and Clinton followed with similar messages, challenging each person to bring three friends with them to vote.

During Hagan’s time on the stage, she argued for raising minimum wage, making college more affordable and letting students refinance college loans. Clinton voiced her support on these topics.

“The majority of minimum wage workers are women,” Clinton said. “Republicans will tell you, because they say it every time, that raising minimum wage will kill jobs. It actually lifts up people, more people get into the middle class. Kay understands this and that’s why she’s got a comprehensive plan for better jobs, better wages and better schools.”

Voters gather in the Charlotte Convention Center to support incumbent Senator Kay Hagan.

Hagan said her opponent, republican and current speaker of the NC House, Thom Tillis, “cut 500 million dollars from our public education system to give a tax break to the wealthy.”

She was adamant that this would not be the case with her in office.

“I will never back down when public education is on the line. Lets give our students, our teachers, our schools the resources they need,” Hagan said. “Not just in election year but every year.”

Hagan’s criticism of her republican rival did not stop there.

“Speaker Tillis has a disastrous agenda,” Hagan said. “He actually defunded planned parenthood.” Because of Tillis’ actions, Hagan warned that the North Carolinian idea of “the weak growing strong and the strong growing great is on the line right now in our state.”

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton voices her support for Hagan.

When Clinton took to the podium after Hagan, she talked about her one-month-old granddaughter Charlotte and how voters need to start thinking about future generations of women.

“Reach out to every single woman you know,” Clinton said, “Women’s issues are at the top of the priority list.”

Clinton made it clear she thought Hagan was the right choice for making these issues a priority. “This election comes down to a simple question: who’s on your side?” Clinton said. “North Carolina has so much potential that it really is critically important that you do what you can to get Kay reelected.”

Clinton finished by urging voters to elect Hagan because “we want leaders like Kay Hagan who appeal to our hopes not our fears.”

North Carolinians and the rest of the country head to the polls on November 4th to cast their votes.

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