RALEIGH—North Carolina’s US Senate race continues to receive national attention with many polls showing a tight race between Thom Tillis and Senator Kay Hagan.

Mitt Romney fired up a crowd of Thom Tillis supporters Wednesday night in Raleigh.

“I am delighted to be here to introduce a guy of character. A person who has great experience. A man of vision. A man as Secretary of State has demonstrated what he can do to make things happen for the people of this great state,” said former presidential candidate Mitt Romney.

The former presidential candidate was among several speakers leading up to the U.S. Senate candidate, who is hoping to defeat his opponent Kay Hagan next week.

“There’s a lot of misconceptions about what’s out there. I’m proud of my record as Speaker of the House and I’m going to be proud of my record as U.S. Senator. I’m going to come back and tell you what I’ve done for this nation,” said US Senate Candidate Thom Tillis.

The line outside for the event, and the big name appearance served as an indicator of how important this race has become.

“I’m really excited to see Mitt Romney. I’m seen him speak before and he’s a wonderful speaker,” said Raleigh resident Katelyn Heith.

“It wouldn’t surprise if this race is one of the closest ones in the entire country,” said Charlotte resident Jeffrey Berlin.

It is a race that has been close throughout the entire campaign. With less than a week to go both candidates are trying to gain momentum heading into the polls.

“Unless something big happens on the national stage or something unexpected happens and that old October surprise happens I don’t think we’ll see a big momentum shift push candidate or the other six or seven points ahead,” said David McLennan with Meredith College.

In a race that is setting up for a photo finish, both candidates continue to campaign hard for your vote.

- Andy Mattison

Senior Political Reporter Loretta Boniti speaks with Democratic Sen. Kay Hagan about her political career, her accomplishments and why she is running for a second term. Watch the interview here.

RALEIGH- When it comes to a dedicated voting segment, African-American voters have remained true.

“African-American voters are in many ways the most loyal voters to the Democratic party,” said Jason Husser, with Elon University. “This has been established for going on 100 years now.”

This election cycle is expected to be no different. Polling indicates that by a wide margin African-American voters will be heading to the polls this year for Kay Hagan, the incumbent Democrat. But new ads are trying to shake that stable base.

You can see two such ads here:
‘Elbert Guillory: Send Hagan Home’

‘Why?’

The ads are created by conservative outside interest groups and are aiming to influence the African-American vote.

“I suspect that the argument is that you don’t necessarily, the people behind this ad, don’t necessarily want to pull a ton of the African-American share of the vote,” said Kareem Crayton, with UNC Chapel Hill. “But they just want to bring it down enough that so in a tight race you have fewer votes for Kay Hagan and the Democrats than they expected.”

Although according to Crayton, this is a risky strategy.

“If it gets played too much, the African-American community could see it as an alarm bell to say this is an election that really matters,” said Crayton.

There are nearly one and a half million registered black voters in North Carolina. Meanwhile, many polls are saying Kay Hagan and Thom Tillis are still statistically tied heading into the final week of the campaign season and the fight is on, to win every voter possible.

- Loretta Boniti

Election Day is less than a week away and candidates are making that final push to sway voters.

The U.S. Senate race between Democrat Kay Hagan and Republican challenger Thom Tillis is in a dead heat and bringing some big names to the Tar Heel state to campaign.

Hagan makes her first stop Wednesday in Greenville, where she will address the General Baptist State Convention. She moves on to Rocky Mount for an early voting rally in the afternoon with former Gov. Jim Hunt and District 1 Rep. G.K. Butterfield.

Former presidential candidate and Massachussetts Gov. Mitt Romney joins Tllis in Raleigh at SMT Inc., a sheet metal fabrication company, Wednesday evening. Another former presidential candidate, Sen. John McCain joined Tillis on Tuesday.

Early voting continues through Saturday. If you don’t vote by then, you will have to wait until Nov. 4 to vote on Election Day. Poll hours will be 6:30 a.m. until 7:30 p.m.

- Tim Boyum