(Reuters) -
Republicans in North Carolina will vote on Tuesday on their candidate for a
U.S. Senate seat in November, in the first of several primaries this month that
will test whether the party's establishment can beat back challenges from Tea
Party rivals.
State
House Speaker Thom Tillis, backed by party mainstream leaders and business groups, appears to have an edge over
Tea Party favorite Greg Brannon and evangelical minister Mark Harris in North
Carolina, but he needs 40 percent of the vote to avoid a costly July runoff
with the second-place finisher.
The showdown
to determine who will take on vulnerable Democratic Senator Kay Hagan kicks off
a month-long string of Republican primaries that could prove instrumental to
the party's efforts to retake control of the Senate in November.
Republican
leaders are anxious to limit the kind of divisive primary fights that produced
weak general election candidates and helped cost them winnable Senate seats in
2010 and 2012.
Establishment-backed
Republican Senate candidates also lead opinion polls in two May 20 contests: in
Kentucky, where Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell is favored over a Tea
Party challenger, and in Georgia, where a crowded primary makes a runoff likely
but the most conservative Tea Party candidates are not among the poll leaders.
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