Republican Burr prevails in NC Senate battle

Sen. Richard Burr is projected to win reelection in North Carolina, holding a seat that was a top target for Democrats seeking to regain control of the upper chamber.

{mosads}Burr, a two-term senator who first came to Congress in 1995, managed to hang on in the battleground state after facing the fight of his political life against former state Rep. Deborah Ross (D).

The victory comes after the Senate Intelligence Committee chairman spent the final stretch of his campaign taking fire from multiple fronts.

Burr feuded with a local newspaper and had to apologize for a quip about gun owners shooting Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.

“Nothing made me feel any better than I walked into a gun shop … there was a copy of a rifle magazine on the counter. It’s got a picture of Hillary Clinton on the front of it. I was a little bit shocked at that — it didn’t have a bullseye on it,” Burr said during a meeting with volunteers, according to leaked audio posted online by CNN. 

He also pledged during the same meeting to block any Supreme Court nominee from a President Clinton and appeared to brag while claiming responsibility for President Obama’s longest judicial vacancy.

Democrats seized on the remarks to paint Burr as a Washington insider who is more concerned with playing partisan politics than helping North Carolinians.  

The GOP senator walked back his gun comments and softened his Supreme Court stance, saying he would assess any nominee’s record.

Burr’s victory may have been bolstered by Republican attacks on Ross, which focused on her liberal record and time leading the state’s American Civil Liberties Union.

The GOP also pounced on a video released by James O’Keefe’s Project Veritas that showed a Ross donor at a September fundraiser making racist comments. 

Jordain Carney contributed to this report