Populism for Plutocrats

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Shortly before Kay Hagan took the stage at the Charlotte Convention Center on Saturday, the loudspeakers blared Bruce Springsteen’s aptly titled Democratic Party theme song “We Take Care of Our Own.”

In recent weeks, Hagan’s campaign has stumbled amid revelations that companies owned by her husband, son, and future son-in-law, benefited from hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxpayer funding as part of the 2009 stimulus package, which Hagan supported. She took care of her own.

The appearance of cronyism was so embarrassing for Hagan that she opted to skip her final debate with Republican Thom Tillis rather than confront the charges in public.

In an effort to punch back against this unfavorable narrative, Hagan called in the most populist, anti-cronyist figure she could find: Hillary Clinton.

Hagan opened by invoking a line from the official North Carolina toast, imagining a world “Where the weak grow strong and the strong grow great.” It would be hard to find two politicians who better embody the second part of that statement than Kay Hagan and Hillary Clinton, the latter of whom has parlayed her political power into millions of dollars on the corporate public speaking circuit. Meanwhile, the Hagan-Clinton security team showed its strength by denying access to filmmakers and manhandling protesters.

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