Free trade, lost jobs, and high gasoline prices are among the issues fueling North Carolina’s 8th Congressional District race between four-time Republican Rep. Robin Hayes and Democrat Larry Kissell, a former textile worker currently employed as a teacher at East Montgomery High School.

Given the superior fund-raising amassed by the Republican incumbent, many political prognosticators might be tempted to write off the 8th District as an easy GOP victory. But Kissell, a political newcomer who spent 27 years working in the local textile industry, has tightened the race to the point that national pundits are beginning to take notice.

Hayes, a previous gubernatorial candidate who lost to Jim Hunt in the 1996 election, first won his congressional seat in 1998 by a fairly slim margin. He was re-elected by sizable percentages over the next three election cycles. Hayes has amassed a conservative voting record in Congress on both social and fiscal policy and has “worked to establish a solid pro-family and pro-business record,” according to his campaign Web site. He serves on three House committees, including armed services and agriculture.

Kissell is a self-described “fiscal hawk.” He opposes the Bush administration’s tax cuts and supports increasing the minimum wage. He supports American withdrawal from Iraq by the end of 2006 and advocates “real family values,” defined by Kissell as “pro-privacy.”

National security and free-trade issues are particularly relevant in the 8th District, which stretches from Charlotte to Fayetteville and encompasses all or part of 10 counties, including Mecklenburg and Cabarrus in the west and Hoke and Cumberland in the east. Historically, the district is known for its heavy involvement in the textile industry. Today, the region’s most populated county, Cabarrus, has transitioned into an exurban community. Fed by immigration from Charlotte, the county has experienced a 48 percent population spike between 1990 and 2004, according to The Almanac of American Politics, 2006.

Given its diverse composition, the district has long been regarded as split in its allegiances between Republicans and Democrats. Voters have traditionally leaned conservative in presidential elections but liberal in state-level contests. While many residents adhere to conservative views on social policy, economic concerns, particularly those relating to free trade and lost jobs, have become overarching in the minds of many voters.

That might be one of the reasons Kissell appears to be gaining traction as the campaign season goes into the home stretch. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee now lists the contest as one of its “emerging races,” defined as traditionally noncompetitive districts where Democrats are giving incumbents a run for their money. The Cook Political Report puts the Hayes-Kissell race in the “likely Republican” category, meaning the seat is not competitive but has the potential to tighten up.

The pivotal issue of free trade is having an impact on Hayes’ bid for re-election, said Michael Vasu, associate professor of political science at N.C. State University. “Generally, the constituency in North Carolina is conservative, but this is an issue that kind of just goes across the borders in that regard,” he said. “Because it has had such an impact on North Carolina, if you are successful in nailing your opponent with antifree trade sentiment…you really muddy the waters between a conservative and a liberal.”

Hayes has been criticized for casting crucial votes in Congress on free-trade agreements that allegedly contributed to the loss of textile jobs in the 8th District. Kissell attributes the votes to the inside-the-beltway Washington culture that has influenced Hayes since he was first elected in 1998.

“I believe he broke his word and I believe he did it because Washington has changed him,” Kissell said. “He knew it was wrong and he did it anyway.”

Hayes’ campaign could not be reached for comment after repeated attempts, but during a recent campaign appearance with Hayes in Union County, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Mike Johanns defended the perennial congressman for his free trade votes. According to The News & Observer of Raleigh, Johanns said that CAFTA legislation approved by Congress last year helped open up Central American and South American markets to U.S. farmers.

Crucial as it is, free trade is not the only issue of concern in the 8th District. National politics, especially the war in Iraq, are making congressional races more competitive across the country, said Western Carolina University political science professor Gibbs Knotts. “In addition, the 8th District has supported Democratic candidates in the past and went pretty heavily for the Mike Easley category in 2004,” he said.

Lacking the power of incumbency, Kissell has resorted to several unusual campaign strategies to appeal to voters and gain national media attention. One of the most visible of these occurred Aug. 3, when Kissell used campaign funds to subsidize the cost of gas at a convenience store in Biscoe, N.C. Motorists began lining up in the early morning to take advantage of the $1.22 per gallon of regular unleaded, down from the normal rate of $2.89, the Charlotte Observer reported.

“We wanted to point out that we need competition,” Kissell said about gasoline prices. “We also wanted to point out that it’s hurting our working families to pay these high gas prices, because this was during the peak of the summer gas prices before, for whatever reason, gas prices began coming down.”

While Democrats have attempted to exploit issues such as free trade and rising gasoline prices as campaign issues, Vasu said he thinks that if the election were held on social issues alone, Kissell would be in serious jeopardy. “I think the people in that constituency would normally be conservative, but…I think [free trade] is a wedge issue,” he said.

Kissell brings a mixed bag of views to the table on social issues. While he would consider voting for an amendment to the U.S. Constitution defining marriage as the union of one man and one woman, Kissell said that Congress should not amend the Constitution “every time that something goes a little bit astray when we’ve got laws in the judicial system that are supposed to work.”

Hayes has firmly supported a marriage amendment. During debate over the Marriage Protection Amendment on the House floor this summer, Hayes defended the necessity of an amendment, stating that the “people in the 8th District of North Carolina have clearly and repeatedly asked me to defend traditional marriage, to do whatever it takes to ensure that the people have the final say.”

Their differences on social issues not withstanding, economic concerns appear to be the primary driving factors in the campaign. Despite Kissell’s allegations that Hayes has contributed to economic decline in the 8th District, Steven Greene, NCSU associate political science professor, predicted that Hayes would come out on top Nov. 7.

“I think Robin Hayes is going to win and just consider himself really lucky that the Democrats did not find a better challenger to run against him, because if they had, he could have easily lost the chair,” Greene said. “He seemed like a ripe target after the free-trade votes, but Kissell is just not the kind of strong, high-quality opponent that it takes to knock off an incumbent.”

David N. Bass is an editorial intern at Carolina Journal.