Economic issues in background of key Senate race between Tillis, Cunningham

In 2014, Thom Tillis defeated incumbent Kay Hagan in what was, at the time, the most expensive U.S. Senate race. Six years later, Tillis is the incumbent, Cal Cunningham is the challenger and the precedent-setting $111 million spent in the previous race looks like walking-around money. The Center for Responsive Politics and The Charlotte Observer this month published a joint project that detailed $141 million in outside spending alone for Cunningham-Tillis, leaving aside the tens of millions of…