Dispatches from the campaign trail, July 21, 2014

• An ad from the American Energy Alliance repeats the argument that Democratic Sen. Kay Hagan backs a tax on carbon emissions. WRAL News’ Mark Binker gives the ad a red light (barely).

• Hagan used a Friday news conference in Raleigh, in conjunction with Planned Parenthood, to reassert her support for legislation that would overturn the U.S. Supreme Court’s Hobby Lobby decision. She also defended her record in the General Assembly, which Republican challenger Thom Tillis has made an issue in the campaign.

• Friends of former state Rep. John Rhodes, R-Mecklenburg, who lost his seat to Tillis in a bitter GOP primary, are mulling an effort to make Rhodes a write-in candidate for the U.S. Senate seat.

• We send our most sincere condolences to the family and loved ones of Dr. Jim Fulghum, the Republican state representative from Cary, who passed away this weekend after a brief battle with cancer.