Jon Ostendorff

Republican Thom Tillis has flip-flopped on how he views the federal shutdown the GOP used last year in a failed attempt to stop Obamacare.

Tillis is running against incumbent Democratic U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan.

The federal shutdown cost businesses across Western North Carolina and east Tennessee millions. The Blue Ridge Parkway and Great Smoky Mountains National Park were closed.

Tillis, back then, told his supporters Obamacare was a "a mortal threat to our economy."

"It will decrease healthcare quality and raise healthcare premiums and Republicans should do everything in our power to undo it," he said in a press statement. "That means we must use every tool available to us, including this CR (continuing resolution) fight."

The CR fight he appears to be talking about in the written statement is the attempt by House Republicans to fund the government through short-term spending plans called continuing resolutions that included no money for the president's Affordable Care Act.

Tillis told the Washington Examiner in a story on the newspaper's website today that the GOP's fight was "well intention" but politicians must fund the government.

His comment is in the seventh paragraph under the subsection "What kind of senator?"

Democrats, this morning, blasted him.

"Over and over Speaker Tillis was given the chance to oppose the fringe elements of his own party as North Carolina's economy took a $95 million hit, and each time he unequivocally voiced support for the government shutdown," said Ben Ray, a spokesman for Forward North Carolina, a group that backs Hagan. "North Carolinians deserve leaders who are honest with them, not Speaker Tillis' lies."

The tourism industry lost $33 million in visitor spending in the 18 North Carolina and Tennessee counties located within 60 miles of the Smokies during the 16-day shutdown, according to a study by an economist at Western Carolina University.

The story in the mountains even reached a national audience when the Pisgah Inn along the parkway defied the shutdown order and stayed open. Federal police, for a time, block its driveway.

The Tillis campaign fired back this afternoon.

"Kay Hagan is launching more desperate attacks to avoid explaining why she cast the deciding vote for Obamacare and why she refuses to debate Thom in Asheville to discuss issues important to Western North Carolina," spokesman Daniel Keylin said. "Thom has been very clear that he does not support raising the debt ceiling without first getting serious about cutting spending, unlike Kay Hagan, who has added more than $7 trillion to the national debt. Thom has said repeatedly that the effort to defund Obamacare was well intentioned but poorly executed."

The Hagan campaign said it has agreed to three debates, all of which will be broadcast statewide.