Looking at the age distribution of early voters, we can see come very obvious clues to why Kay Hagan lost. Perhaps most importantly, the total number of early voters from age 60 to 89 (591,203) outnumbered early voters age 18 to 59 (552,634).
According to New York Times exit polls for North Carolina, the electorate over age 45 starts leaning Republican, and North Carolina voters over 65 were 57% Republican.
Here's the age distribution of early voters:
Age Voters
18-29 65,435
30-39 85,365
40-49 151,689
50-59 250,145
60-69 318,881
70-79 200,452
80-89 71,870
If you ponder those numbers, you'll see that the largest group of early voters were in their 60's. The peak age for voters was 67, and this group numbered 36,800!
Turnout for young people was pretty slim and that was the trend for people in their 30s and 40's. Only 5,176 twenty year olds voted, but what's much worse is that only 11,009 forty year olds came out for early voting. Even if every single one of those were liberal pro-choice women, it would not have made much difference.
And although the number of voters older than 67 drops off rapidly, the number of voters in their 70's (200,452) still greatly outnumbers the early voters in their 40's (151,689), and early voters in their 80's (71,870) outnumbers voters in their teens and 20's (65,435). Overall, we can probably safely assume that the votes of college students were greatly outnumbered by the votes of people age 65 and up who have actually been diagnosed with dementia.
I'm pretty sure that the attitudes of voters reflect the turnout in these groups. People in the 50's (250,145 voters) would include a lot intensely frustrated people that are underemployed, long-term unemployed, or forced into early retirement. This includes a lot of doughy middle manager white guys who've had their head up their ass for the last 30 years who are looking for a scapegoat because they are suddenly without a job.
I think a lot of those recent retirees feel lost, like most doors are closed to them. That sort of resignation easily slides into anger and a blanket of cynicism. A lot of these folks spent the last 30 years condemning unions and pensions and now they are very very angry with how that worked for them, so they want to destroy the world, and so does the GOP.
Of course, the large cohort of voters of 65 is also the key demographic of Fox News viewers. Among Republicans, this subset comprises the people who are swept away by their fear of ISIS and ebola and all revved up to keep the US in a state of perpetual war that sends someone else's kids. Oh and of course close the public schools because their kids are grown, and they don't want to pay property tax. And of course nobody needs health insurance.
And that is in addition to a whole range of apocalyptic beliefs, both secular and supernatural. This being the Bible Belt, there is also the strange blend of the daily news and the Book Of Revelation, and the surprisingly common belief that Sean Hannity is describing about actual portents of the End Times. There is also Glenn Beck's economic apocalypse that never arrives, while environmental issues aren't on their radar screens.
Anyway, there's a lot to think about there, so have at it.