North Carolina
How North Carolina went red while electing down-ballot Democrats • NC Newsline
Democrats in North Carolina emerged from election night with key victories up and down the ballot. But they failed to break Donald Trump’s hold on the battleground state for a third straight time as he cruised to a second term.
The results — still unofficial as of Wednesday — saw Democrats keep hold of critical statewide offices, win the state’s sole competitive U.S. House race and gain just enough support to potentially weaken a Republican stranglehold in the statehouse.
But that success failed to translate for Vice President Kamala Harris, as Donald Trump again emerged a victor in a cycle that largely retained the Tar Heel State’s partisan status quo.
The former president, returning to the White House after a tumultuous campaign that included a criminal conviction and assassination attempt, proved that he remains a unique electoral force among Republicans in North Carolina.
“He’s Teflon,” said Chris Cooper, a political science professor at Western Carolina University, in an interview with NC Newsline. “The things that took down (Lt. Gov.) Mark Robinson, that took down (superintendent candidate) Michele Morrow, don’t seem to take down Donald Trump. He defies patterns we think we know, and we think we understand.”
Robinson, the GOP nominee for governor, rose to prominence in Trump’s image with headline-grabbing speeches and controversial policy proposals. But ultimately, Robinson could not overcome a series of scandals that led to national Republicans — including Trump — abandoning his campaign.
The lieutenant governor ran more than half a million votes behind Trump, collecting just 40% of the vote, to Trump’s 51%. And while Republicans lost several other key Council of State races — including attorney general and superintendent of public instruction — they were thin margins by comparison.
“It didn’t seem to have a clear impact on the other Council of State races,” said David McLennan, a political science professor at Meredith College and director of the Meredith Poll, of Robinson and the governor’s race.
Democratic U.S. Rep. Jeff Jackson defeated his House colleague, U.S. Rep. Dan Bishop, in the race for AG, coming away with 51.3% of the vote. Mo Green, running to oversee public schools, earned 51% of the vote over Morrow. Secretary of State Elaine Marshall narrowly eked out another term, and state Sen. Rachel Hunt took the lieutenant governor’s race.
In a redistricted congressional map, North Carolina’s sole competitive U.S. House seat also stayed in Democratic hands. U.S. Rep. Don Davis was set to narrowly prevail over Republican challenger Laurie Buckhout.
And pending recounts, Democrats in the General Assembly appeared to hit a major landmark — breaking the Republican veto-proof supermajority in the House.
“Vice President Harris ran a bold, joyful campaign and I remain thankful for her service to our country and values,” North Carolina Democratic Party Chair Anderson Clayton wrote on social media Wednesday.
“Our role as Democrats just got that much more important. Our neighbors — the world — are looking to us to hold Donald Trump accountable during his presidency.”
Republicans hold their own in down-ballot Council of State, judicial races
Still, Republicans had wins of their own to tout Wednesday.
They flipped the auditor’s office, with Dave Boliek defeating Jessica Holmes. Luke Farley will be the new labor commissioner, succeeding fellow Republican Josh Dobson; and Brad Briner won the race for treasurer. GOP incumbents won another term as commissioners of insurance and agriculture.
But a lack of prominent statewide Republican officeholders is likely to spur fights to climb the ladder, as sections of the party eye a potential primary challenge to U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis in 2026.
“I think we’ll probably see a real battle for the next two years,” McLennan said.
The GOP’s biggest gains of the night came in the judiciary: they swept Court of Appeals races, and as of Wednesday, Republican challenger Jefferson Griffin leads state Supreme Court Associate Justice Allison Riggs.
“You’ve seen on the judicial races, conservative candidates carry the day,” North Carolina GOP chair Jason Simmons told reporters after the election.
How North Carolina voted, and what it meant for the presidential race
About 73% of registered voters in North Carolina turned out this cycle, according to an initial analysis by Catawba College’s Michael Bitzer.
If that figure remains, it represents a slight dip from the 2020 general election (75.3%). And turnout appears to have varied significantly across counties and regions.
Am still digesting a lot from last night, but this #ncpol county turnout rate seems to say a great deal.
NC cast 5.6M ballots out of 7.7M registered voters, for a 73% state turnout rate.
But substantial variation in the 100 counties: pic.twitter.com/m79LoFLWeM
— Dr. Michael Bitzer (@BowTiePolitics) November 6, 2024
Despite Hurricane Helene wreaking havoc on the mountains weeks before polls opened, impacted counties were among those with the highest turnout in the state.
“It was nice to see strong turnout in western North Carolina,” McLennan said.
In fact, several of those counties hit a mark rarely achieved by Harris nationally — a higher margin of votes for Democrats than in 2020.
Asheville’s Buncombe County shifted 3.5 percentage points toward Democrats since 2020, according to New York Times data. And there was reason for optimism in places Harris still fell short: Henderson County, just south of Buncombe, shifted 4.2 percentage points toward her compared to 2020.
But Democratic strongholds in the Piedmont failed to deliver the margins needed for Harris to remain competitive. Wake County shifted 1.1 points toward Trump since 2020, and Charlotte’s Mecklenburg County shifted 2.4 points to the right.
Trump, meanwhile, ran up the margins in rural counties beyond his 2020 totals. Among the biggest gains: a 4-point gain in coastal Pamlico County, and an almost 7-point gain in Bladen County.
“[Democrats] had a great ground operation leading up to the election, knocking on doors, that sort of thing,” McLennan said. “But they simply didn’t turn out the vote.”
North Carolina
North Carolina business owner crafts a new path after Helene
YANCEY CO, N.C. — A small business owner in Yancey County is trying to bounce back during her busiest season after losing her shop and inventory during Helene.
Christy Edwards is the owner of Christy’s Crafts and had a shop for 17 years across the Cane River in the Pensacola community. It held all her inventory and great memories.
“I talked to my customers on the front porch a lot. Waved at a lot of friends and neighbors, and I’m going to miss it terribly,” Edwards said.
The retired art teacher recalls the day of the storm, seeing the floodwaters surround the building before wiping it out in the blink of an eye.
“I turned and I looked, and my shop was gone. I didn’t see it because we had water in the basement,” Edwards said.
The shop, which was on her property, was on lower ground than her house.
“The river came across over here. That little creek was flowing out all of this gravel so it was like a churning mess,” Edwards said.
Now, only a meter box stands where the building used to be.
“It’s like losing a piece of my heart. This is what I did every day of my life, come here and meet people and create,” Edwards said.
She said she lost $100,000 altogether and the location where she hosted her Christmas Open House.
“This was helping me pay for my daughter’s college. This was helping me just to live. Things are so much more expensive now,” Edwards said.
Mid-November she was working around the clock to make up for lost inventory as she prepared for three holiday markets, including Vintage Market Days of Asheville Metro.
The event, which will take place Nov. 22-24 is expected to bring 130 vendors to the WNC Agricultural Center. Organizers say half of them are from the region and part of the proceeds will benefit the River Arts District in Asheville.
Edwards is also moving forward with hosting two Christmas craft shows with local vendors at the Burnsville Town Center. The Holly Jolly Market will be on Black Friday and Small Business Saturday. Then, on Dec. 7, she will host the Christmas Ornament Craft Show.
“It’s very important to have this and to keep things going, being normal again,” Edwards said.
She’s not sure if she’ll rebuild her shop again because she worries she could lose it again.
North Carolina
Eric Church Sings 'Darkest Hour' for North Carolina Flood Victims at CMA Awards
Eric Church paid tribute to his home state of North Carolina and those affected by the flooding of Hurricane Helene with a performance of “Darkest Hour” at the 2024 CMA Awards.
Dressed in a black velvet blazer and accompanied by a choir (including longtime vocal foil Joanna Cotten), a horn section, and strings, Church delivered a grand version of the song, which he rush-released last month to help raise funds for disaster relief. “I’ll do everything in my power/To take even a minute off your darkest hour,” he sang in a falsetto on the CMAs stage.
Like the live version he played at Nashville’s Bridgestone Arena, the recorded version of “Darkest Hour,” which he released as the “Helene Edit,” features strings, a choir, and production by Jay Joyce. The song evokes the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, the Band, and the symphonic compositions of Queen or, more recently, the Verve. It’s rock opera from the Seventies, crossed with Church’s rough-hewn mountain country, all built on the skeleton of his talked-about Stagecoach headlining set.
On Tuesday night, Church played an intimate full-band concert at his Nashville bar Chief’s, which streamed live on SiriusXM. While the set featured his own hits like “How ‘Bout You,” “Homeboy,” and “Springsteen,” it was mostly an homage to Church’s influences: He sang covers by Bob Seger, the Band, Hank Williams Jr., and more, culminating with a reading of Bruce Springsteen’s “Thunder Road.”
Church has pledged to sign over all royalties of “Darkest Hour,” in perpetuity, to the state of North Carolina, to further aid in rebuilding.
“‘Darkest Hour’ is a song dedicated to the unsung heroes, the people who show up when the world’s falling apart,” he said in a statement. “This is for the folks who show up in the hardest times, offering a hand when it’s most needed, and standing tall when others can’t. Even in your darkest hour, they come running. When the night’s at its blackest, this is for those who are holding the light, guiding the lost and pulling us through.”
North Carolina
North Carolina Supreme Court GOP Candidate Challenges 60K Ballots
As the recount in North Carolina’s state Supreme Court race gets underway, Republican candidate Jefferson Griffin is challenging the validity of tens of thousands of ballots statewide.
One of two Democrats on the seven-member high court, Associate Justice Allison Riggs, is locked into a tight race with appeals court judge Griffin (R). Griffin was leading on Election Day, but Riggs is ahead by roughly 625 votes.
On Tuesday, Griffin requested a recount. He also filed challenges to over 60,000 ballots, according to a release from the North Carolina Republican Party. The release said Griffin’s protests focus on “specific irregularities and discrepancies in the handling and counting of ballots, raising concerns about adherence to established election laws.”
“As North Carolinians, we cherish our democratic process. Protecting election integrity is not just an option—it’s our duty,” Griffin said. “These protests are about one fundamental principle: ensuring every legal vote is counted.”
A review of the challenges filed with the North Carolina State Board of Elections (NCSBE) found that Griffin targeted ballots cast by people with prior felony convictions, ballots cast by people whose voter registration may be incomplete and absentee ballots cast by voters under the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA), a federal 1986 law that grants some U.S. citizens living overseas the right to vote. Before the election, the Republican National Committee tried but failed to block certain overseas ballots from being counted.
On X, Riggs said Tuesday that Griffin was “taking a tired page from the playbook of previous failed candidates.”
“He’s filed more than 300 protests to challenge 60,000 ballots across NC, in an attempt to disenfranchise voters,” she said. “My goal has always been to ensure that every voter’s voice is heard.”
On Monday, Griffin sued NCSBE over requests he made to the board for voting-related data. Griffin wanted the board to send him lists of “conflict voters” (voters suspected of casting a ballot in person and via absentee). He also asked for lists on how many voters have felony convictions. A board spokesman said the complaint was “unnecessary.”
Recounts began Nov. 20 and will be completed by Nov. 27, according to a Nov. 15 memo Executive Director Karen Brison Bell sent to county elections boards. Recounts are open to the public, the memo stated, and “any person may attend the recount,” including the candidates and the media. A NCSBE meeting was scheduled for Wednesday afternoon.
Read more about the challenges here.
-
News1 week ago
Herbert Smith Freehills to merge with US-based law firm Kramer Levin
-
Business1 week ago
Column: OpenAI just scored a huge victory in a copyright case … or did it?
-
Health1 week ago
Bird flu leaves teen in critical condition after country's first reported case
-
Business5 days ago
Column: Molly White's message for journalists going freelance — be ready for the pitfalls
-
World1 week ago
Sarah Palin, NY Times Have Explored Settlement, as Judge Sets Defamation Retrial
-
Politics4 days ago
Trump taps FCC member Brendan Carr to lead agency: 'Warrior for Free Speech'
-
Science2 days ago
Trump nominates Dr. Oz to head Medicare and Medicaid and help take on 'illness industrial complex'
-
Technology3 days ago
Inside Elon Musk’s messy breakup with OpenAI