FAIRFIELD, Va. (WDBJ) – It’s been over a month since Hurricane Helene and communities in North Carolina are still working to recover.

But here in our hometowns, people are still stepping up to lend a hand, and those in Fairfield are lending a home.

A group in Fairfield is packing campers full of everything a family might need to become the new home for those who lost everything in Hurricane Helene.

Home has always been where you have a roof over your head and a bed to sleep in. But in Lake Lure, N.C., that no longer exists for many residents.

Bonnie Wilmer has seen it herself.

“I believe Lake Lure alone had 60 families that’s in tents,” said Wilmer. “They don’t have anything right now except sleeping bag in the ground.”

So she and a few friends are creating homes and sending them down to those people.

“[My friend] said she was going to purchase campers and some of them would need to be cleaned, I said bring them to my house, my friends will come help,” said Wilmer.

For the past week, people have been donating campers to Wilmer. Someone came all the way from Ohio to drop one off.

She and her crew clean them up and pack them with the basic necessities that have also been donated and other items to make it feel like a home.

“They have a new grill here, charcoal grill, new toaster, new dishes, new brooms, mops, new sheets for their bed, new bed pillows, and all the toiletries and anything that they would need [and] stocked it with some food,” said Wilmer, walking through the camper.

So far, three campers have been sent down to Lake Lure.

“They’re very, very grateful,” said Wilmer, recalling the reaction of the North Carolina residents. “I know they said one little girl was so excited to have a home. And these people are in tents, and it’s getting a little too cold for that.”

And two more families will have homes delivered Friday.

“We’ll just keep on going, as long as we continue to get money to pay for them,” said Wilmer.

Wilmer said she and her group are always accepting donations. They are collecting everything from food to hygiene products, mattresses and clothing. Monetary donations will go toward buying more campers to fill.

The best way to help out is through Wilmer’s Facebook. You can find her page here.

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Fox News Decision Desk projects Democratic Rep. Don Davis will be the winner against Republican challenger Laurie Buckhout in North Carolina’s 1st Congressional District, considered a toss-up race this election cycle.

Davis, who won the seat in 2022 after the retirement of longtime Democrat G.K. Butterfield, is a former state senator and mayor. He also has a military background as an Air Force officer.

Buckhout is a retired U.S. Army colonel with extensive experience in military logistics and national security. 

While the 1st District has historically leaned Democratic and has a large Black population, recent electoral trends in North Carolina are showing growing Republican support in rural areas, where conservatives are largely dissatisfied with Democratic policies on issues such as the economy and agriculture. 

The district, which covers much of the northeastern part of the state, includes rural counties, the Inner Banks, and parts of the Research Triangle. 

POLITICAL STORM: ON TRUMP ‘ONSLAUGHT OF LIES,’ BIDEN URGES FORMER PRESIDENT TO ‘GET A LIFE MAN’

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POLITICAL STORM: ON TRUMP ‘ONSLAUGHT OF LIES,’ BIDEN URGES FORMER PRESIDENT TO ‘GET A LIFE MAN’

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.

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.”