Tuesday night’s election brought disappointment to millions of North Carolina Democrats. It was a sickeningly familiar sensation. After a cycle’s worth of hard work and manic fundraising, the Donkey Party fell short yet again. This year marked the fifth election Republicans have won in the state out of the six that have taken place since the turn of the last decade.
The breadth of Democratic failure was remarkable. Democrats lost at the presidential, Senate, legislative, Council of State and even judicial levels. In some senses, their defeat was even worse than the one they suffered in 2016, considered a disaster for the party. At least then Democratic Supreme Court candidate Mike Morgan flipped one seat on the high court and laid the groundwork for Democratic control of that body. This year Democrats saw their gains on the Supreme Court largely erased.
Rural North Carolina again proved an insuperable obstacle to Democrats’ statewide hopes. Despite decades of urbanization, North Carolina remains a more rural state than average with deep cultural roots in the countryside. You cannot grow up in North Carolina and not absorb a certain kinship with the rural way of life, and that influence, along with basic numbers, made state difficult for an increasingly urban party to win the state.
Put bluntly, Democrats got crushed outside the urban cores. Many hoped that the exurbs would join their inner-ring cousins in supporting the Democratic party, but that did not happen. For now, there is a formidable rural-small town-exurban coalition that places Republicans in a strong starting place in any statewide election. Perhaps exurban North Carolina will eventually trend blue–there are signs of that happening in Alamance and Cabarrus counties–but other exurban places, especially around Raleigh, retain their non-urban character and strong conservative leanings.
Democrats have been waiting for North Carolina to turn blue for 12 years. And despite the disastrous valence of this year’s results, there was a well hidden silver lining. Presidential nominee Joe Biden ran closer to his national margin the state than Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton ever did–four points behind rather than six. That suggests that North Carolina Democrats should not give up, even though their win-loss record over the last decade has more resemblances than differences to the 40 years that preceded it. Is North Carolina simply a red state?
Alexander Jones is an original contributor to PoliticsNC.
Remember that Trumpism and white supremacy are strong in North Carolina: Donald Trump created a lot of fear among his base, and they took the bait. Fear of being dominated by people of color and immigrants. Fear of socialism — that’s what Social Security and Medicare are, and they have done very well. Socialism means, basically, looking after others and helping them gain stronger and better lives through positive legislation and additional safety nets, which also benefit working families, businesses, and people affected by COVID. Socialism is nothing to be afraid of. The campaign of fear drove the base to the polls, causing the misinformed to vote against their well-being and reject the campaign of truth and hope.
I personally don’t understand what the DEMOCATIC party is doing instead of them fighting fire with fire they bring a water pistol , when the repubs started talking about Cals affair why didn’t anyone bring up tillis being
married three(3) times why not
Much of the commentary on the Dem’s losses both in NC and the country is useless handwringing. We bemone rural citizens from not supporting us, but how many democrats can list the top five concerns of those who live outside cities? We have to understand them first, only then can we talk to them.
I am a rural Democrat and recognize we have a severe problem that must be corrected.
We Democrats must find a way to communicate with our rural citizens and understand that we hear and appreciate their challenges, aspirations, and fears. Democrats have allowed the Republicans to dominate the rural conversation often with lies and misrepresentation as to what possible. We may not win the majority, but we certainly cannot afford to allow this rural and urban divide to continue; Democrats will continue to lose statewide. Rural citizens desires the same as our urban citizens, though they may express differently. Democrats have a populist message for the economic growth of rural communities and should not fear being called a Socialist. Obama carried North Carolina and Iowa in 2008.
You are correct about the shift of rural votes to the GOP that has been in place in North Carolina for more than 12 years. But, this shift has intensified over the last six years. This rural and urban divide is a national problem. In North Carolina, there are more voters in rural communities than in urban communities.
Eva Clayton
I partially agree with this article, sadly, but it totally fails to mention the victories of Gov. Cooper and AG Stein. Those are significant victories, sorely needed to protect NC residents from the Republican legislature. Just as they were in 2016. Otherwise, yes, NC was pretty much a disaster for we Democrat’s.
Cunningham is a loser in every sense of the word. Once NC Dems abandon his ilk, they will have a chance.
The fact that Democrats ran stronger in Georgia for the presidential race than NC disturbs me. It’s looking like unless the state gets to the point where the urban counties can overwhelm the rest of the state NC will continue to be a light shade of pink. So close yet so far away.
That’s exactly the problem for Democrats. Rural voters know that the Democrats need for the for the urban counties to overwhelm the rest of the state. So they vote Republican to protect them from dominance by the big cities.