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As Trump Heads to North Carolina, Recent History Explains Why Dem Hopes for State Look Bleak

Posted on Thursday, June 3, 2021
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AMAC Exclusive – By Daniel Roman

trumpThis weekend Donald Trump will visit North Carolina, where he will address the state Republican Party convention in Greenville and make a bid to consolidate the GOP’s effort to push North Carolina from battleground state status to solidly red. The move is a direct challenge to the Democratic Party and its vision of America. It would be fair to say that for the last twenty years, Democrats have been obsessed with the Old North State. No state has raised Democratic hopes of a “new majority” built on a “coalition of the ascendent” more than the booming and diversifying state of North Carolina. And yet nowhere in America, or arguably the world, have the Left’s fantasies been dashed to a greater degree. Since the year 2000, North Carolina has been where Democratic hopes and dreams have gone to die—and with Trump’s trip, Republicans appear set to build on the gains they have made.

Democratic Nightmares, Republican Dreams

In the year 2000, North Carolina had a Democratic Senator, a Democratic Governor, legislature, and 9 of 10 statewide offices were held by Democrats as were five of 12 Congressional seats. In 2020, while North Carolina has a Democratic governor, Republicans hold both Senate Seats, half the state offices, and have controlled both Houses of the legislature since 2011. Their margins look set to expand further with redistricting. The GOP increased its majorities in both houses of the legislature in 2020, and won every statewide judicial race, transforming the State Supreme Court from a 6-1 Democratic majority to a 4-3 one, vital for redistricting. This involved unseating the incumbent chief justice. And of course, Donald Trump defeated Joe Biden in the Tarheel State in November of 2020, while incumbent Republican Senator Thom Tillis was also reelected.

These latter two races can almost be left aside because Democrats have won a net total of two federal (i.e. presidential or senate races) since 1998, both in 2008 when Barack Obama very narrowly won the state over John McCain, and Democrat Kay Hagan defeated Republican Senator Elizabeth Dole. Other than those two November 2008 races, Republicans have won every federal election for more than 20 years, even if the polls showed Democratic leads. 

This was not the way it was supposed to be for Democrats. North Carolina, for Democrats, represented the future of their party. Obsessed with the idea that they represented the educated, the prosperous, the growing cities and suburbs, they looked to North Carolina’s Research Triangle surrounding the cities of Charlotte, Raleigh, and Durham as if it was designed just for them. In 2004, they disregarded political wisdom, and even the most rudimentary background checks to nominate North Carolina’s first term Senator John Edwards as their Vice Presidential pick. These efforts hit a brick wall of reality in November, when George W. Bush defeated the Kerry-Edwards ticket 56-44 in North Carolina, a margin virtually identical to that in 2000. To add insult to injury for Democrats, Republican Richard Burr won Edwards’ old Senate seat by a 51-47% margin. 

Democrats were determined to avenge their 2004 loss in North Carolina four years later. With Barack Obama on the ballot, unprecedented African American turnout, and a bankrupt McCain campaign which all but conceded the race, Barack Obama made history, becoming the first, and as time would show, only Democrat to win the state since Jimmy Carter in 1976, carrying it by 14,000 votes. Democrat Kay Hagan made history in a different way, defeating incumbent Republican Elizabeth Dole by more than 360,000 votes, after Dole had run an ad attacking Hagan, a Sunday school teacher, for taking money from an atheist lobby group only to have Hagan counterattack with one of the most effective ads ever run in a Senate contest. History would show that Hagan’s victory said more about Dole than her own strength, as she would lose in 2014 to Thom Tillis. 

At the time, Democrats celebrated 2008 as a new dawn in North Carolina. In their view, North Carolina, like Colorado and Virginia which also voted Democratic that year for the first time in a decade, was on its way to becoming a solidly “blue” state. History did not work out that way. 2008, it would turn out, would be the aberration. Democrats won 10/12 statewide races that year, counting the federal ones, and both houses of the legislature, but the storm was coming. 

It arrived in 2010. Democrat Beverly Purdue, who had won the 2008 gubernatorial election over Republican Charlotte mayor Pat McCory in a narrow upset, proved a disaster, becoming one of the most unpopular governors in the country. The voters struck back. Republicans swept both houses of the legislature for the first time since 1870, gaining control of redistricting. North Carolina is one of the few states which does not allow the governor to veto redistricting maps. When the governor gained a veto in the 1990s, Democrats, believing that a Republican might be elected governor but Republicans could never win legislative majorities, deliberately denied that power to the office. As late as 2009, Republicans proposed the creation of an independent redistricting commission only to have Democrats, complacent in their belief that tomorrow always belonged to them, reject it out of hand. They would come to rue that day after 2010.

Between 2011 and 2012 the new Republican legislature fought a war against Governor Purdue, who vetoed laws relating to voter ID, pro-life causes, and taxes. She could not, however, prevent new legislative district lines from going into effect. The new lines were aggressive, but not unprecedented when compared with the existing Democrat-drawn maps which had produced a 7-6 Democrat majority in the Congressional delegation on a 54%-45% Republican popular vote in 2010. With North Carolina gaining a seat, even an independent commission prioritizing the Democratic definition of “fairness” likely would have produced a map producing a 6-8 result for a net gain of two Republican seats. The eventual GOP map produced a 10-4 result, with the two parties splitting the tossup races. The map was, by the standards of the arguments of “partisan asymmetry” Democrats tried to advance in the Supreme Court in 2018, about as fair as the map it replaced. The actual Democratic problem was that not enough North Carolinians wanted to vote for them. 

The real Democratic anger over North Carolina was similar to that which drove the recall against Scott Walker in Wisconsin. It was that in both states Republicans had the temerity to not only win, but to treat their victories not as temporary aberrations in “blue states” but as mandates from the voters to institute the conservative policies they ran on. “Gerrymandering,” “Voter ID,” and restrictions on union bosses, were “attacks on democracy” because they were attacks on the ability of Democrats to reverse the results of the 2010 elections and retake their control. 

Democrats went all out in 2012. They held their national convention in Charlotte, North Carolina, and Obama campaigned extensively. Nonetheless, November brought disappointment. Not only did Barack Obama lose to Mitt Romney by 90,000 votes, or 50-48, but Republicans picked up the governorship, lieutenant governorship, and other offices while holding both houses of the legislature. Two years later, in 2014, they defeated Democratic Senator Kay Hagan.

If Barack Obama was not able to do the job, then clearly Hillary Clinton would have no trouble against Donald Trump, or so Democrats reasoned in 2016. They were convinced Trump would play poorly with white suburbanites, while turning in a historically poor performance among nonwhite voters. That was not to be. 2016 was a repeat of 2012. Donald Trump defeated Hillary Clinton 50-46%, doubling Mitt Romney’s margin to 173,000 votes, while Republicans gained a 6-4 majority on the Council of State, and Richard Burr won reelection 51%-45% in a race perceived as a tossup. The only light for Democrats came when State Attorney General Roy Cooper edged out Governor Pat McCory by a margin of 11,000 votes.

The 2020 Republican Triumph 

The 2016 election of Donald Trump was transformative. All of the arguments Democrats had made against Republican rule in Wisconsin and North Carolina since 2011 – that it was based on gerrymandering and “voter suppression”, that it represented a temporary aberration, that it was a right-wing hijacking by a minority – were now applied to the entire nation after Donald Trump became President. North Carolina, was, one could say, the birthplace of the modern Democratic party, or at least the birthplace of its excuses for failing to win elections.

That is why what happened in 2020 is probably particularly ominous for Democrats. In 2018, Democrats had what was perhaps their best election in North Carolina since 2008. With no Senate or Presidential race, Democrats focused on local issues, and very nearly won control of the State House despite having argued that doing so would be mathematically impossible in court. Yet they took all the wrong lessons from their success. In 2020, they assumed victory, and concluded that only Republican “chicanery” could stop it. With a “popular” Governor Cooper running for reelection, they expected Biden to win an easy victory, and Biden’s campaign hinted they were more confident in North Carolina than in Florida. National commentators ate this up.  The Economist, FivetThirtyEight, Larry Sabato, and Inside Elections all rated North Carolina “Lean D” in the Presidential race. 

Again, pundit predictions and Democrat hopes were dashed. On Election Day, Donald Trump led by just under 90,000 votes, eventually winning by 72,000. Confused and shocked, the media refused to call the state for more than a week in an act of spite. If anything, Democrat party officials were more shocked. Not only did Biden lose, despite having led the last 9 polls. Governor Roy Cooper won reelection by an underwhelming margin over Lt. Governor Dan Forrest by a mere 51%-47%. Rather than gaining seats, it was Democratic incumbents who barely held on. Incumbent Attorney General Josh Shapiro survived by a mere 14,000 votes, while Elaine Marshall, Secretary of state for two decades won 51%-49%. They were the exceptions. Elsewhere it was a massacre for Democrats. Republicans won all three Supreme Court races and all State of Appeals races, defeating four Democratic incumbents. 

The victory of Associate Justice Ken Newby, previously the lone Republican on the State Supreme Court over Chief Justice Cheri Beasely was particularly important. The Chief Justice assigns a three judge panel. Prior to November 2020, Beasely had the ability to assign three Democrats to expediate any challenge to redistricting maps, and with only 1/7 seats on the court held by Republicans it was mathematically impossible for a majority Republican panel to be formed in any event. With Newby as Chief Justice joined by two new Republican colleagues, it is almost certain that any challenge to the new district maps will be heard by a 2-1 Republican panel. While the full court with its 4-3 Democratic majority could in theory vote to overturn any decision, that would take time, likely coming after the 2022 elections when two Democratic and zero Republican justices are up. As such, Republicans very likely secured control of the redistricting process, and stand to gain anywhere from two to three new Congressional seats in 2022, which would take them halfway to erasing Nancy Pelosi’s slim majority of six in the U.S. House of Representatives. 

On paper, Democrats gained two Congressional seats, and one seat in the State Senate, while losing three in the State House in 2020. These results represented a disaster. The Democratic dominated State Supreme court had redrawn the maps for all three bodies, providing Democrats, who had always claimed that North Carolina was a “blue” state which only GOP gerrymandering kept out of their hands, with their best chance to prove their argument. The result was that they fell on their faces. The popular vote for US House was a virtual tie, while Republicans won the popular vote 50-49% in the State House and 51-48% for State Senate. 

If anything, the existing Democratic position in North Carolina looks increasingly shaky. Republican rising star Mark Robinson won a stunning upset to defeat State Representative Yvonne Holley for Lieutenant Governor by a margin of 52%-48%, almost the same margin by which Democrat Cooper won the governor’s race. Robinson, a Republican who is now the highest ranking African American ever to hold statewide office, had never run for office before. A former U.S. Army Reserve officer, Robinson was an outspoken conservative who spoke at the NRA convention after his opposition to canceling a gun show under pressure went viral. He also aggressively opposes abortion. With 2.8 million votes, Robinson even outran President Trump.

It was another Republican, 5-term incumbent Agriculture Commissioner Steve Troxler who received the accolade of winning the most votes ever cast for a Republican with 2.9 million. Troxler had spent his first three terms as the solitary Republican on the Council of State. After 2020, that Council would have a 6-4 Republican majority. Troxler defeated Jenna Wadsworth, the Soil and Water Supervisor of Wake County, who advertises her pronouns and support for BLM on her social media profiles. Campaigning on prioritizing environmental considerations over those of Agriculture, her loss likely came only as a shock to herself and her supporters.

Key to Troxler’s victory, and Donald Trump’s, was success in extending the inroads the Republican party had already made into majority-white rural areas into non-white ones. Most prominently, the Republicans in 2020 made large gains in the southeastern part of the state, especially in areas inhabited by the Lumbee tribe around Robeson county. The country is a mere 30.6% white, yet Donald Trump won it 59%-40%. Even John Kerry had managed to win it 53-47% in 2004, while Mitt Romney had lost it 58-41% in 2012. Resentment over lockdowns, and a Democratic party which seemed to have lost interest in rural America no matter the color of the inhabitants produced shifts almost as dramatic as those seen in Miami or along the Texas border. President Trump himself held a rally in Robeson County on October 24th, 2020 to celebrate his support for federal recognition of the Lumbee tribe. In a completely surreal scene, members of the tribe hammered away at traditional drums with every Trump applause line.

When Donald Trump travels to North Carolina this week, he will be visiting a state that is an extraordinary Republican success story—a state, which, as Democrats have been so quick to tell the world since 2000, looks like America. It is a growing, rich, diverse state, combining traditional industry with technology. It’s a state where electorally, while often close, Republicans have won almost everything every year, and where Democrats, rather than confronting their actual record, have retreated into a bubble where Republican “gerrymandering” and “voter suppression” explain why they can’t win even when the maps and rules are in their favor as in 2020. And now, it is a state where Republicans are set to make even further gains in 2022, potentially paving the way to retaking the House of Representatives from Nancy Pelosi. North Carolina is not just a microcosm of America, but of Donald Trump’s America. Democrats remain in denial of that fact at their peril.

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Bill on the Hill
Bill on the Hill
3 years ago

Very well written article & I find it hard to believe I’m the 1st & only to comment on it. It is important to remember just how important NC is to the GOP. I will differ a bit however about Trump defeating Biden in NC whilst Biden carried the rest of the country in 2020, that is factually NOT true. The entire nation went RED late in the evening on election day, i.e. Nov., 3, 2020…We as a nation now know the outcome of the election the following morning, hence the Maricopa County, AZ audit currently going on with over 1 million ballots now completed, with other states getting on board now as well & long overdue…
Bill on the Hill… :~)

cath
cath
3 years ago

I am actually heart broken that when I heard about this – was invited – that I had the time to go and would LOVE to but I just don’t have the money to take the trip…I pray that Mr. Trump has a very accepting day, that there are NO protests (of course, that’s hard because of the liberal mind set). Thank you Mr. Trump for visiting NC. You deserve and have EARNED better treatment from the people than what the media tells us…but we KNOW you are much more appreciated than they will EVER tell us publically!
God Bless and keep you safe and healthy!

Hal Lemoyne
Hal Lemoyne
3 years ago

????????????CHRISTrumpOwens and all their US TRUMPlican Lawmakers successfully US 2020-2024 Reelected Landslide
Amen & Amen????????????

Richard Hennessy
Richard Hennessy
3 years ago

Does North Carolina want to become just another Yankee state like Georgia? Probably not, and I certainly hope not. North Carolina has long been a proud Southern state. I’m hoping it remains so.

Stephane
Stephane
3 years ago

Just allow that chinese stooge in the White House to pass his tax goals. The voters will turn 100% RED. With anger and political party!
Most states will turn RED when IRS sends its paperwork for the people to pay their taxes.
PRESIDENT TRUMP solidified the country in lowering the taxes, which allowed the government to take in MORE money than “bo the TRAITOR” ever thought of bringing in.
I do not know if the country will stand the unrelenting attacks of the stupid chinese corrupt stooge, but we need to keep our spirits up, even when losing it all. PRAY, PRAY, PRAY.
AND VOTE THE AHOLES OUT OF OFFICES, so get bot chambers again!

Linda
Linda
3 years ago

Great article.
My prayers for Trump and his campaign in North Carolina.

Kaye
Kaye
3 years ago

We moved from FL to NC in 2008 and moved to AL in 2018 to be closer to family. In the 10 years we were there, western NC was moving further and further to the left as many retirees were moving to the mountains from blue states. As staunch conservatives, we simply couldn’t live there anymore. So I take heart in seeing this article showing that for now, at least, NC is remaining red. However, take heed of the blue transplants creeping in more and more. I also have been following the NC Lt. Governor and hope that he will be able to remain in politics and possibly oust Cooper. He’s the hope for the future of NC and the country.

George Washington's Admirer
George Washington's Admirer
3 years ago

It is really shocking and astonishing how Communist; the ‘once democratic party’ has become. The whole nature and personality of the ‘party’ is intolerable. This must have happened over decades; rather than a few years. People were warned about this; few believed this could happen. Eventually, people of both major parties will get completely ‘fed up’ with this ‘malarkey’. All the States, may just swing back to conservatism.

Phil Hammersley
Phil Hammersley
3 years ago

Carefully watch the counters in large cities–DIMMs are crooked EVERY election and will steal whenever possible!

LauraC
LauraC
3 years ago

Bill on the Hill is right. What they couldn’t win with ideas and policy they took with stopping the vote count, mail in balloting and falsified ballots made out by machine, recounting Dem only ballots they produced in the first place and machines controlled by the internet. How much more proof does there need to be? I’m sick of hearing about no proof. Videos, computer records and destroyed paper ballots—there is an ocean of proof. Paper ballots were good enough for two centuries, they must be relied on, with valid signatures and, if necessary, asking people to verify their ballots. If it’s all on the up and up, what is the objection? One illegal vote is one too many. This must be stopped now or we’re lost.

Luke
Luke
3 years ago

I no longer believe I have a voice in any election. The reason I feel this way is because of communists ability to ‘redistrict’ to their advantage whenever they decide to. That, and brain-dead union members welcome communism.

Ed J
Ed J
3 years ago

Let’s truly hope that this is just the commencement of the political pendulum beginning to firmly and decisively swing back into the sanity range, and hopefully permanently away from the Demsheviks’ dysfunctional and dystopian ideologies.
 
Continuing to elect more and more Republicans to offices at all levels of government is really the only “vaccine” to permanently “cure” the virulent politically pandemic level “disease” of the Demsheviks’ destructive and divisive policies being relentlessly perpetrated against the American people today. MAGA!

Sally Easton-Humphries
Sally Easton-Humphries
3 years ago

So glad we have AMAC to counter AARP for seniors or anyone. Content is so well written and informative and glad we can share the truth with others on this platform! GO AMAC!!! America First! I agree with other comments made that electing more Republicans, especially Conservatives is the best way to bring sanity, freedom, back to our great country. We will not submit to the ruinous policies of the left and Democrats — terribly racist toward minorities opposing school choice, open borders threatening all of us, lowering wages, exposing children to sex trafficking, abuse and many other terrible conditions.

John fallon
John fallon
3 years ago

I live in North Carolina and I worry about the migrations from caliPORNia and new yuck, are they bringing thier insane politics with them? We should be cautious and make sure they are HONEST for a change, NOILLEGAL VOTERS!

Donna D
Donna D
3 years ago

The only reason that President Trump “lost” is because the Democrats used the Marxist playbook to create mass confusion and overwhelm the system…mail-in ballots. They cannot win an election using moral and honest means…they must lie, cheat, and steal to be successful. This is the party of plantation owners, the party against emancipation, the carpet baggers after the Civil War, the founders of the Ku Klux Klan, the party of the Jim Crow laws, against the Civil Rights laws, and against desegregation. It blows my mind that blacks will vote for this party. Their black ancestors certainly didn’t!

Brenda Blunt
Brenda Blunt
3 years ago

USA is the best country. But, there are too many people trying to be a dictator instead!!

Bob K
Bob K
3 years ago

While Pat McCrory lost some of his 2016 base support because he didn’t come out against the state taking over Charlotte’s Douglas Airport, the real reason Roy Cooper won was because 50,000 votes mysteriously appeared in Durham county between midnight and 3am on election night in 2016. He has been an awful governor for NC vetoing everything the legislature has tried to accomplish. As I understand it, whichever party the governor is from in NC gets a 3-2 election commission edge in all 100 counties. That edge has allowed them to enable widespread voter fraud. This was painful in 2020 Charlotte (Mecklenburg) where obvious voter fraud observations were dismissed by them (3-2 vote along party lines) without evidentiary hearings. Cooper and Josh Stein have got to go.

Becky
Becky
3 years ago

DemonRats deserve to lose for decades to come. In fact, the six decades they have used to shove Communism down America’s throat.
These are evil people, in evil times.
May God watch over America and President Trump. (The fraud, China joe, should be sent to Gitmo for life.)

Myrna S Wade
Myrna S Wade
3 years ago

I will be praying this speech goes well. I hope Right Side will broadcast it.

Deborah Henon
Deborah Henon
3 years ago

Thank you Father in heaven for giving President Trump unpresidented favor in every way. Psalms 91 spoken over him for protection. Father, you said when our ways please you that you give us favor with our enemies. Thank you Father for the answers before the manifestation. In Jesus Matchless Name Amen.

Sheila Cason
Sheila Cason
3 years ago

All I can say is “Amen”.

Karen
Karen
3 years ago

Good Luck Donald! We’re routing for you. Being aired on Newsmax tonite around 7pm.

Frank Comer
Frank Comer
3 years ago

Turn North Carolina RED.

Honey
Honey
3 years ago

Josh Shapiro is from Pennsylvania.

Scott A Lundy
Scott A Lundy
3 years ago

A sore spot is Asheville. It’s run by and supported by the latest generation of “progressives”. I don’t understand that term. Nothing progressive about socialism and total lack of our traditional values.

robert rosenfield
robert rosenfield
3 years ago

Very long article-where do ou mention outright VOTER FRAUD?
THAT is what determines elections in AMERICA TODAY

Barbara
Barbara
3 years ago

This article gives me hope for my state of North Carolina!

Sammy
Sammy
3 years ago

In the news today, it is being floated that Trump should run for a House seat in 2022, win the district, then when the GOP takes over the House in 2022, Trump could be named Speaker of the House replacing Pelosi. After he gets that, he can then start impeachment hearings against Biden just like Pelosi did against Trump. Thumbs up if you like that idea. I do.

John
John
3 years ago

no more electric voting machines

Proud Republican
Proud Republican
3 years ago

Trump is an “has been” now. His politics have failed the country and divided the GOP. I am a proud Republican, who has enough of Trump

Bill on the Hill
Bill on the Hill
3 years ago

I watched the entire Republican rally in NC last evening through NEWSMAX. Right Side Broadcasting was was SHUTDOWN by YouTube the entire time. This further convinces me just how evil Google truly is, owned by none other than Jeff Bezos…
It was an uplifting event overall as Trump stumped for the various Republican candidates & I particularly enjoyed seeing & listening to his daughter-in-law, Lara Trump speak. She gave a heartfelt explanation why she wasn’t running for the NC Senate this time around but make no mistake, her love for North Carolina shown through like a beacon of light!
Overall the rally was a success & the people showed their love for President Trump & vise versa…
Bill on the Hill… :~)

Bill on the Hill
Bill on the Hill
3 years ago

NC truly is a melting pot of all persuasions & believe Republicans will get the state back in short order & in many other states too in light of the ” BIG STEAL ” our nation is still dealing with…
Back in Dec. I lost my sister, whom lived in NC for the last ( 10 ) years or so & formally from RI.
I’m writing from Vermont & sadly enough 2/3rds of her population comes from somewhere else, i.e. MA, CT, RI, NY & NJ just to name a few…Much of it goes back to the ’60’s antiwar ” draft dodging ” hippy era & most unfortunately stayed, had children, rec’d college educations & in turn got on local school boards, became town clerks, treasurers & 1st selectmen, got on the planning & zoning commissions, became lawyers & took over both Houses in the Capital Building as Democrat lawmakers. I’m talking close to ( 60 ) years now that Vermont has NOT been a Conservative Republican state any longer & is completely under the control of corrupt Democrat politicians that call themselves lawyers…I will mention ( 1 ) name here that I have despised for the last ( 40 ) years, i.e. Bernie Sanders. Sanders along with his lovely wife Jane, whom bankrupted Burlington College & then retired with FULL pension benefits to the tune of $430,000.00 dollars, both are classic socialists that specialize in stealing taxpayer monies for their personal enrichment. Sound familiar? Look no further than the Washington, DC SWAMP & the party that stole the 2020 Presidential Election away from Donald J Trump…The so-called 46th potus is FAUX. I recognize the 45th as the current legal POTUS, Donald J. Trump…
The day of reckoning is coming soon, very soon. God bless.
Bill on the Hill… :~)

President Joe Biden walks with Vice President Kamala Harris along the West Colonnade of the White House, Friday, May 26, 2023, to the Oval Office. (Official White House Photo by Adam Schultz)
President Donald J. Trump delivers remarks at the 2020 Council for National Policy Meeting Friday, Aug. 21, 2020, at the Ritz-Carlton in Pentagon City, Va. (Official White House Photo by Tia Dufour)

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