Trump’s base in N.C. halts blue advance

RALEIGH, N.C. — North Carolina Democrats were hoping this November they would break the backs of Republicans, who after dominating state politics for much of the past decade saw their power erode in the 2016 and 2018 elections.

Instead, state Democrats had little to tout after Election Day beyond Gov. Roy Cooper’s close yet expected re-election, a narrow victory for Attorney General Josh Stein and picking up two U.S. House seats largely handed to them by redistricting in 2019.

President Donald Trump again won North Carolina’s 15 electoral votes. U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis earned a second term over Democratic challenger Cal Cunningham, whose acknowledgement in the campaign’s final weeks of an extramarital affair derailed a potential upset. Republicans kept eight congressional seats.

And the Democrats’ multimillion-dollar effort to take control of the Legislature before the next round of redistricting starts in 2021 failed.

“It was a great day to be a Republican here in North Carolina,” state GOP Chairman Michael Whatley said.

Democrats are largely blaming the flame-out on tremendous turnout by Republicans committed to Trump, who beat Joe Biden by 1.3 percentage points.

While statewide turnout exceeded 75 percent, a record for recent North Carolina history, Republicans up and down the ballot won handily in all but one of the 13 counties whose turnout surpassed 80 percent, according to State Board of Elections data. That helped the GOP counter Democratic advantages that ran up in urban counties and by mail-in balloting.

“Ultimately, it is Trump’s ability to motivate rural North Carolina to turn out and vote in record numbers,” said Morgan Jackson, a consultant for Cooper and Cunningham’s campaigns.