For the first time in a long time, North Carolina
matters. The state’s early May primary has usually meant
that by the time that date rolled around, the presidential primary
was long over. It had been decided by those in Iowa and New
Hampshire and, more recently, those across the border in South
Carolina. By the time May arrived it seemed silly to be voting in
the primary when the rest of the country was in general election
mode.
But this year is different. For the first time in most people’s
lifetimes the candidates are zigzagging the state, holding rallies
in a setting that is more accessible than North Carolina is used
to. A Democratic presidential primary rages on, while the North
Carolina Republican Party is running ads denounced by John McCain
— yet they refuse to stop. North Carolina is a unique state.
Here’s why.
North Carolina seems as though it were a perfectly red state.
It, after all, has two Republican Senators and voted solidly for
President Bush twice. However, North Carolina is really more of a
purple state. Nationally, the state votes Republican. But locally,
it has a state legislature dominated by Democrats and has had a
Democratic Governor since 1993, when Governor Jim Martin finished
his term as the second Republican governor of North Carolina in the
20th century.
North Carolina is not a state that is defined by a political
party. There is a strong contingent in North Carolina called
Dixiecrats. These are people who are socially conservative
and economically liberal. That is why they vote Republican in
national elections, where social issues are prominent and social
solutions are possible. But in local elections, they generally vote
for Democrats, who pledge to help the poor and provide aid to
farmers.
But the national/local distinction can be broken if candidates
know how to target Dixiecrats. John Edwards did it — a nobody who
unseated an incumbent for his Senate seat because he knew this
valuable lesson.
IN NORTH CAROLINA, unaffiliated voters (which a large amount of
Dixiecrats are) can choose to vote in either the
Democratic primary or the Republican primary. This year, it is
likely a lot of them will vote in the Democratic primary because
that is where the excitement is, there is a presidential election
there in North Carolina!
The gubernatorial race on the Democratic side is also a heated
one — a close race with heavy negative campaigning. That’s not to
say that the Republican gubernatorial race isn’t a close one, with
Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory entering the race late, which is
significant because much of the state will not vote for a Charlotte
mayor simply because he is from Charlotte.
It is more than North Carolina’s politics that make it unique,
however. In the middle of the state you have Charlotte — the
second largest banking center in the country after New York. The
headquarters for financial powerhouses like Bank of America and
Wachovia, as well as six other Fortune 500 companies, Charlotte has
plenty of money, lots of transplanted northerners, and a booming
population.
Directly north, Raleigh, Durham, and Chapel Hill form the
Research Triangle Park. Here, you will find the largest
concentration of Ph.D.’s in the country, and it is the home to one
of IBM’s largest operations in the world and one of
GlaxoSmithKline’s largest research and development centers. This
area is a research powerhouse and boasts a number of large research
universities — among them Duke, the University of North Carolina,
and North Carolina State University — making it a haven for
academics.
Both of these cities are a far cry from the rest of North
Carolina, and voters in each area are looking for different things.
Out west, the mountainous region of North Carolina is home to
people who largely want government out of their lives. Although
Asheville and the well-known Biltmore Estate sit in these
mountains, it is mostly rural areas with modest, remote homes.
AND THEN THERE is the east. Eastern North Carolinians are proud to
be from the east (you’ll see the ENC stickers on their cars) and
eastern North Carolinians love their politics. It is often said
that elections are won and lost in the east and it is rumored that
candidates who even murmur to staff that they are sick of eating
barbecue on the campaign trail will automatically lose their
race.
Eastern North Carolinians expect a lot out of their candidates.
Candidates have to be prepared to go to tiny towns and rural
farming areas and spend time at pig pickin’s with small groups of
people. And eastern North Carolina is Dixiecrat headquarters. They
don’t care how well you’ll do in the general election or what you
have accomplished. They want to know what you will accomplish for
them.
It’s hard to please the people of North Carolina, mostly because
they are so varied and so diverse. But North Carolinians are loyal
people. Thrive here and you can count on the state to pull through
for you.
My advice to the candidates is, enjoy your time in North
Carolina. There aren’t many places left in the world where you will
meet people that kind and that polite. It is a rich, vibrant,
engaged state. It is no wonder so many people work so hard to run
and make the state even better than it already is.
