AI Summary
5 min readIn 2024, North Carolina elected a Democratic governor, lieutenant governor, and attorney general on the same ballot that Donald Trump carried the state for the third time. That split-ticket outcome was the most dramatic in the country, and it points to a central puzzle: the same voters who backed Trump also chose Democrat Josh Stein for governor by 15 points. Chris Cooper, a political scientist at Western Carolina University and author of Anatomy of a Purple State, explains what makes North Carolina different — and why Democrats are suddenly optimistic about a Senate seat they haven't won since 2008.
Why North Carolina stays purple while other states shift
North Carolina has not elected a Democrat to the U.S. Senate or given its electoral votes to a Democratic presidential candidate since 2008. But Cooper argues this understates how close the state actually is. "In 2008, North Carolina went blue. Georgia stayed red. But the reality is those two states were the closest two states in the country," he says. The state has been genuinely purple for a long time — it just hasn't broken for Democrats at the federal level.
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What you'll learn
- 1 (01:13) **North Carolina’s Split-Ticket Puzzle** - Sarah introduces the paradox: Democrats win statewide offices but haven’t carried a presidential or Senate race since 2008.
- 2 (03:48) **The “King Cooper” Attack and Pronunciation Politics** - The hosts dig into the GOP’s effort to weaponize Roy Cooper’s name pronunciation and frame him as an out-of-touch incumbent.
- 3 (05:28) **Comparing North Carolina and Georgia** - Sarah asks whether North Carolina is “pinking up” like Georgia or if it’s just a candidate-quality story.
- 4 (08:06) **Why Rural Voters Keep North Carolina Competitive** - Chris explains the demographic forces that prevent a blue shift.
- 5 (09:10) **Trump Voters Explain Their Split-Ticket Votes** - The focus group of 2024 Trump voters who disapprove of Trump’s job performance explain why they voted for Democrat Josh Stein for governor.
- 6 (12:17) **Mark Robinson: The Worst Candidate in Decades** - Sarah and Chris discuss how Republican nominee Mark Robinson’s extremism cost the GOP the governor’s race.
- 7 (13:57) **The Weakest Governor in America Gets Credit Anyway** - Chris reveals that North Carolina’s governor has almost no institutional power, yet voters still reward the officeholder.
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Show Notes
North Carolina has been a difficult nut for Democrats to crack for nearly two decades. But relatively popular former Gov. Roy Cooper appears to be on the verge of changing that this year, partly because NOBODY knows who his opponent is. Western Carolina University political science professor Chris Cooper joins Sarah to discuss this year's U.S. Senate race, the House landscape in North Carolina and whether some recent successes for Democrats can translate into carrying the state in 2028.
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Show links:
By Chris Cooper: Anatomy of a Purple State
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