Carolina Blue
Obama edged out McCain in North Carolina
This is sweet! Today I am especially proud to be a Tar Heel! North Carolina turned blue for Obama. It looks like the Democrat won by a few thousand votes in NC. This is the first time since President Carter that a Democrat won this state. The map above shows results county by county and you can see that most rural counties went to McCain, except for the two clusters in the East, where the rural population is more heavily African American (30% – 70%). All the major population centers went for Obama: Charlotte, Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill, and Winston-Salem. The Dem strongholds in NC (>70 percent for Obama) are Durham – which is 40 percent African American, 12 percent Hispanic and fairly urban – and Chapel Hill, where North Carolina’s largest University is located. The only other >70-percent-pro-Obama county is tiny (pop 23,500) Hertford county, at the VA border, which is over 60 percent African American. The three lone Obama counties in the mountains of Western NC are the two population centers, Boone and the famously liberal Asheville, plus Cullowhee, where Western Carolina University is located. (See U.S. Census.)
To see three former Confederate states – Florida, Virginia and North Carolina – help elect the first black President of the United States is simply amazing. Simply. Amazing.
NOTE – North Carolina officials are still counting provisional ballots, but those are mostly new voters, who broke overwhelmingly for Obama.
UPDATE – 11/6 – The AP has added North Carolina’s 15 electoral votes to Obama’s tally.