[DSTRen13]

Originally Posted by MysticCat

I did laugh a little when I read this. FWIW, until the last two elections, North Carolina was basically a blue state, except in national elections. NC has tended to vote Republican for president and perhaps Senate, with the rest of the congressional delegation being somewhat evenly divided. That changed when the state went for Obama in '08.

At the state level, there have only been two Republican governors in the last 140 years, and the last one was elected in 1980 and 1984. That only changed with the last election, when Republicans took control of the state Senate for the first time in over 100 years and took control of the state House for only the second (I think) time in as long.

As for Charlotte, it has always had a stronger Republican presence than much of North Carolina. Raleigh (which is growing faster than Charlotte), Durham and Chapel Hill form a much more Democratic area.

Compared to other Southern states, NC has always been more progressive -- I certainly won't say liberal --and somewhat less conservative politically. What we're actually seeing in NC now could be a rise in conservative influence.

This may or may not be true for North Carolina, but Georgia as a whole is much more socially conservative than it is fiscally conservative. The Democrat/Republican divide within the state has been along completely different lines than the national debate. Not until recent elections (the past decade or so) has that started to align more, and you've seen things like Republican governors elected that previously would have been unimaginable.