North Carolina Democrats preformed at an incredibly high level in the 2024 election and earned every right to brag about it. Republicans should cheer, as I said in Part 1, but it is bizarre that in North Carolina both major political parties had a good election night.

NC Democrats survived a strong performance from President-elect Trump

Trump won North Carolina for the third straight time and finally crossed the 50% threshold mark; however, Democrats dominated the top state races.

As noted by NBC News: the results “largely comport with decades of political trends in North Carolina. But Democrats and Republicans alike also attributed them to Republican Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson’s disastrous campaign for governor, which was constantly plagued by his long history of incendiary remarks.”

The Atlantic added: “Robinson, the lieutenant governor, had become persona non grata among most other Republicans in September, when a CNN report revealed his bizarre posts — about slavery, being a ‘Black Nazi,’ transgender porn, and more — on the porn site Nude Africa. He was no longer invited to attend rallies for the Donald Trump campaign, his fundraising dried up, and his campaign was left for dead.”

Democrat Josh Stein defeated Robinson in the race for governor, winning by nearly 15 percentage points, the largest victory in a North Carolina governor’s race in decades.

The fact is, by the time CNN ran the Robinson porn story, the governor’s race was over. Stein was leading by double digits and had a massive fundraising advantage.

The planting of that story was more about defeating other Republicans who had some connection to Robinson, which NC Democrats did with surgical precision.

Republicans did not just suffer a failed candidate for governor. Democrats were able to force a complete collapse of the Robinson campaign, leaving other down-ballot GOP candidates as sitting ducks.

Democrats secured wins in the races for lieutenant governor, attorney general, secretary of state, and superintendent of public instruction.

In the contest for lieutenant governor, Democrat Rachel Hunt defeated Republican Hal Weatherman by 1.6 percentage points. While that is an amazing performance by Weatherman considering Robinson’s crushing defeat, close doesn’t count in elections.

In the race to replace Stein as attorney general, Democrat Jeff Jackson beat Republican Dan Bishop by 2.6 points. NC Democrats continue their 124 years of success in AG races.

Democrat Elaine Marshall defeated Republican Chad Brown In the secretary of state’s race, to win her eighth term. And in the state superintendent’s race, Democrat Maurice Green defeated Republican Michele Morrow by 2.1 points to replace Republican Catherine Truitt, whom Morrow defeated in the primary this year.

Democrats flipped a seat in the state House to leave the GOP one seat short of an absolute supermajority and an easy ability to override vetoes.

Democratic Justice Allison Riggs appears to have won a full eight-year term with the narrowest of margins. Robinson’s campaign collapse is fully responsible for Republican Jefferson Griffin’s defeat. A minimally competitive GOP candidate for governor would not have allowed Stein’s campaign to give Riggs such a large injection of cash. That $3 million was determinative in a race decided by several hundred votes.

North Carolina has voted for the Republican presidential candidate in every election but one since 1980. Over the same stretch, all but two of the governors elected have been Democrats.

Democrats made the most of Robinson, who became the gift that kept giving for them.

Sometimes NC Dems are just better …

But there are other reasons the Democrats preformed so well. Democrats won five of the Council of State races, including the most important and/or highest profile. Four of the five Democrat victories were open races with no incumbent. That alone is impressive. Republicans also won five Council of State races. However, the highest ranking nonjudicial statewide Republican is arguably new GOP state Auditor-elect Dave Boliek.

What do the five GOP and five Democrat winners have in common? All of the winners were better-funded, often dramatically so. All were seen as the more moderate candidate in the race. Setting partisan rhetoric aside in most of these races, the better candidate won. The winning candidates were better-funded, better-positioned, more experienced and/or more likable, or some combination thereof. For Democrats those better candidates were often in more important races.

As a North Carolina conservative, I have to admit, sometimes the Democrats are just better. North Carolina Democrats are only sometimes better than state Republicans, but they are almost always better than peer Democrats in other states.

Roy Cooper and Josh Stein were far superior Democrat candidates for governor than Stacey Abrams was in Georgia (2018, 2022), Terry McAuliffe in Virginia (2021), Joyce Craig in New Hampshire, and Esther Charlestin in Vermont this year. The latter two suffered humiliating defeats to Republicans in states won by Harris this year.

North Carolina Democratic governors have built up strong political infrastructure on the state level that is able to effectively communicate, raise funds, and recruit political talent. This includes young talent like Attorney General-elect Jeff Jackson and First District Congressman Don Davis.

The old guard of the party was able to embrace the newly minted state Democratic Chair Anderson Clayton, the youngest state party chair in America, who has brought fresh grassroots energy to the party.

I don’t know much about state-based Democratic consultants, but I can’t believe many are better than Morgan Jackson, who is the state’s top-level Democrat consultant, behind the campaigns of Cooper, Stein, and many others.

NC Democratic future can be bright

While Harris did not win North Carolina, state Democrats worked to keep it close enough that the state will remain a battleground state in 2028, which comes with tons of Democrat campaign cash. While North Carolina Republicans will control the dominant policymaking branch of government for the foreseeable future, a GOP-dominated legislature makes re-election for Stein in 2028 more likely than not.

Despite a net loss of nearly 700,000 registered voters as compared to state Republicans over the last decade, NC Democrats remain competitive on a statewide basis.

In 2026, Democrats have a real shot at winning their first US Senate race in 18 years and to further trim majorities in the state legislature.

After the 2024 election NC Democrats:

  • control the top state offices of governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, superintendent of public instruction, and secretary of state;
  • have now won three straight races for governor and 10 out of the last 14 over the last half century;
  • broke the state House supermajority by a single seat; and
  • won the state’s most competitive congressional race, NC-1.