Biden campaign cites blue energy in North Carolina but faces unmoved rural voters
By
Ross O'Keefe
June 15, 2024 12:37 pm
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President Joe Biden’s campaign is hoping to flip North Carolina away from Republicans, and provide breathing room in case the GOP nabs a swing-state Democrats won in 2020.
However, rural voters, who comprise a significant chunk of the state’s electorate, have continued to distance themselves from Democrats.
Out of the state’s 10.4 million people, about 3.5 million are living in rural areas of the state, according to 2020 census data. A March poll conducted by the Wall Street Journal found that 62% of voters in rural areas comprising seven battle ground states, including North Carolina, planned to vote for Trump.
According to WSJ, Wilson County, a 40% black rural county that voted Democrat in 2020, has seen a decline in Democrat voter registration with a shift to an unaffiliated registration. According to the state’s New Rural Project, an initiative led by Democratic officials, more black Americans in rural North Carolina farming communities might stay home on Election Day or vote for Trump.
Democrats have grown less competitive in “the state’s predominantly white and poor mountainous west,” according to the WSJ, and “there are signs of a growing voter alignment with rural communities,” in the state’s “countrypolitan” counties near Charlotte and Raleigh.
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https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/campaigns/presidential/3046577/biden-campaign-cites-blue-energy-in-north-carolina-but-faces-unmoved-rural-voters/
