’Pathway to Victory’: North Carolina Joins President Biden’s Campaign’s Target Battleground States
North Carolina has a long history of being a battleground state and a determining factor in national debates, with the most recent elections describing it as a “purple state.” Once again, North Carolina is at the center of another presidential cycle, with President Joe Biden’s campaign team eyeing to flip the Tar Heel state.
Several factors, including the state’s ever-growing population, which increased our electoral votes from 15 to 16, state Republican extremism and key issue-area battles on voting rights and abortion, have propped up North Carolina onto President Biden’s campaign’s pathway to victory in 2024.
“This would be the right call for President Biden,” Governor Roy Cooper stated about the Biden campaign’s investments. “North Carolina is the fullback of presidential politics. Republicans have to win it to be president. Democrats don’t. But it’s critical for Democrats to keep it close because Republicans have to expend extraordinary resources and time making sure they win North Carolina.”
According to USA Today, President Biden lost North Carolina by just 1.3 percentage points in 2020, the smallest margin of all the states he lost. It was Democrats’ best presidential performance in the state since former President Barack Obama carried the state by less than 1 point in 2008, USA Today reports.
With state Republicans passing discriminatory and unpopular measures such as overturning Gov. Cooper’s veto of a 12-week abortion ban, passing a dangerous pistol permit repeal less than 48 hours after a mass shooting, and rolling back voting rights, Democrats believe these extremist efforts will galvanize voters to push back.
“2024 is setting up to be a referendum in North Carolina on abortion, and that is a bad thing for Republicans,” Morgan Jackson, a political adviser to Gov. Cooper and state Democrats, told The Washington Post. “This kind of action is going to galvanize women. It is going to galvanize younger voters.”
With a GOP majority on the state Supreme Court and a Republican-led legislature, the electoral future looks rosy for Republicans. However, the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling on Alabama’s discriminatory voting maps may restrict how much North Carolina’s Republican lawmakers can suppress voters.
In addition, voters across the U.S. have pushed back against abortion bans, much like the one Republicans passed in North Carolina; underscoring that North Carolinians will be motivated to protect reproductive freedom.
“There will be top-to-bottom a strong Democratic effort in North Carolina and with the resources of the coordinated campaign and the Biden campaign here, I think there’s no stopping us,” stated Gov. Cooper.
