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NC elections highlight the importance of the West BY CORY VAILLANCOURT STAFF WRITER here’s a strong, long-held sentiment here in rural Western North Carolina that the region is often overlooked when balanced against the state of North Carolina as a whole, but unofficial results from the March 3 Primary Election show that the counties that make up this rugged, mountainous region are more important politically than ever before.
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HOW THE WEST WAS WON
Smoky Mountain News
March 11-17, 2020
Looking first at the Democratic Presidential Preference, former Vice President Joe Biden ran away with it, garnering more than 43 percent of the vote in what was at the time really just a four-person race thanks to last-minute withdrawals by South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg and Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar. Biden won 96 of the state’s 100 counties. Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders won only four, but they were all in the west — Madison and Mitchell, Watauga (home to Appalachian State University) and Buncombe County, further cementing Asheville‘s reputation as the state’s most liberal, progressive city. Former New York mayor and media mogul Michael Bloomberg, who entered the race late and withdrew after the March 3 Super Tuesday elections pulled almost 13 percent of the North Carolina vote, just ahead of Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s 10.5 percent. On the Republican side, President Donald Trump’s Primary Election victory was never really in any doubt. Trump won all 100 counties against former Illinois Congressman Joe Walsh and former Massachusetts Gov. Bill Weld, both of whom got about 2 percent, and both of whom lost to the “no preference” option, with 2.5 percent. While some may see Trump’s 93.5 percent total as a small measure of dissatisfaction among Republicans, it’s important to note that the last time an incumbent president ran for reelection in North Carolina — Barack Obama in 2012 — he earned just 79 percent of the primary vote, with the “no preference” option pulling a hefty 21 percent. There’s a similar phenomenon at play in the Republican Primary Election for U.S. Senate; while incumbent Sen. Thom Tillis did win all 100 counties, he did it with only 78.1 percent of the vote, but the last time a sitting U.S. Senator from North Carolina faced a Primary Election — Richard Burr in 2016 — he earned just 61.4 percent of the vote. For the Democrats, U.S. Senate candidate Cal Cunningham took 57 percent of the vote, even with a Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnelllinked PAC spending money to promote his 6 opponent Erica Smith, who ended up with
Campaign signs dot the landscape outside a Haywood County polling place Feb. 29. Cory Vaillancourt photo
Strong turnout in almost all WNC counties It can be difficult to compare voter turnout across VOTER TURNOUT North Carolina’s Primary County Ballots cast Registered voters Turnout Elections because of an everMitchell .............5,154................10,410 ..............49.51% shifting calendar that held Avery..................5,080................11,583 ..............43.86% different primaries on differBuncombe ........81,887..............195,942 .............41.79% ent days for different offices. Clay ...................3,361.................8,651 ...............38.85% For example, during the Yancey...............5,127................13,480 ..............38.03% last presidential election year Madison ............5,211................16,345 ..............38.00% of 2016, North Carolina held Graham .............2,179.................5,808 ...............37.52% two primaries — one on Haywood...........16,203...............43,432 ..............37.31% March 15 that that only feaMacon ...............9,583................25,702 ..............37.29% tured only presidential, U.S. McDowell..........10,336...............28,052 ..............36.85% Senate and judicial contests, Transylvania......9,286................25,316 ..............36.68% and one on June 7 that feaCherokee ...........7,232................21,439 ..............33.73% tured council of state offices Jackson .............9,243................27,786 ..............33.26% and congressional races. In Polk ...................4,832................15,479 ..............31.22% the former, the more highSwain ................2,864.................9,526 ...............30.07% profile of the two, statewide Rutherford........12,209...............43,600 ..............28.00% turnout was 35.6 percent but Statewide ......2,148,978..........6,940,995............30.96% in the latter, it was just 7.7 Source: NCSBE percent. This year, with everything on the same ballot, statewide turnout was 30.96 percent, however in the 17-county western region that makes up the 11th Congressional District, every county except two exceeded that number — some, by far.
WNC
34.8 percent of the vote. Smith won 19 counties, mostly in the northeastern part of the state. Cunningham won every other county, and the other three candidates in the race didn’t win any. Gov. Roy Cooper won all 100 counties, as did his November opponent, Republican Lt.
Gov. Dan Forest. Cooper counted 87.2 percent of the vote in his favor against littleknown, oft-running Ernest Reeves, and Forest did slightly better against Rep. Holly Grange, with 88.9 percent of the vote. Perhaps the biggest story of the Primary Election is the emergence of Republican Mark
Robinson, one of nine Republicans hoping to follow Forest into the lieutenant governor position. Running his first campaign, Robinson kind of came out of nowhere but wasn’t exactly an unknown — his fiery speech on Second Amendment rights before the Greensboro City Council in 2018 went viral on YouTube, helping him coast to victory with 32.5 percent of the vote. Robinson won 94 counties and earned more votes than his next two opponents combined. Both of them, Sen. Andy Wells and current State Superintendent of Public Instruction Mark Johnson, had far more experience running and winning than Robinson did. Democrats also saw a crowded field in their lieutenant governor primary, and that’s led to a runoff because the winner, Raleigh Rep. Yvonne Holley, didn’t get past the 30 percent threshold. Buncombe County Sen. Terry Van Duyn came in six points behind Holley with 20.44 percent of the vote, but hadn’t yet called for a runoff as of press time on March 10. Van
U.S. Senate candidate Cal Cunningham took 57 percent of the vote, even with a Mitch McConnelllinked PAC spending money to promote his opponent Erica Smith, who ended up with 34.8 percent of the vote.
Duyn won 20 counties, but Holley won more than double that, including the western counties of Cherokee, Clay and Swain although those three counties only earned Holley less than 1,000 votes against her total of more than 306,000. Republican attorney general candidate Jim O’Neill won 85 counties and all of Western North Carolina except for Polk County. Incumbent Democrat and longtime state auditor Beth Wood won all 100 counties in her primary, and will face Republican nominee Anthony Wayne Street, who took 56.18 percent of the vote over Tim Hoegemeyer, winner of Macon, Buncombe and Transylvania counties. Jenna Wadsworth, who was at one time the youngest elected official in the state, took the Democratic agriculture commissioner nomination over 2016 nominee Walter Smith and newcomer Donovan Watson. Smith won 39 counties, including Graham. Rep. Josh Dobson took 40.3 percent of the vote in his race for the Republican labor commissioner nomination and won only 42 counties, but they were larger than opponent Chuck Stanley’s 54 counties (including Haywood). Pearl Burris Floyd had incumbent commissioner Cherie Berry’s endorsement, but it didn’t help her much — she won just four counties and had
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