Democrats ‘Victorious’ in Urban NC Races

In what turned out to be a good showing for Democrats in North Carolina and beyond, Election Day 2017 confirms the Democrats are still capable of pushing out the vote. While the myriad community based races had their own unique flavors, and were merely confirmations of resident Democrat majorities, the victories will be extrapolated and projected onto 2018.

From WRAL:

“Vi Lyles, Charlotte’s mayor pro tem, sent out a Twitter post saying “We are victorious!” With most of the city’s 168 precincts reporting unofficial returns, Lyles had 58 percent of the vote, compared to 41 percent for City Councilman Kenny Smith.

Lyles continues a run of Democratic mayors elected to the post after Pat McCrory finished his final term in 2009.”

This is not a surprising result, but much larger than polls had indicated. The Queen City is 2-to-1 Democrats who would rather struggle on under the Left’s false promises of progress, so Smith’s performance is not altogether out of line.

“Elsewhere in North Carolina, City Councilman Steve Schewel was elected mayor of Durham with 59 percent of the vote, compared to 40 percent for Fared Ali. Schewel succeeds Bill Bell, who decided not to seek re-election after 16 years in office. Bell backed Ali after the October primary.

Greensboro Mayor Nancy Vaughan won re-election with a resounding victory over challenger Diane Moffett.

Esther Manheimer took an overwhelming re-election victory over Martin Ramsey in Asheville’s mayor race with nearly 81 percent of the vote. Wilmington incumbent Bill Saffo also cruised to victory in that city’s mayoral race for his fifth term in office.

In Fayetteville, challenger Mitch Colvin defeated incumbent Nat Robertson with nearly 59 percent of the vote.”

Durham and Greensboro are blue urban strongholds where Republicans would have a hard time contending even in good presidential election years. The Fayetteville flip may be more indicative of its urbanization and the personalities involved.

A silver lining may be that Asheville voted overwhelmingly against stepping off the deep end and voting for the proud socialist candidate Martin Ramsey.

While many will draw lines the 2018 elections and exactly how much of a grasp Republicans have on the majority in the General Assembly, the 2018 elections will feature a far more broad sample of the voting constituencies across the Old North State. Therefore 2018 voting sentiment cannot be properly assessed by observing results from concentrated Democrat strongholds in the state’s urban centers during off year elections.

If anything, the local races are a good reminder for grassroot Conservatives to get to work on 2018 and not take anything for granted.