CHARLOTTE – The bifurcation of the urban and the rural has long been a topic of conversation in North Carolina,and across the country. More than mere squabbles over the skew of economic development projects, the urbanization of select areas of the state create real cultural and political differences between the two. It’s for this reason President Trump excelled in North Carolina when campaigning in its oft overlooked rural, conservative towns; that the cities, and the areas around them, have become a bastion of progressive liberal dogma invariably supporting Democrats.
That divide became sharper on election day, as urban and suburban districts turned blue, running most Republicans out into the county. That’s happening now in Charlotte, which has already been a well of Leftist gems, and the communities around it.
“How bad was last week’s election for Mecklenburg Republicans?
It swept all three GOP incumbents off the board of county commissioners. It saw Republicans lose one of their two state Senate seats and four of five House seats. For the fifth seat, Democrat Rachel Hunt holds a narrow lead over GOP Rep. Bill Brawley, with provisional ballots to be counted this week.
That would leave Sen. Dan Bishop as the only Republican in the county’s 17-member legislative delegation.
On the 11-member City Council, Bokhari is one of just two Republicans. He and council member Ed Driggs represent two southeast Charlotte districts, both traditionally Republican.
But an analysis of last week’s vote found Republican candidates won just one of 35 precincts in Bokhari’s District 6, and just one of 20 in Driggs’ District 7. The Observer looked at the results of each precinct in the 9th District congressional race or, for precincts not in that district, in their respective state House race. Precincts that voted Republican for years suddenly went Democratic.
It was a pattern repeated not only in North Carolina’s other large cities but in urban areas around America.
“You can’t ignore the fact that we’ve got changing demographics happening across all major urban areas across the country,” said Chris Turner, who chairs the county Republican Party. […]”
First of all, it’s worth noting that Senator Dan Bishop is the lone survivor in this area, even after a last hour smear job pushed by opponents. Bishop, an unabashed conservative, was re-elected while moderate colleagues around him dropped like flies.
But still, the demographics ARE changing to such a degree that the islands of urban liberalism will start to grow. Those growing pains can be seen in the controversy over town charter schools, in which smaller towns outside of Charlotte wanted out of the giant Charlotte-Meck Schools system and to offer a town-based education alternative for their residents. The Big City response? You’re racist for wanting your own neighborhood schools.
Places like Charlotte, Durham, Chapel Hill, Asheville, and a few others are destined to get deeper and deeper blue as our state grows, drowning out all of the sensible people living in the city limits and making the urban/rural divide starker in the process.
Read more about the dwindling Republicans of Mecklenburg County in the Charlotte Observer here.
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