Seems like it was ripe for his taking. A lot of demographic shifts favoring the Dems, including a growing population in the heavily educated research triangle.

  • abc [he/him, comrade/them]
    ·
    4 years ago

    I mean, tbf the margin between Trump & Biden was like 75k votes but I think that Biden just didn't expect to have those 75k votes lean in Trump's favor.

    People heavily overestimate how big of a stronghold the Research Triangle and even the Charlotte Metropolitan areas are in NC. Sure, Trump lost votes in Durham, Wake, and Mecklenberg counties in between 2016 and 2020 - but he only widened his already-wide lead in the counties that border the urban pockets of NC. Places like Scotland and Lenoir counties - where votes for democrats and republicans have historically been cast pretty evenly or leaning slightly Dem (in Scotland's case) - were the counties where Trump picked up an extra couple thousand votes. Which meant that Biden's slim lead from Raleigh, Durham, Charlotte, and Asheville wasn't enough.

    Not to mention - of course - that Biden did the typical democrat shit of making a pledge to support the Lumbee Recognition Act and Trump one-upped him by saying "me too!" & then going so far as to, as he did in 2016 in other areas of NC, hold a rally in Robeson county.

    Libs will tell you "NC is just super rural and racist in those areas no wonder they went for trump!!" but do this :shocked-pikachu: when you point out that:

    • Robeson county has historically voted for the Democrat candidate in Presidential elections from 1880 - 2016 save 1972
    • Robeson county has the highest percentage of Lumbee/American Indian residents compared to any other county in the state at 38% and actually are the only county in NC where American Indians make up the majority of the population (to my knowledge).
    • Before Trump's 2020 rally, Robeson had never seen a President make a stop during their campaign.
    • Robeson is 99/100 for poorest county in NC with a per capita income of $15,321? And what's that?? Scotland county's 97/100 with $16,297? Huh...
    • The other counties that Trump scraped extra votes out of all are similarly poorer counties.

    :thinkin-lenin: