North Carolina is a state that has many diverse and interesting politics. Its state government is built around the concept of separation of powers, with three branches - the executive branch, legislative branch, and judicial branch. The executive branch is comprised of the Governor, Lieutenant Governor, and Attorney General, while the legislative branch includes both the House of Representatives and the Senate. The Supreme Court is part of the judicial branch and oversees all courts in North Carolina. Local governments also function independently within their own county or city boundaries. These local governments are responsible for providing services to residents such as police protection, public health care, fire safety regulations, road maintenance, and many other services. Candidates for these offices are elected by citizens in each local area on a nonpartisan basis every two years. With all these components in place, North Carolina strives to provide its citizens with an efficient and effective political system that will benefit everyone in the state.
The political climate in North Carolina is leaning conservative.
In North Carolina 48.6% of the people voted for the Democratic Party in the last presidential election, 49.9% voted for the Republican Party, and the remaining 1.5% voted for an Independent Party.
In the last Presidential election, North Carolina remained narrowly Republican, 49.9% to 48.6%.
North Carolina voted Republican in five of the last six Presidential elections (2008 went Democratic).
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index
North Carolina is leaning conservative.
The BestPlaces liberal/conservative index is based on recent voting in national elections, federal campaign contributions by local residents, and consumer personality profiles.
VoteWord™
Displaying 20 years of Presidential voting, visualized in one word.
North Carolina, North Carolina: R R d r r r
How It Works:
Here at BestPlaces, we were looking at the voting patterns since the 2000 election and realized that we could express the results of each election as one letter. R if the Republican Party candidate won, D for the Democrat and I for the Independent. The six elections (2000, 2004, 2008, 2012, 2016, 2020) would be expressed as six-letter word (R R D R R R).
Then we went a little further and added the dimension of magnitude. If the difference of victory was greater than 10 percent, the letter is upper case, and lower case if the difference was less than 10 percent. This allows us to see interesting voting patterns at just a glance.
Here's the VoteWord for Iowa d r d d r r. In the last six elections the state has been closely contested, voting narrowly for the Republican Party candidate in 2016 and 2020 after voting for the Democratic Party in 2008 and 2012. Virginia (r r d d d D) has voted for the Democratic Party in the last four elections.
Individual Campaign Contributions in North Carolina
In the last 4 years (2018-2021), there were 379,961 contributions totaling $48,599,501 to the Democratic Party and liberal campaigns, averaging $128 per contribution.
In the last 4 years, there were 96,570 contributions totaling $44,045,891 to the Republican Party and conservative campaigns, averaging $456 per contribution.
(source: Federal Election Commission)