Kamala Harris’ failure in North Carolina was a tough pill for the state’s Democrats to swallow on Tuesday night. It was also an anomaly for them.
Not only did North Carolina Democrats successfully block Mark Robinson, the GOP’s scandal-plagued nominee for governor, but Democrats broke the Republican supermajority in the state’s General Assembly. They also secured the major executive branch seats in North Carolina, electing Democrats for lieutenant governor, attorney general, superintendent and secretary of state. And, in perhaps their toughest bout beyond the presidential race, Democrats won one of the most closely contested seats in Congress.
As Democrats across the country begin to reckon what went so horribly wrong for their campaign strategy and messaging — and begin to point fingers internally — North Carolina was a more complicated story.
“North Carolina once again proved to be one of the few bright spots for Democrats on a disappointing night nationally,” said Morgan Jackson, adviser to the now-successful Democratic nominee for governor, Josh Stein. “Democrats continue to chart a path for success even in the face of another daunting national environment.”
Democrats considered themselves the underdogs going into Election Day. Redistricting by Republicans had all but ensured the GOP would maintain its legislative majority and replace a few Democrats in the congressional delegation. (Reps. Kathy Manning, Wiley Nickel and Jeff Jackson have not been reelected to Congress. Jackson, however, ran successfully for attorney general.) On Election Day, Harris’ loss in the state began to sink in early in the night for them. By midnight, Democrats were turning instead to their local wins.
Sam Lozier, spokesperson for the North Carolina House Democratic caucus, was tracking results as they came in on Tuesday night. Democrats were down to counting the last race that would decide whether they successfully repelled another cycle of a Republican supermajority. At 12:30 a.m., they found out Dante Pittman had unseated GOP incumbent Ken Fontenot in a consequential rural state House seat spanning Wilson and Nash counties.
“We were pretty elated given the rest of how the night went,” Lozier told NOTUS. “It’s just a hard feeling. You want to be happy for how you perform in your state, and if it doesn’t match the national race outcome, then it’s like, bittersweet.”
“I was very surprised,” Pittman told NOTUS about his reaction to winning. “It’s one of those things where you work so hard towards victory, and seeing it actually come in was just a surprise.”
In a statement, Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee President Heather Williams called the state-level victories “a testament to the DLCC’s work alongside many partners and allies to challenge unchecked Republican power in the state.”
Pittman and other Democrats, like freshman Rep. Don Davis, outperformed Harris, pulling out victories in eastern North Carolina, where the Harris campaign developed robust campaign infrastructure. Asked what Harris’ team could’ve done to run a more successful campaign in rural areas, Pittman said he’d “encourage them to have a broad tent, understand that in order to build a coalition, you’re going to have a wide variety of views.”
Democrats’ breakthroughs at the state level give them some relief, even under a Trump presidency.
“This means we have been given a way to sustain vetoes and a way to affect the passage of legislation in either chamber,” Dan Blue, the North Carolina Senate Democratic leader, told NOTUS.
Republicans insist the Democrats’ wins aren’t a sign of a changing electorate.
GOP nominee for secretary of state Chad Brown, who failed to unseat Democratic incumbent Elaine Marshall, said the results were quite normal. Since 1901, North Carolina has only elected three Republican governors and one Republican attorney general. No GOP nominee for secretary of state has been elected since 1873. Still, Brown says, he can’t quite wrap his head around that fact.
“I think it’s amazing how the state always plays out like that,” Brown said. “I don’t understand how that continues to do that in that capacity, to hold somebody out for that long. We obviously gave it our best shot. We put the best candidates forward.”
Democrats see the phenomenon as a blessing in their favor. To put it in their own terms, Democrats say the walls of their party have not completely shattered in North Carolina in light of Trump’s win.
“The center of democracy held, but the soul of the nation embraced the retreat of egalitarianism,” North Carolina-based Democratic strategist Doug Wilson said. “Sadly, if you live here, the state going for Trump is actually not a big surprise.”
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Calen Razor is a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow.