by Christopher Cooper
by Christopher Cooper
On November 4, I wrote a short piece looking forward to election day, 2025 in North Carolina. In days since the election, I’ve participated in a few forums about what happened (see, for example, this one hosted by Political Scientist and all around good guy Michael Bitzer), which have given me the opportunity to think a little more systematically about what happened and what it might mean.
I posted five takeaways that I feel relatively confident in at this early stage at the Anatomy of a Purple State Substack:
https://open.substack.com/pub/chriscooperwcu/p/looking-back-at-the-nov-2025-elections
By Michael Bitzer
Many will say that 2025’s odd-year election is just that: odd. But for those of us trying to consider what the mid-term election cycle (officially underway as of today, Nov. 5) will portend, the canary in the coal mine has turned blue. Very blue.
Political scientists and knowledgable observers know that mid-term elections tend to be referendums on the president and the president’s party—especially when that party is in control of Congress.
But the 2025 elections point towards a pretty incredible shift in Democratic fortunes from just one year ago.
By Michael Bitzer
With all the national attention Virginia, New Jersey, and New York City are getting for their campaigns and elections, this is just a gentle reminder that in 88 counties across the Old North State, elections in 447 municipalities are happening as well.
In the largest metro area to me, Charlotte has a slate of mayoral and city council contests, along with what appears to be a hotly (but could be decided overwhelmingly) sales tax referendum on the ballot.
In thinking about the significant shift of major metropolitan areas in recent decades, Charlotte gives us a prime example of what Democratic dominance looks like at the electoral level.
by Christopher Cooper
I wrote a new piece for The Assembly about North Carolina’s recently passed congressional map. You can take a look here (and, if you’re not a subscriber, now’s a good time to rectify that).
https://www.theassemblync.com/politics/nc-congressional-map-takeaways/
By Michael Bitzer
Fall breaks on college campuses are suppose to be quiet ones—students away, faculty getting some rest as well, all with the oncoming rush to the end of the semester looming ahead.
Well, at least on this Monday of Catawba’s fall break, news decided to interrupt that R&R with word that state legislative Republicans would follow the calls of their party leader and redistrict North Carolina’s congressional map to create “at least one” Republican pick up from the Old North State.
The GOP leaders’ announcement focused on trying to build some cushion in next year’s mid-term elections with shifting a map that is currently 10-4 Republican to 11-3. And the likely target will be the First Congressional District, located in the northeastern portion of the state with Democrat Don Davis. It’s a very 50-50 district currently (located in the upper northeastern portion of the state and ironically colored purple in the below map), with Davis having won with 49.5 percent of the vote in 2024.
Congressional redistricting – the process of drawing electoral districts to account for population changes – was conceived by the Founding Fathers as a once-per-decade redrawing of district lines following the decennial U.S. census. Today it has devolved into a near-constant feature of American politics – often in response to litigation, and frequently with the intent of maintaining or gaining partisan advantage.