Super Tuesday narrowed the Democratic presidential field to a race between two men: former Vice President Joe Biden and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders. The majority of Democratic North Carolinians cast their ballots for Biden, giving him the state and adding fuel to his comeback after a landslide win in the South Carolina primary. And today former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced he is suspending his campaign and endorsing Biden.
While the former vice president did well in Southern states and among black voters, Sanders captured young and progressive voters out west to win Utah, Colorado, Vermont and California. Moving down the ballot in North Carolina, most races went as expected — except for the Republican primary in the race for lieutenant governor. Political newcomer Mark Robinson defeated eight other candidates, including Mark Johnson, current superintendent of public instruction and former congresswoman Renee Ellmers. There were also two sitting state legislators who lost their primary elections.
Host Frank Stasio talks to reporters and analysts from around the state about the election results and what they mean for November. WUNC politics reporter Rusty Jacobs and WUNC Capitol Bureau ChiefJeff Tiberii share their on-the-ground reporting from Republican and Democratic primaries in the state and look at the larger trends in these results. Tiberii shares results from the U.S. Senate Democratic primary, in which former state lawmaker Cal Cunningham defeated state Sen. Erica Smith and three other candidates.
Stasio talks to political scientists Deondra Rose, Michael Bitzer and Susan Roberts for their analysis of Super Tuesday results in North Carolina and around the country. Rose is an assistant professor of public policy and political science and the director of research for POLIS: Center for Politics at the Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University. Bitzer is a professor of politics and history at Catawba College. And Roberts is a professor of political science at Davidson College.
Reporters Vince Winkel and Matt Bush share community reaction and local election results from their parts of the state. Winkel is with WHQR in Wilmington and Bush is the news director for Blue Ridge Public Radio in Asheville.
Interview Highlights
Bitzer on regional turnout:
In the preliminary numbers that I've seen and been able to crunch so far, it looks like turnout was significantly up in these major urban counties. So Wake County, Mecklenburg County, Guilford, Buncombe. But then when you get out into rural counties — particularly on the Democratic side — the numbers just fell off. So I think what we're seeing is a continuing part of the narrative of North Carolina politics: urban counties moving more Democratic [and] rural counties moving more Republican. And that's shown in the numbers of who's taking ballots for which political party.
Rose on how Democrats can unite at the top of the ballot:
I imagine that we could absolutely see segments of the electorate that feel that the selected candidate does not reflect them sitting it out, if they're not inspired enough. So I think that's why it's incumbent on the Democratic Party and whoever gains the nomination to pick a vice presidential person to share the ticket who signals like an olive branch to that other constituency or that other segment of the electorate.
Roberts on the political implications of the coronavirus:
Trump's characterization of this as a hoax is going to be out of circulation quite soon, because people are taking it personally and not politically. I think that Trump's response to the natural disaster in Puerto Rico — in which he threw paper towels — his fear mongering about immigrants; and what you could call his kind of schizophrenic view of where we are in the world and global politics … I think Trump will have some baggage when it comes to that. And I think Trump's Teflon has been the economy. And we'll see what happens there.
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