Across North Carolina, turnout was down in the primary election. Voters also seemed to shy away from moderate candidates from both parties.
That’s according to political expert Chris Cooper from Western Carolina University.
“Statewide we're at a little bit less than one in every four registered voters who actually showed up and cast the vote. That's down pretty substantially from 2020 – down even more than we thought it would be from early voting,” Cooper said in an interview Wednesday morning after Super Tuesday.
This less than 25% turnout brought a big win for former President Donald Trump over his Republican challengers. President Joe Biden, the only candidate on the Democratic ticket, won North Carolina’s primary but 13% of Democrats voted no preference.
At the polls, Jeri Anderson in Sylva shared her apathy about the presidential primary.
“I don’t think anyone is excited about the two options. I think we are just picking between the lesser of two evils,” Anderson said.
In the same parking lot, Jennifer Robin was campaigning for a new party, “We The People,” which backs candidate Robert Kennedy Jr. She said the party is gathering signatures in six states to get Kennedy on the November ballot as the representative for the “We the People.” In others, Kennedy will run as an independent.
“The fact is this man is a good man, an honorable man. Both his uncle and his father were assassinated for their beliefs and he's putting his life on his line right now today to try to save America,” Robin said.
In Buncombe County, there was a Kennedy campaign bus stationed across from the West Asheville Library with volunteers also asking passersby to sign the petition.
In far western North Carolina, Cooper says this year’s turnout was down in most counties. In 2022 during the midterm election, Republicans won big in the region while Democrats solidified their position in their Buncombe County stronghold.
BPR asked Cooper if this trend continued in the 2024 primary: did Republicans turnout at a higher percentage? He said that data isn’t known yet: “We'll know much more about that in the general election.”
“I don't think we can tell too much about partisan patterns unless we look at (the) small number of races that were actually decided where everybody got to vote,” Cooper said.
Those races were nonpartisan races. That means Democrats and Republicans chose from the same candidates on Tuesday. For example, in Jackson County, all voters could cast ballots in the school board election. Candidate Rainy Brake was campaigning in Sylva on election day.
“I do think that that's one thing when you're talking about education, or you're talking about being a judge, those are careers and roles in the community that are probably best left nonpartisan,” Brake said. She said she is a registered Republican.
Brake has been campaigning with District 3 candidate Clint Iron. According to campaign finance records, Keith Blaine, chairman of the Jackson County Republican Party was fundraising for the pair.
Brake lost in District 1, with Democrat and former county commissioner Gayle Wood as the top vote-getter with 4,249 votes (63%) against Brake’s 2,498 votes (37%).
Irons also lost his race with 2,775 votes (41%) to incumbent Wes Jamison who had 3,900 votes (58%).
Another trend to watch is what unaffiliated voters did at the polls. Cooper said individual level voting data for election day hasn’t been released yet but in early voting two-thirds of unaffiliated voters participated in the Republican primary.
In North Carolina, unaffiliated voters can choose which primary to vote in.
“The Republican primary was frankly more interesting. There were more competitive elections top to bottom and we tend to see unaffiliated voters following that general pattern of competitiveness,” Cooper said.
Cooper was watching to see if unaffiliated voters would choose more moderate candidates in the primary but he says more extreme candidates from both parties won the day.
“We saw the more polarizing candidate win more often than not,” Cooper said.
For example, on the Republican ticket for the state Superintendent of Public Instruction incumbent Catherine Truitt lost to Michele Morrow.
“[She] lost to a challenger who is very MAGA-identifying and who was out-fundraised eight to one by the incumbent. And (Morrow) still somehow pulled out a victory. So that just shows how much of a ground swell of support there was from the right,” Cooper said.
The current results of the primary election are unofficial. The results will be certified March 15 by the state canvass.
There will be a number of automatic recounts across the state for local races with a 1% difference in votes.
There may also be a second primary for the top two vote-getters in for the Republican contest for the party’s lieutenant governor nomination. That second primary would be held on May 14. If no candidate obtains at least 30% or more of the vote in a primary race, the second-place candidate may request a runoff. On Tuesday night, Republican Hal Weatherman was reported to have captured 20% of the vote with Jim O’Neill close behind with 16%. Deanna Ballard, a former state senator from Watauga County, was a close third with 15% of the vote.
