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Early voters in once-blue Robeson County cite reproductive rights, morals as key issues

Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024, was a busy day for early voting in Robeson County, as these residents came to vote at polls in Pembroke and Lumberton.
Mitchell Northam
/
WUNC
Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024, was a busy day for early voting in Robeson County, as these residents came to vote at polls in Pembroke and Lumberton.

Political polls, including the latest from Elon University, show this year's presidential race between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump is in a dead heat in North Carolina.

Voters are split on issues like the economy, abortion access, immigration, and threats to democracy.

You see those same fault lines when talking to early voters in Robeson County, once solidly blue but dominated by Trump supporters since 2016.

When you drive into the town of Pembroke, you're greeted by a sign that says "Town - Tribe - University." It's a tribute to the town's dual role as both home to a UNC System campus as well as seat of the Lumbee, a Native American tribe.

A variety of campaign signs for the 2024 Election are planted outside of the Pembroke Library
Mitchell Northam
/
WUNC
A variety of campaign signs for the 2024 Election are planted outside of the Pembroke Library on Blaine Street on Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024, during a day of early voting in Robeson County.

More than a third of Robeson County's 78,000-plus registered voters identify as American Indian, according to data collected by the North Carolina State Board of Elections.

At Pembroke Public Library's early voting site, I met Nicholas Oxendine, a 46-year-old military veteran studying accounting at UNC-Pembroke who had just cast his ballot in this year's elections.

"I'm nervous as far as, you know, look at all these foreign wars and everything," said Oxendine, who is Lumbee. "I just feel like a lot of people don't respect people in charge right now and they kind of respect Trump a little more."

Oxendine had a ready smile and was wearing a bright red "Make America Great Again" ballcap.

"Ah, it's just fun," he said. "I like wearing my hat, let everybody know where I'm standing, you know, just fun."

The other early voters I encountered in Pembroke also were Lumbee and supporters of Trump. Like 19-year-old Emma Locklear, also a student at UNC- Pembroke, who said: "A lot of people can't really afford things in the stores, and I don't think that's right."

Jerry Cummings and Leonard Lowry both blamed what they see as a national moral decline on Democrats.

"I tell you, when they take God out of everything, our nation is going to go down and that's what the Democrats have done," Cummings said.

Jerry Cummings, 74, is a lifelong resident of Robeson County. He's a registered Democrat, but the independent contractor says he's supporting Donald Trump in the 2024 Election.
Mitchell Northam
/
WUNC
Jerry Cummings, 74, is a lifelong resident of Robeson County. He's a registered Democrat, but the independent contractor says he's supporting Donald Trump in the 2024 Election.

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"We are all what God made us," said Lowry. "It's not what we made, it's what God made. God created us and he created male and female."

"What you're seeing there is a core kind of social conservatism that lines up very nicely and very strongly for a Trump-aligned voter," says Michael Bitzer, who teaches political science at Catawba College and is the author of Redistricting and Gerrymandering in North Carolina: Battlelines in the Tar Heel State.

Robeson County used to be solidly blue, consistently voting for Democratic presidential candidates all the way through the Obama years. Then, the county swung right by wide margins for Trump in 2016 and 2020.

But Bitzer noted the percentage of overall voters and votes cast by rural populations in places like Robeson County is shrinking, while more liberal suburban and urban blocs are growing — subtle shifts with big implications.

"One to two percent in that kind of county versus a one to two percent in an urban-suburb area, or, perhaps, in a surrounding suburban county, you know, all those shifts combined could lead to potentially huge consequences as to who gets elected," Bitzer said.

Lumberton, Robeson County's largest city, is about 12 miles down the road from Pembroke. At Lumberton's early voting site, I found a more diverse array of voters.

Larry Williams, who is Black, said he's been voting ever since graduating high school in 1975, and that this year he particularly concerned about reproductive rights.

"The right of women to be able to do what they want to with their own body," Williams said. "I mean, we don't have that stipulation on men so why should anyone govern that for women?"

"There's no man put on God's green earth to tell me what I can do with my body, period," asserted Eva Marie Pittman, also Black, who served in the Coast Guard for more than 20 years. Like Williams, Pittman cited protecting reproductive rights as a motivating factor for her this election year.

Eva Marie Pittman, 62, is veteran of the U.S. Coast Guard and a devout Pittsburgh Steelers fan. She voted early at the Robeson County Board of Elections in Lumberton on Oct. 24, 2024.
Mitchell Northam
/
WUNC
Eva Marie Pittman, 62, is a veteran of the U.S. Coast Guard and a devout Pittsburgh Steelers fan. She voted early at the Robeson County Board of Elections in Lumberton on Oct. 24, 2024.

June Page, 77, told me she has been thinking about this year's presidential race a lot, and that a Trump victory would be devastating.

The WUNC Politics Podcast is a free-flowing discussion of what we're hearing in the back hallways of the General Assembly and on the campaign trail across North Carolina.

"The main reason," Page says, "is he thinks he's above the law and he needs to go to one of those countries where he can be a dictator."

Gaye Carroll, a white voter, who's 63, said she just doesn't think the country is where it's supposed to be.

"There's just too much far out stuff going on with this woke stuff," Carroll said.

I wanted to know if Carroll discusses her views with friends and co-workers. She said no, not even at church.

"You know," she went on, "because half the congregation is going to be half like you, half not."

Carroll said everybody's entitled to what they think and what they believe.

"You cannot judge and condemn a person because they don't think like you do," she added. "You don't like it, but who's to say you're right, all the time?"

Then with a little laugh, Carroll said: "I mean, I am."


This story is part of a series, Voter Voices, that looks at how voters view key issues in important electoral locations across North Carolina.

Rusty Jacobs is WUNC's Voting and Election Integrity Reporter.