Democrats are showing new strength in North Carolina now that Kamala Harris is at the top of the presidential ticket. WFAE’s Tommy Tomlinson, in his "On My Mind" commentary, says that matters to other crucial races in the state.
Here’s how you know North Carolina is back up for grabs in the presidential election: Donald Trump can’t stay away.
He campaigned in Asheboro this past Wednesday — the second time in eight days he’s done a rally in the state, and the third time since President Biden stepped away from the race in favor of Harris.
Trump had led Biden in basically every poll of North Carolina voters this election cycle. But now he’s, at the very best, neck-and-neck. A High Point University poll released Thursday has Harris slightly ahead, 46% to 45%.
That poll was taken during the Democratic National Convention, so it probably gave her a natural edge. And as I hope we all know by now, polls are just an educated guess to questions that can only be answered on Election Day.
But the surge for Harris matters on two fronts in North Carolina. One, of course, it gives her a chance to win a key state. But two, it could swing key races farther down the ballot.
I’m not sure any state has starker choices than North Carolina does this election year. I’m thinking of two races in particular: governor and superintendent of public instruction — the leader of the state’s K-12 schools.
The Democratic candidates are Josh Stein for governor and Mo Green for school superintendent — you might remember him as deputy superintendent for Charlotte-Mecklenburg schools. They’re fine. There’s nothing especially outstanding or alarming about either one. They’d be good stewards.
But on the Republican side … my goodness.
Mark Robinson, the GOP candidate for governor, has a history of disparaging gay and transgender people, complaining about feminists, railing against any abortions, and doubting the Holocaust. He has run down so many groups that back in June, when he said in a speech that “some people need killing,” nobody knew exactly who he was talking about.
Michele Morrow, the candidate to run our state’s K-12 schools, has said those same public schools are “socialism centers” and “indoctrination centers.” She attended the Jan. 6 insurrection on the Capitol and posted that Trump should use the military to stay in power. And before that, she called for the public execution of former President Obama.
You could say these are races between apples and oranges, but only if the oranges had been infested by mold and left out in the sun to rot.
These people cannot be given the car keys to our state. And the stronger the Democrat at the top, the weaker the Republicans will be underneath. Right now Stein holds a double-digit lead over Robinson, although Robinson is now tacking toward the center on the abortion issue. There hasn’t been as much polling in the state superintendent race, but from what I’ve seen it’s close.
This might sound weird, given what I’ve said so far, but I want to be able to vote for Republicans again. I want to support conservatives with sound ideas on how to rein in spending and keep our state safe while still treating one another like human beings. I know those people are out there. But they are not reflected in the current Republican Party, either in North Carolina or in America as a whole.
Maybe they will be again someday. But it ain’t today. And so today, the Democrats have to be as strong as possible, up and down the ticket.
Tommy Tomlinson’s On My Mind column runs Mondays on WFAE and WFAE.org. It represents his opinion, not the opinion of WFAE. You can respond to this column in the comments section at wfae.org. You can also email Tommy at ttomlinson@wfae.org
