Municipal elections and second primaries were held in several parts of North Carolina on the last Tuesday of July, and despite Republicans’ hopes, incumbent Democrats nearly swept council and mayoral seats in Charlotte and Greensboro, which were the two biggest cities holding elections.
In Charlotte, the local Republican Party spent significant time and effort formulating a plan to grab several at-large city council seats – hoping that the timing of the election and controversial development issues would be enough to result in some upsets, according to WBTV.
Republicans in Charlotte failed miserably as all four at-large seats went to Democrats, with the closest Republican falling 14,000 votes short of the last spot. Democrats won seven out of the eight seats up for election. The city council will have nine Democrats, including Mayor Vi Lyles, and two Republicans.
It was a similar story in Greensboro. Voters there chose to stick with incumbent Democrats, including Mayor Nancy Vaughan, who edged out City Council Member Justin Outling in a Democrat vs. Democrat race. Voters picked Democrats in eight of nine races on Tuesday. The only Republican victory came in District 3 where the candidate ran unopposed after his challenger dropped out due to a cancer diagnosis. In addition to the council races, Greensboro voters also overwhelmingly approved five municipal bonds.
Although Charlotte and Greensboro are generally Democratic strongholds, Republicans had their eyes on picking up seats in both cities – and they failed to do so. The news for Democrats across the nation is now looking surprisingly positive. Political polling website FiveThirtyEight is now predicting Democrats to hold the Senate over the extremist GOP and national generic congressional ballot polling shows Republicans with just a 0.3% advantage over Democrats now.
With so many races so close at this point, keeping extremist Republicans out of Washington will come down to voter turnout. Democrats must show up at the polls this fall. While fundraising is great, money doesn’t vote – people do. Control of Congress could come down to elections in less than two-dozen counties in America – one of those counties is Wake County right here in North Carolina.
Extremist Republicans were let down in the state’s largest cities and most important races in last month’s election, and as the GOP continues to push forth widely unpopular and discriminatory measures, voters can make sure they’re disappointed this November as well.
