By Ben Rappaport and Sarah Nagem

benrappaport@borderbelt.org

This story is co-published by The Assembly and the Border Belt Independent. 

There was never any doubt Charles Ray Peterson would be a Democrat. His parents, grandparents—everyone he knew in Bladen County, really—were Democrats. 

Peterson, 70, served on the Bladen County school board for 12 years and has been a county commissioner for more than two decades. “When I got involved in politics,” he said, “you almost had to be a Democrat to win.” 

But not anymore. Peterson changed his party affiliation to Republican in 2017, joining a growing number of people in rural North Carolina to eschew the Democratic Party. When he cast his ballot this year, he voted for a straight Republican ticket.

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Bladen County, home to 30,000 people, has been trending more conservative for years. Voters here picked Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012, then 54 percent of them backed Donald Trump in 2016. In 2020, 57 percent went for Trump, and he gained another 3 points in 2024. Republicans won every contested race in the county except one: a school board seat held by an unaffiliated incumbent.

Nestled between Wilmington and Fayetteville in rural southeastern North Carolina, Bladen isn’t alone in its political swing. Support for Trump increased 3.9 points in rural counties across the nation this election, according to an analysis by The New York Times. But Bladen offers a glimpse of what happened in many rural North Carolina counties as Republicans tried to build on momentum while Democrats fought to regain trust among working-class voters. 

Peterson, a retired safety trainer at the DuPont facility near Fayetteville, said the Democratic Party has left a lot of voters behind with its stances on abortion, gender identity, and LGBTQ+ issues. He also pointed to immigration and social welfare programs that he considers “hand-outs” for the unemployed and not enough on “hand-ups” for children, seniors, and veterans. 

“It just seems the Democrats have gone too far to the left with this ‘woke’ agenda,” Peterson said. 

That was the central message from Wayne Schaeffer, chairman of the Bladen County Republican Party, as he rallied voters through social media posts, email blasts, and face-to-face conversations on the street and at church. 

“I beat the drum on making people understand that the broader issue at play here is agenda,” Schaeffer said. “If you don’t get out and vote for a straight Republican agenda, you’re allowing the Democratic Party to install an agenda which will be contrary to your own conservative values.”

No one ‘rural NC’

Rural North Carolina is as diverse as it is wide: extending from the mountains of Cherokee County in the west to the beaches of Dare County about 500 miles east. Both cultural norms and political values are difficult to put into one tidy bundle. 

In Western North Carolina, Trump won every county but two—Buncombe and Watauga—as he did in the previous two elections.

He swept the most rural counties of the Piedmont and those along the northern border with Virginia, but lost in Vance, Warren, Halifax, Northampton, Hertford, Bertie, and Washington. 

But even in those northeastern counties, considered the “Black Belt” because of the large African American population, Trump gained ground this year. Democratic candidate Kamala Harris won between 8 and 14 percent fewer votes here than Joe Biden did in 2020, according to an analysis by Michael Bitzer, a political science professor at Catawba College. 

Trump also won the seven counties along the southern border that stretch from Charlotte to Wilmington, a once reliably Democratic region. Among them was Anson, one of three rural counties Trump flipped this year after losing in 2020 and 2016. 

When I got involved in politics, you almost had to be a Democrat ton win.

Charles Ray Peterson, Bladen County commissioner

The others he flipped were Nash, about an hour east of Raleigh, and Pasquotank in the northeast. Virginia Wasserberg, chair of the Pasquotank County Republican Party, said political momentum there has been trending right for several years, but it’s always been a culturally conservative place.

The county “had this conservative lean all along,” Wasserberg said. “It’s just a matter of getting that information into voters so that they know how they want to vote.”

From the mother county

Bladen is often called North Carolina’s “mother county” because 55 others were carved from it starting back in the 18th century. It is known for its natural beauty; the 1,200-acre White Lake and its surrounding theme parks and restaurants attract thousands of visitors each year, and agri-tourism has become one way farm families help sustain themselves. 

It is the largest grower of blueberries in the state and the third-largest hog producer. More than 4,000 people work at the Smithfield Foods plant in Tar Heel. But Bladen is one of the poorest counties in the state, with nearly 25 percent of residents living below the poverty line. 

Like much of rural North Carolina, Bladen’s population is shrinking. It lost 16 percent of its residents between 2010 and 2020 as birth rates declined and many people sought better-paying jobs elsewhere, according to Census data. While the hemorrhaging has slowed, there are no signs the county will see the kind of growth other regions have experienced of late. 

Bladen County residents say they are frustrated by the lack of economic opportunity here and believe Republicans are better equipped to reduce inflation and make their day-to-day lives easier.

“They wanted cheaper gas, they wanted cheaper bacon, they wanted cheaper eggs—that’s the bottom line,” said Dwight Sheppard, vice chairman of the Bladen County Democratic Party. “I’m not sure they’re going to get what they wanted, but we’ll see.”

But Republicans, Sheppard said, were able to capitalize on this frustration. “They would vote for a grass seed out there before they vote for a Democrat,” Sheppard said. “A lot of people believe Donald Trump would be living in the trailer two doors down, that he feels like one of them.”

Sheppard said some Bladen voters remain skeptical of the electoral process after a ballot-harvesting scheme shook the election for the 9th Congressional District in 2018. Leslie McCrae Dowless Jr., a local political operative working with the campaign of Republican Mark Harris, was accused of illegally gathering absentee ballots. He died in 2022 before his trial was expected to begin. While Harris was not charged, he was called before the State Board of Elections to testify in a dramatic moment in state politics. This year, he won the election in the 8th District, which does not include Bladen County.

It’s just a matter of getting that information into voters so that they know how they want to vote.

Virginia Wasserberg, chair of the Pasquotank County Republican Party

Voters’ skepticism was high heading into Election Day, amid swirling misinformation online. On the eve of Election Day, the local Bladen Journal published a claim from Schaeffer that immigrants living in the country illegally were casting ballots.

There was no evidence to support Schaeffer’s claim, and North Carolina State Board of Elections staff has contacted the Bladen Journal to correct the article, according to Pat Gannon, spokesperson for the board. And as NPR reported, theories about noncitizen voting quickly evaporated nationwide as Trump’s victory became clear.

Rural turnout declines 

Rebuilding trust among rural voters was a key part of Anderson Clayton’s platform when the 25-year-old surprised many by winning the race for North Carolina Democratic Party Chair in 2023. The party had success in electing its candidates for governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, and superintendent of schools, and broke the supermajority in the state House. 

Still, voter turnout remained low in rural regions. 

The party targeted six counties through directed canvassing efforts and listening sessions to increase turnout among Black rural voters: Cumberland, Lenoir, Nash, Pitt, Perquimans, and Scotland. Trump made gains in each, and overall voter turnout dropped in all of them. 

In Scotland County, where 40 percent of residents are Black, Trump won the presidential race with 53 percent of the vote, while Democrat Josh Stein narrowly edged out Mark Robinson. Republicans also gained a majority on the Board of Commissioners for the first time in modern history, after two incumbent Democrats lost their seats. 

One of them was Darrell “BJ” Gibson, who serves as chair of the North Carolina Democratic Party’s Rural Caucus. He said he didn’t think it was personal. “I don’t think the voters necessarily wanted me specifically out of office,” he said. “They wanted the Democrats out.”

Scotland County had one of the lowest voter turnout rates in the state, at 65 percent. 

In Bladen, turnout was down nearly 3 points from 2020, with 72 percent of registered voters casting ballots this year. A higher turnout there could have made a difference—registered Democrats still outnumber Republicans and unaffiliated voters. But the county has gained nearly 500 registered Republicans and 1,000 unaffiliated voters since January. Meanwhile, there are about 270 fewer registered Democrats than at the start of the year. 

Althea Weaver, chair of the Bladen County Democratic Party, said Democrats struggled there this year because of strong GOP headwinds. Even in heavily Democratic precincts, voter turnout was lower and the margins favored conservatives more than in previous elections. 

“It’s just the influence that Donald Trump has over people,” Weaver said. In her eyes, Democratic campaigning efforts were insufficient against Trump’s cult of personality. “They believe him, they follow him. It’s here and we are constantly fighting against it.” 

Energizing local voters

Weaver and Schaeffer both brought statewide candidates to Bladen County on multiple occasions, something they said was critical to energizing voters. That included both parties’ candidates for governor, lieutenant governor, and treasurer.

“We put the message out,” Weaver said. “All we can do is continue to push forward, continue with our message, and just continue to try to reach folks.”

She said she wants to focus on getting more young people involved. Most attendees at monthly party meetings are in their 50s and 60s.

Going forward, Republicans say they are continuing to build momentum in rural counties. Jason Simmons, chairman of the North Carolina Republican Party, said the key is to focus on issues that matter most to those voters, including economic prosperity and public safety. “You can never be complacent,” he said. 

Meanwhile, rural Democrats looking to improve reach in future elections may look to Henderson County. Republicans still won most key races there, but compared to 2020, the county saw the biggest shift toward Democrats than any county in the state. Trump’s margin of victory there shrank by more than 4 points, they picked Stein for governor and saw similar shifts toward Democrats down-ballot. Republicans also underperformed the results of previous years in the lieutenant governor and attorney general races.

Leslie Carey, chair of the Henderson County Democratic Party, credits an increase in party spending, their focus on community events, and a surge of volunteers. “We made a real effort to become more visible in the community,” she said. “Part of us shifting left was also that people came out to vote down ballot.”

The local party engaged about 1,200 volunteers this campaign season, who took part in canvassing, phone banking and fundraising efforts. Donations and volunteers increased substantially amid a burst of enthusiasm after Harris became the presidential nominee in July, Carey said. 

But the party’s volunteers also extended beyond political work. In the wake of Hurricane Helene, Carey said volunteers used the headquarters to pass out food, paper goods, and other emergency supplies to more than 500 people across the county.

Carey said she hopes Henderson can be a lesson to rural Democrats in other parts of the state when it comes to focusing efforts and building relationships. “We were able to share in those efforts with the community,” she said. “It’s who we are. We just show up in that way.”

Peterson, the Bladen County commissioner, said he would be surprised if Democrats win back the support of voters there anytime soon. As the older residents who considered themselves conservative Democrats die, he said, younger people are looking to the Republican Party. “Our people are more educated now,” he said, “and they want to think for themselves.”