By Ben Rappaport
Democrat Josh Stein trounced Mark Robinson in the North Carolina governor’s race, but you wouldn’t know it by looking at unofficial results in rural southeastern North Carolina.
Voters in Bladen, Columbus and Robeson counties picked Robinson, the Republican candidate whose campaign took a huge hit in September when CNN reported that he called himself a “Black Nazi” and made other disturbing comments on a pornographic website more than a decade ago.
Voters in the region also picked other down-ballot Republicans who lost statewide, including candidates for lieutenant governor and attorney general, in a sign that the region is moving further away from its decades as a Democratic stronghold.
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Robinson won 58% of the vote in Columbus County and 55% in Robeson County. Republican Hal Weatherman, who lost to Democrat Rachel Hunt in the lieutenant governor’s race, won nearly 56% of the vote in Bladen County.
Democrat Jeff Jackson won 51% of the statewide vote for attorney general, but lost by more than 3 points in Scotland County.
In the closely watched race for state superintendent of schools, Democrat Mo Green defeated Republican Michele Morrow, a homeschool parent who attended the riot at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and has called for the execution of former President Barack Obama. Morrow won 59% of the vote in Robeson County.
In rural southeastern North Carolina, voters also chose Donald Trump for president at a higher clip than the statewide tally. Low turnout in the region helped give Republicans an even larger cushion than in previous elections.
Some voters in the region said they were occasionally turned off by Trump’s lewdness and braggadocio, but they felt his policies were more aligned with their values.
“[Trump’s] got American people at heart, whether you like his personality or not,” said Dean White, 67, of Bladen Coiunty. “I’m not voting for him for my Sunday school teacher, I’m voting for him for this,” he said pointing to his wallet.
White said he used to be a Democrat but switched parties during the Obama administration, when he said the party began shifting too far left. That shift includes social issues like LGBTQ+ rights and abortion.
“I’m not for gay marriage, I’m not for gender changes, I’m not for abortion — that’s what the Democrats are pushing for these days,” said Carl Allen, 66, of Bladenboro.
Allen said he believed the country was becoming “ungodly” because it was abandoning Christian values.
“If we carry on the direction this country is headed now, we are all going to have to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah soon if we don’t change,” he said.
Voters on both sides of the political aisle in the region used the word “ungodly” to describe the state of the nation. Wanda Killens, 65, a Whiteville resident, voted for Kamala Harris in the election. She said Trump was an embarrassment to the country and those voting for him should “seek the word of Jesus.”
“One party believes in threats, the other believes in resolutions,” Killens said. “All that division sifts its way through to local politics. We end up being the ones most impacted by that division.”
She said Trump’s rhetoric was sowing division at a federal level that was trickling down locally. Killens, a Black woman, said she felt some Columbus County residents had been emboldened by Trump’s racism and misogyny in recent years.
In Bladen County, Trump won with 60% of the vote, a 3 percentage point increase from 2020 and 7 points up from 2016.
Trump received 67% of the vote in Columbus County, a 3 point increase from 2020 and a 7 point increase from 2016.
Trump increased his margin of victory in Robeson County by more than 4 points compared to 2020. Trump has won the county all three times he has run for president and increased his vote share each election.
Scotland County was the only county in the Border Belt to split its vote at the top of the ticket in favor of Trump and Stein. The county was responsible for Trump’s slimmest margin of victory in 2020, when Trump won there by 262 votes. This year, he won the county by more than 1,000 votes, according to unofficial results. Scotland County voted for Democrat Hillary Clinton in 2016.
Stein won Scotland County on Tuesday by 373 votes, or 2.6 percentage points.
“Regardless of the outcome, we are going to be taken care of by a higher power,” Killens said. “I voted my conviction, but whoever wins is not going to control my destiny.”
