Donald Trump wins North Carolina, picks up coveted Southern swing state
Republican nominee Donald Trump has won the state of North Carolina, a battleground devastated by Hurricane Helene just months before Election Day.
Trump is awarded 16 electoral votes from the state. He won North Carolina over Democratic nominee Kamala Harris.
Notably, North Carolina voters split their ticket by giving Trump a victory while also on Tuesday electing a Democratic governor in Josh Stein over Republican Mark Robinson.
The Tar Heel State opting for Trump isn't the biggest surprise of the night. The state has voted for Republicans in recent presidential elections, with the exception of 2008 when Barack Obama sealed a victory. Trump narrowly won the state in both 2016 and 2020.
North Carolina, along with several other Southeastern states, was hit hard by Hurricane Helene in September – killing more than 200 people in the region. Thousands of residents were displaced or left without water and electricity in the weeks following the hurricane.
Trump criticized the Biden administration’s response to the storms. He often spread claims that federal disaster money went to migrants and that Georgia GOP Gov. Brian Kemp had trouble reaching President Joe Biden in the aftermath of the storm. Both claims were untrue.
Harris, the vice president, rose to the top of the Democratic ticket after Biden dropped out of the race in July. During her campaign to find a running mate, North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper was one of the top contenders. However, the governor took his name out of the running out of fears that he’d cede some of his power to Robinson, the state's lieutenant governor.
Robinson faced a string of controversies in the months leading up to Election Day, and Trump has distanced himself from the North Carolina leader. Robinson allegedly made racist, homophobic and otherwise shocking on a pornography website message board over a decade ago. He denied the allegations.