With all the attention on the GOP wins in the Virginia and New Jersey governors’ races this year, the purportedly liberal media is ignoring the fact that voters in a larger, one-time solidly red state went a little bluer on Nov. 3.
The state’s largest city elected a Democratic mayor for the first time in 22 years, and despite the fact that this southern city is two-thirds white, the new mayor happens to be African-American.
Meanwhile, this state’s most famous college town in the world of sports elected a mayor who is a Democrat and openly gay.
What state is it? More clues:
It is the 10th largest state, with a larger population than either Virginia or New Jersey. It is a Southern state that, like Virginia, flipped from red to blue in 2008, swinging from voting decisively for Republicans in every cycle since 1976 (for the kids, that’s Reagan twice, Bush I twice, Dole in 1996 and Bush II twice) to going for Obama last year. It also elected Democratic women as governor and U.S. Senator last November — and both houses of its legislature have been controlled by Democrats for the last several cycles.
Give up? It’s North Carolina, where the voters in Charlotte elected Anthony Foxx, a city councilmember for four years, as mayor.
Up the road in Chapel Hill — a Democratic stronghold best known as the home of the University of North Carolina Tar Heels — Mark Kleinschmidt, an openly gay man, was also elected mayor.
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— Jon Ponder, a North Carolina-native currently living in West Hollywood, Calif., blogs at www.pensitoreview.com. This piece reprinted with permission.
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