County line reflects NC's divide in presidential election
North Carolina's vote in the presidential race was split geographically, with urban areas backing Democrat Joe Biden and most rural counties voting for President Donald Trump.
For example, 81 percent of Durham County voters went for Biden, while Trump got support from 61 percent in neighboring Person County.
Mac McCorkle, director of the Polis Center for Politics in Duke University's Sanford School of Public Policy, said Duke and the high-tech businesses in Triangle make Durham more Democratic.
"The Democratic Party among white voters is skewing dramatically to more college educated – the more college educated, the more Democratic," McCorkle said. "Durham [and] Chapel Hill is where Democrats get their biggest margin."
Durham County also has a large, politically active minority population, he said, noting Black voters have traditionally been part of the Democratic base.
Trump appealed to people who see places like Durham as elitist, McCorkle said.
"Trump is basically doing this bet that says, 'I'm going to really alienate the urban, liberal, university crowd,'" he said. "That bet didn't work nationally, but it did work – barely – in North Carolina."
Andrea Healy, 41, a classical singer and restaurateur, said she's not surprised by Biden's success in Durham.
"I feel Durham has a very forward-thinking community, one that cares a lot about each other, about the progress that we're making in terms of race relations," said Healy, who has a Black Lives Matter sign in her yard. "I think Biden as commander-in-chief would represent what Durham's ethos is, the direction that we're going."
Heading north on U.S. Highway 501, phalanx of Republican signs are outside American Patriot's Gym, about a mile over the county line in Person County.
Further north in Roxboro, 72-year-old retiree Lauren Brown said Trump represents traditional American values.
"The people here are solid, down-to-earth people who respect what the country has been. We don't want it to change," Brown said. "I think that's why the vote has gone so much liberal is because these young people are voting, and they have no idea."
"You think of the Democratic Party as being the common man appeal, and that's not as clear these days," McCorkle said. "[Trump] wins convincingly overwhelmingly rural, white America."
