Around 8 p.m. on a seemingly calm Friday evening—when the air was still, devoid of wind or rain, and the sky was clear—an unexpected darkness enveloped my home in Chapel Hill, N.C. The power went out, and as I peered outside, I saw that my entire neighborhood had succumbed to the same blackout. Instantly, a thought crossed my mind: the election.
This suspicion wasn’t born out of paranoia, though I admit there’s a hint of that in me. It stemmed from the tumultuous twists and turns that have characterized the lead-up to November 5 in North Carolina. This state has become a microcosm of MAGA extremism, a breeding ground for conspiracy theories, and a source of numerous lawsuits questioning the legitimacy of ballots. The potential for chaos or even vandalism targeting the power grid seemed entirely plausible.
By early Saturday morning, the electricity was restored, and an email from the power company explained the outage as merely an “equipment failure.” However, my anxiety persisted. How could I feel reassured amidst the barrage of television commercials, the endless sea of yard signs, the relentless door-knocking, cold calling, and the constant traffic jams caused by the candidates’ visits? In North Carolina, which boasts a crucial 16 Electoral College votes, both Kamala Harris and Donald Trump have not just campaigned but have virtually stalked the electorate. Harris made a stop here on Saturday, while Trump visited twice, returning again on Sunday and making a final appearance on Monday, just in case anyone had forgotten his presence.
North Carolina encapsulates the dynamics of the 2024 election in a distilled form, mirroring every significant national narrative in vibrant detail. It serves as a mood ring and a mirror, poised to reveal the most pressing and consequential questions regarding the electorate’s sentiments. My confident prediction is this: If Harris secures victory here, it bodes well for her overall success in the election. It would indicate that she has tapped into currents and trends that have significant implications for the other six key battleground states. As I see it, her route to achieving 270 or more Electoral College votes is intricately linked to this vibrant patch of purple.
It’s no surprise that the atmosphere here is fraught with tension. “I’ve never seen people as anxious,” remarked former Representative David Price, a North Carolina Democrat who dedicated over 25 years of his life to serving in the House. He noted that while North Carolinians are accustomed to the intensity of swing-state politics, “this time feels markedly different. It’s a no-holds-barred situation.”
By at least one metric, North Carolina may represent Harris’s most promising chance to reclaim a state that President Biden lost in 2020. His defeat here—by a mere 1.3 percentage points—was the narrowest of his losses, and the state has experienced significant population growth since then. This growth has largely occurred in metropolitan areas that lean Democratic and has attracted many college-educated voters and people of color, two demographics that tend to favor Democratic candidates.
