A state that Republicans have lost only once in more than 40 years has shifted to a „toss up“ in an election forecast.
Vice President Kamala Harris has received encouraging news about her chances in a state that President Joe Biden lost during the last presidential election.
The Cook Political Report announced Tuesday that it was shifting North Carolina, which former President Donald Trump won in 2020 by roughly 1.3 percent, from „leans Republican“ to a „toss-up“ state in its latest 2024 election forecast.
The last Democrat to win North Carolina in a presidential election was former President Barack Obama, who carried the state with a margin of around 14,000 votes in 2008. His narrow win was the first Democratic victory since former President Jimmy Carter in 1976.
Cook Political Report Editor-in-Chief Amy Walter wrote in an analysis of this year’s race that the forecast had not shifted toward Harris due to Trump losing ground in North Carolina, but instead because „Harris has improved on Biden’s vote share by seven points.“
„In other words, the race is tightening, not because Harris is cutting into Trump’s vote, but because Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents are coming home“, Walter wrote.
