North Carolina Senate Contest Suddenly Turns Tight
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C.—Among the threats to the GOP majority in the U.S. Senate this year, few Republicans worried about North Carolina, thanks in part to the state’s conservative-leaning military bases and rural communities filled with working-class voters.
Until now. In the past few months, a new set of political currents has coalesced to make two-term GOP Sen. Richard Burr vulnerable to an unexpectedly strong challenge from Democrat Deborah Ross, a lawyer and former state legislator who wasn’t even her party’s first choice.
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A Wall Street Journal/NBC News/Marist poll released earlier this month put Ms. Ross two points ahead of Mr. Burr after earlier being seven points behind. The new competitiveness in a state once considered an easy win for Republicans is a measure of how the lack of enthusiasm for Donald Trump at the top of the ticket is hampering the party down-ballot. If a state like North Carolina elects a Democratic senator, it could be part of a wave that sweeps into other places that had leaned Republican.
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Nowhere are the concerns greater than in vote-rich Mecklenburg County, which has absorbed many of the more than half a million new arrivals to the state since Mr. Burr’s last election in 2010, as banks like Wells Fargo have expanded their Charlotte hubs, and begun sponsoring events like an LGBT festival and parade this past weekend.
On Tuesday, the Mecklenburg County Democrats, joining with presidential nominee Hillary Clinton’s campaign, will mount a voter-registration drive, hoping to energize Democrats, especially African-Americans who account for almost half of the party’s registered voters in North Carolina.
There aren’t signs of comparable efforts by the Trump campaign, which is relying heavily on the Republican National Committee’s operations in the state. But Mr. Burr, a policy-oriented chairman of the Intelligence Committee, said he isn’t relying “on anyone’s coattails” in this election. He didn’t appear with Mr. Trump at a rally in Charlotte last week.
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Ms. Ross has been working hard to connect with voters, participating in events like one in Wilmington, N.C., last Tuesday with roughly 50 people, mostly African-American women. She emphasized her support for compromise gun-control legislation Mr. Burr opposed and defended the Affordable Care Act. She drew the most enthusiastic response when noting Mr. Burr’s vote against confirming Loretta Lynch, the first black woman to serve as U.S. attorney general.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/north-carolina-senate-contest-suddenly-turns-tight-1471827565
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