In 2024, the trend was even more pronounced. Trump carried North Carolina by about 3 percent of the vote, while Democrat Josh Stein defeated Mark Robinson by 15 percentage points in the Governor's race.
Down ballot, it was an even stronger picture for local Democrats. Rachel Hunt flipped the Lt. Governor's seat for Democrats, and Democrats also won the Attorney General and State School Superintendent's races.
SEE ALSO | NC Democrats poised to break Republican supermajority in House, strengthening Stein's veto power
NC Democrats poised to break Republican supermajority in House, strengthening Stein's veto power
So who are some of those ticket-splitters? We spoke with one of the Democratic candidates who flipped a Republican seat in in the legislature in Wilson County. Democrat Dante Pittman says he believes appealing to the middle and focusing on the needs of rural communities may have let to some cross-party support.
"One of the things that I was up front about from the very beginning when I ran was that I'm a moderate Democrat. And here in eastern North Carolina and and Wilson County especially, we have a lot of moderate Democrats, folks that are willing to work across the aisle, folks that believe that you you see people on the other side, that you can come to a good compromise," Pittman says.
Pittman's Wilson-based district is among those flipped seats that helped break the GOP supermajority in the state legislature.
It's also why some political experts still believe North Carolina will continue to be a battleground in the years ahead.
"I think that Trump winning again will mean that we get more questions about whether we're a swing state," says professor Jason Husser from Elon University.
"But as of now, we definitely are. We saw a massive victory of a Democratic gubernatorial candidate. Democrats doing well in other statewide elections in North Carolina, and Trump winning the state decisively, but not with such a margin that North Carolina couldn't be won by Democrats in 2028."
Despite the national GOP trend in 2024, the dynamics of North Carolina's population growing, especially in the Triangle will mean continued competitive races.
Another major change this cycle was for the first time 2012, the Governor and Lt. Governor were from the same political party. Stein will be joined by fellow Democrat Rachel Hunt when he takes office.