Governor Mike Easley says Joe Biden is just what the country needs, but the state's republicans say Biden may push the conservative south toward McCain.
He called Biden a good friend and good choice for North Carolina and said the campaign "just got real interesting."
During Obama's introduction of Biden, there were cheers and applause at Obama's campaign office as volunteers and democratic supporters watched him announce his choice for vice president.
"I really am excited about the fact that he's a bit older, because that brings something wonderful to the party," Obama Volunteer Leonore Mason said.
Some democrats, including State Representative Grier Martin, say his foreign policy experience and family values hit home for southerners.
"I have a five year old daughter and it really strikes me as important that Joe Biden, from the day he was first sworn in to the senate, has gone home by train every night to his kids in Delaware," Martin said.
But as the speech carried on, the state's republicans were hard at work drumming up support for Obama's opponent, Senator John McCain.
"In North Carolina, I always like to say that we have a progressive state with conservative values," NC GOP Spokesman Brent Woodcox said.
Some of the state's republicans say Biden was too liberal a choice for the south and North Carolinians want a president not a vice president with experience.
"People vote at the top of the ticket. That's the person they're putting behind that desk and they want to know that in a foreign policy crisis, that we can trust that person," Woodcox said.
"Young people of North Carolina are every bit as excited about having someone who can help bring America back to prominence, help make America strong again on the world seen and they recognize, just as older North Carolinians do, that Senator Biden is exactly the right person for that job," Martin said.
