Lenoir County is one of “the most politically divided counties in the nation.”
At least, according to Bloomberg.com politics blog Political Capital. Gregory Giroux wrote on the 10 closest counties of the 2012 election, and Lenoir County made the list at No. 8. It occupied the same spot in 2008. For the 2012 election, 32 more voters favored former Mass. Gov. Mitt Romney over President Barack Obama, giving Romney a 0.11 percent win in the county.
Last time, voters gave U.S. Sen. John McCain a 23-vote edge for a 0.08 percent victory.
But looking at Lenoir County solely from the perspective of the presidential election can give a skewed picture of the reality on the ground.
For top-of-the-ballot elections, county residents tend to swing Republican by a slight edge, while further down the ballot in more-local and less high-profile contests, Democrats typically win the day.
“I felt like we had a pretty successful election locally,” Lenoir County Democratic Party Chairman Jimmy Cochran said. “And, I don’t like the outcome with the governor and lieutenant governor, but of course we’ll be working harder the next time for a better outcome. We believe that we can win nationally and statewide. We plan to in the future.”
While the GOP won the county vote in the presidential and gubernatorial races, the Democratic nominee won all of the other statewide races. The only Republican to win the county’s vote in a local race was State Rep. John Bell, R-Wayne.
Lenoir County Republican Party Chairwoman Michele Nix said it’s a matter of who people know.
“Usually with local races, people are more familiar with who their candidates are, because they know them more on a one-on-one basis,” Nix said. “So party labels, normally, aren’t what people are voting for in local races. People usually vote for the person in a local race, but in the up-ballot races, people are looking more toward the party for branding.”
There’s also the urban-rural split prevalent across the country. Kinston is reliably Democratic, while outside the city limits, voters go more Republican.
“More people in the county are voting more conservative,” Nix said. “They’re voting more Republican. They may be registered Democrats, but a lot of them vote Republican. People within the city limits, we find that much of the issue is a large voting bloc is the one that decides the outcome.”
The divide, then, would be geographic. Harris County in Texas, which includes Houston, runs on a similar parallel. The city goes Democratic, helping Obama win the county by 0.08 percent. But the suburbs run Republican.
Both party chairs said their organizations will be working as hard as ever to swing that split in their direction.
“We’re going to make a better effort to get people out statewide in the next election,” Cochran said. “We’re going to make a better effort to change that outcome.”
Nix said it was a matter of getting the GOP message to the voters.
“We need to be sure that people are aware of what the party is standing for,” Nix said.
Wes Wolfe can be reached at 252-559-1075 or wes.wolfe@kinston.com. Follow him on Twitter @WolfeReports.
Breakout Box
Closest votes for president in 2012, by county:
1. Pike County, Ohio (Romney, by 0.01 percent, 1 vote)
2. Price County, Wisc. (Obama, by 0.04 percent, 3 votes)
3. Winnebago County, Iowa (Romney, by 0.05 percent, 3 votes)
4. Monroe County, Ark. (Romney, by 0.06 percent, 2 votes)
5. Anne Arundel County, Md. (Romney, by 0.08 percent, 197 votes)
6. Harris County, Texas (Obama, by 0.08 percent, 971 votes)
7. Greene County, Iowa (Romney, by 0.1 percent, 5 votes)
8. Lenoir County, N.C. (Romney, by 0.11 percent, 32 votes)
9. Chaffee County, Colo. (Obama, by 0.15 percent, 16 votes)
10. Iron County, Wisc. (Romney, by 0.17 percent, 6 votes)
Source: Bloomberg.com