'Historic bloodbath' for Republicans forces change at NC legislature
The startling gains for Democrats in North Carolina’s 2026 midterms, according to Michael Bitzer , were largely driven by dissatisfaction over Republican President Donald Trump. But what happens to North Carolina’s government in 2028, he believes, will largely be up to state legislators themselves. Bitzer, director of the Center for North Carolina Politics and Public Service at Catawba College, shared his analysis of the recent election during a Nov. 12 event hosted by the Asheville Area Chamber of Commerce at The Restoration Asheville. Like most midterms, he said, 2026 could be considered a referendum on the president and his party. Yet the results were nearly unprecedented, he continued, calling them a “historic bloodbath” for Republicans. The last time midterm voters moved toward Democrats so strongly was 1974, following the resignation of Republican President Richard Nixon after the Watergate scandal. Voters in each of North Carolina’s 100 counties, noted Bitzer, supported Democratic Senator-Elect Roy Cooper more strongly this year than they backed Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris in 2024. Cooper ended up winning his race against Republican Michael Whatley by nearly 20 percentage points. The vote shares across all Democratic candidates in both state House and Senate elections were more than
