Sunday, November 8, 2009

Opinion

Robert Schlesinger

Barack Obama's North Carolina Coattails (or Not)

November 18, 2008 04:53 PM ET | Robert Schlesinger | Permanent Link | Print

I wrote on Election Night about whether Barack Obama would have North Carolina coattails—would first-time Obama voters keep voting Democratic down-ballot? Doug Heye (who first posed the question to me and writes in our op-ed section today about the future of the GOP) passes on the following figures:

In NC in 2004, 63,038 voters voted in the Presidential, but not down ballots. This year the # was 139,831, more than doubling, though turnout increased by only 20%.

Short coattails it appears, then, in North Carolina. But a win's a win. 

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Tags: North Carolina | election results | presidential election 2008 | Barack Obama

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Who cares about the down ballot? The presidency was/is what matters. This is true for war policy, tax policy, health care policy, justice, broadcasting, unions, race matters, gender matters, sexual orientation matters, and best of all, the future of the Supreme Court. The people won.

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Robert Schlesinger is a deputy editor at U.S. News and World Report and oversees all opinion editorial content. He is the author of White House Ghosts: Presidents and Their Speechwriters.

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