PHOENIX, June 1, 2012 — It seems the tide has turned in the swing-state of North Carolina. As the Democrats begin to plan for their convention, an odd question arises.
Should the 2012 Democratic National Convention even be held in North Carolina?
In past presidential elections, North Carolina has been a stronghold for Republicans, with no Democrat carrying the state since Jimmy Carter in 1976. Barack Obama broke that string of Democratic defeats in 2008, winning the state by a mere 0.3 percent, or 14,000 votes, over then-Republican nominee, John McCain.
Obama’s win in North Carolina was the second closest race of the 2008 election, with Missouri also being a nail-bitter. However, Obama’s victory in North Carolina came as a shock to many in the GOP as they counted on, once again, carrying the state.
As we look toward the 2012 election, North Carolina has become a key swing-state, up for grabs by both parties.
North Carolina Democrats have already failed one major-electoral test-run to re-carry the northern state this election cycle. In May, North Carolina voters were given the chance to vote on an amendment to the North Carolina Constitution that would define marriage as between one man and one woman.
The amendment passed overwhelmingly, with 61 percent of North Carolinians voting to ban same-sex marriage and rejecting the Democrat-led effort to kill the bill.
The bill passed just two days before President Obama announced his support for same-sex marriage. It sent a huge signal to the Obama campaign that North Carolinians won’t be too quick to support the incumbent president.
National Democrats were outraged that North Carolina banned same-sex marriage, and a petition has been circulated urging the Party to move the Democratic convention out of Charlotte, North Carolina, and into “friendlier territory.”
So far the petition has garnered over 32,000 signatures, despite the DNC’s insistence that Charlotte will be a great place to hold their convention.
A DNC spokesman told Fox News that Democrats “can’t just retreat to safe territory. We can’t go back to a map where we’re not growing the electorate, but where we’re shrinking it. So we have to be in places like North Carolina.”
Due to the microscopic margin the 2008 election produced, the Republicans will not have a hard time convincing the North Carolinian electorate that pro-traditional marriage candidate, Mitt Romney, is the better choice. The latest polls show Romney edging out Obama in the state.
A mid-May Rasmussen Reports survey showed Romney beating President Obama in North Carolina, 51 percent to 43 percent. The current RealClearPolitics average of all the latest polls shows a 2.5 percent advantage to the Republican nominee.
North Carolina is easily leaning Romney right now, and the Democrats aren’t doing much to sway it back to their column. It is safe to say that Charlotte will be bleak and uncomfortable venue for the Democratic National Convention in 2012.
Email Henry D’Andrea at writedandrea@gmail.com and follow him on Twitter (@TheHenry)
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