History
The second party system emerged from a divide in the Democratic-Republican party in 1828. They split off into two groups, the Democrats, led by Andrew Jackson, and the Whigs. In North Carolina, people from the west and northeast supported the Whigs mainly because they wanted education and internal improvements to help with the economy. Meanwhile, Eastern North Carolina was dominated by wealthy planters who tended to oppose activist government. Over time, the Democrats slowly came to support many of the Whig policies on internal improvements. For the first time in history voters were splitting off into one of the two parties. In the 1850s the Whigs were split by the issue of slavery. Former Confederates and Whigs eventually formed the Conservative Party and opposed the reconstruction policies enacted by the U.S. Congress following the Civil War. By 1870, the two main parties were the Conservatives (who changed their name to "Democratic-Conservatives" and then to Democrats by 1876), and the Republicans (GOP).
North Carolina was a state that from 1900-1960's was mainly Democratic. But affiliations in the latter half of the 20th century changed. Surveys taken 1968-1992 asked the public if they considered themselves Democrats or Republicans. Those identifying themselves as Democrats dropped from 60% to less than 40%. At the same time, people identifying with Republicans rose from 20% to 40%. From 1980-2004, the Republican nominee for the presidency won the state.
In spite of the largely conservative bent of North Carolina's politics, a number of liberal Democrats have been elected to represent the state at the federal level. John Edwards was elected to the Senate from North Carolina in 1998 and was the Democratic nominee for Vice President in 2004. The popular conservative Elizabeth Dole, the wife of Republican Senator and Presidential candidate Bob Dole - and a one-time presidential candidate herself - was defeated for reelection in 2008 by Kay Hagan, the same year Barack Obama carried the state in his victory over Republican John McCain by a margin of less than one half of a percentage point.
Read more about this topic: North Carolina Democratic Party
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