The 2024 election saw many offices and seats trade hands in what was certainly a divisive election.
WCU communication students produced live, hyper-local coverage of the election from multiple counties in Western North Carolina. Their live broadcast brought updates from Jackson, Haywood, Macon and Swain counties, as well as thorough in-studio coverage. Our reporters said that because of the high turnout in early voting, election day itself was relatively slow and missing the usual lines.
Reporters were on-site at four election offices across WNC as the polls closed and votes were counted.
Even with their position, they didn’t see much variety – all four counties voted republican in almost every race.
While the mostly rural WNC counties voted red, democrats saw its fair share of wins. Democrat Josh Stein won the gubernatorial race, defeating controversy-stricken republican Mark Robinson.
Jeff Jackson won NC Attorney General, taking the office from Dan Bishop by a 200,000 vote margin.
Hal Weatherman received 65% of the Macon County vote for Lieutenant Governor, though the contest went to democrat Rachel Hunt. NC Secretary of State went to democrat Elaine Marshall. Marshall has held the office since 1997 and was the first woman elected to the office.
Associated Press reports that the governor-elect Stein might have stronger veto power than the present Gov. Roy Cooper.
Most races in our area were lopsided to the right, but the Governor’s seat consistently drew a tighter vote and Stein even won in Jackson County.
Chuck Edwards kept his seat in the U.S. House of Representatives after topping Caleb Rudow by 50,000 votes. Edwards has represented the 15 counties in District 11 since 2021. The counties also kept the three republican congressmen, Mark Pless, Mike Clampitt and Karl Gillespie stay as representatives for 118, 119 and 120 districts. Kevin Corbin remains the senator for District 50.
Jenny Lynn Hooper and Michael Jennings are the new Jackson County Commissioners, the county now completely controlled by republicans. The only competitive race in Macon – Board of Education District 4 the incumbent Jim Breedlove kept his seat. In Swain county the referendum on alcohol – specifically beer and wine passed with good margin.
Speaking of referendum – the amendment to the North Carolina constitution asking whether voters should provide proof of citizenship passed with 77% of NC voters in favor.
Turnout was higher in all four counties with Haywood and Macon had a voter turnout of 79 % and 74% while Swain ended with almost 69% of registered voters casting a vote. was considerably more conservative in their vote than Swain and Haywood. Macon also had the highest voter turnout, 74%.
Around 4.5 million out of 7.8 registered voters voted in North Carolina.
Morgan Korson and Dylan Brainscome contributed to the report.
