Joe Biden’s North Carolina gambit
Although North Carolina went blue one of the last times Joe Biden was on the ticket, as vice president back in 2008, it’s been something of a nail biter in this election. If he and Kamala Harris can pull off a win there, it’ll be a whole lot easier to flip the Senate blue. It’s a big reason why Kamala Harris visited the Tar Heel state earlier this week, but her visit seems to have paid off, with a new Marist poll showing Biden with a steady six-point lead over Donald Trump, 52-46%, respectively. Although this is a highly rated pollster, it’s only one state poll in the race, and it’s more advisable to pay attention to the average of polls rather than trust any single one too much.
However, the poll showed even better news for the Democratic candidate for Senate in North Carolina, Cal Cunningham, who is running against Sen. Thom Tillis, and leading him by ten points: 53-43%, safely outside the poll’s 4.7% error margin. The poll’s results also come following an infidelity scandal that Republicans hoped would swing the race back in their favor. If other polls show similar results, it means this hasn’t played out the way Tillis was hoping. The state’s Democratic governor, Roy Cooper, has also been comfortably ahead for much of the race, who won here in 2016 even while Donald Trump won by a slight margin – a year when Republicans enjoyed considerably higher favorability nationwide than they have right now.
Cunningham can win this – and he’s a candidate worth backing in these last days of the 2020 election, and he could carry Joe Biden and Kamala Harris to victory in the state as well. Rather than worry if we’re behind in swing states – let’s look at it as trying to win by ten points or more when we’re up by six. Each point trickles down to helping Democrats running for House or statehouse races, and makes a difference across the board. That’s why we need to do all we can to increase voter registration and turnout, phone bank and volunteer – to deliver Joe Biden, Kamala Harris and the Democratic Party a resounding win across the country on November 3.
James Sullivan is the assistant editor of Brain World Magazine and an advocate of science-based policy making