When will Alamance County turn blue?

[Tarheelhombre]

It depends upon the type of transplant. If it’s older transplants fleeing their native land for lower taxes and cultural conservatism, they will not make an area bluer. But if it’s younger, well-educated creative or professional class people from Northeast or Pacific areas, they will make an area bluer.

[SGMI]

Originally Posted by Jowel

You can sometimes see it on this forum with the "Got to move away from the leftist, socialist, blah blah blah run New York- Is North Carolina right for me?" kinds of discussions. Those folks do tend to skew towards extremes if they are motivated enough to deal with the hassle of an out-of-state move in order to find local politics that match their own points of view. I've known a few people like that in real life, and they are pretty extreme with their political beliefs.

It doesn't need to be out-of-state people. Locals in Guilford county who decide to get a different home may figure that as long as they're going through the hassle of a move and buying property, that they can accept living several miles further away, to be more comfortable with the political atmosphere.

I remember having discussion like this with a co-worker in 1997, while I worked in RTP. He was very clear that after he and his wife sold their home in Durham county, their next one would *not be* in Durham county. They settled on Hillsborough.

I'm an example of that. I lived in Charlotte for several years, but I sure got sick of reading about the left wing city council and its antics. When they passed an ordinance to require all landlords to "register with the city" that was the final straw. No more investments in Mecklenburg, and I made sure my next move was outside the border.

[poppydog]

Originally Posted by SGMI

I remember having discussion like this with a co-worker in 1997, while I worked in RTP. He was very clear that after he and his wife sold their home in Durham county, their next one would *not be* in Durham county. They settled on Hillsborough.

I get your point but not their decision. Hillsborough and The Orange County Board of Commissioners are pretty blue. Wonder why they didn’t go for somewhere in Wake Co or even Johnston (maybe too far to commute).

[gsoboi78]

The Triangle and the Triad in particular are not like the big metro regions such as Atlanta where you have a lot of urban/suburban communities far beyond the city cores. In Guilford County you go from urban to rural very quickly. There is no democratic bleeding into next door counties. The communities around the Triad cities are more like rural towns such as Reidsville, Thomasville or Archdale (Republican country) as opposed to liberal suburbs. Guilford and Forsyth were the only blue counties in the Triad for obvious reasons. In Davidson and Randolph Counties, I saw nothing but Trump-Pence yard signs. Once you get into Greensboro I saw a lot more Biden-Harris signs. Until Alamance County becomes a place where liberal suburbanites from Greensboro and Durham/Raleigh flock to, it will remain red for years to come. Burlington has a growing diverse population but that population is not big enough to overcome the rural conservative population in Alamance County. The urban to rural drop off in the Charlotte area is even sharp when compared to places like Atlanta and the DC/Northern Virginia area. This is a big reason North Carolina isn't quite a permanent blue state. Not enough liberal suburban population to help support the cities. It take cities with large liberal suburban populations to turn states blue. That's why Pennsylvania went red in 2016 when Hillary Clinton lost the suburban vote despite winning the big cities of Philadelphia and Pittsburgh. Things are changing in North Carolina. The most likely place to see future liberal bleeding into surrounding counties is the Raleigh area. While Charlotte is heavily democratic, its still conservative compared to Atlanta. Raleigh-Durham is the most progressive region of the state.