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Military Counties in NC vote Obama
Just thought I would point out, in my eggheaded, latte liberal way, that the NC counties which house our biggest military installations went to Obama tonight.
Cumberland County, home of Fort Bragg:
Obama 33,212 (66%)
Clinton 16,125 (32%)
No Preference 545 (1%)
Total Democratic Turnout 49,882
Onslow County, home of Camp Lejeune:
Obama 5717 (49%)
Clinton 5442 (46%)
No Preference 338 (3%)
Total Democratic Turnout 11,497
And, by way of turnout comparison:
Cumberland County
John McCain 8258 (79%)
Total Republican Turnout 10,251
Onslow County
John McCain 4872 (78%)
Total Republican Turnout 6008
While it's not surprising that the Dem primaries boasted far higher turnout numbers (especially given that 85% of NC's Unaffiliated voters opted to vote in the Dem primary), these numbers are still amazing. We had hotly contested "downticket" races to weigh against apathy, so there was reason for Republicans to turn out even though McCain is the presumptive nominee. The number of Dem voters in those counties reflects a genuine shift, I think, and not just a "primary fever."
McCain is a tepid candidate in NC, while Obama is hugely popular. Obama's got a great ground game here, and he can totally turn our big old swing state blue in November. (Course, I've been saying that since January. But now I got cred. I'm still an eliteylite, though. But I don't actually like lattes, for the record.)
Sorry if this is old news - I hadn't seen anyone talking about military voting trends from NC (or IN?), and I know they don't track that in traditional media exit polls. Thought it might add another (perhaps more interesting) dynamic to chew on besides race, gender, or bubba, though.
Oh, and obviously since these are county stats, these aren't just "military votes." But they are "military community" votes, which mean a lot to me, having spent summers in Fayetteville as a child when my Dad and Step-mom were stationed at Fort Bragg.
Comments (8)
Thank you so much for the stats. I guess that the real patriots know who is most likely to get them out of this insane war!
May 7, 2008 3:18 AM | Reply | Permalink
Please pardon the writing above - some of those "sentences" are bordering on incomprehensible. I hope the stats make sense, though. I probably shouldn't post past 3AM, but I'm wired. Still, yowsers. You'd think an egghead could do better.
May 7, 2008 3:41 AM | Reply | Permalink
Same way in my state (VA). All the areas...really, the whole eastern half of the state went for Obama. That includes Arlington, Quantico, Langley AFB, NS Norfolk, NAS Oceana, etc.
May 7, 2008 4:09 AM | Reply | Permalink
The military folks who have given so much and been so poorly treated by Bush have decided they want no more of republicans. This shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone. What remains to be seen is how this translates across other constituencies. November is going to be an unhappy time for republicans. The severity of the beating voters will administer is the only remaining detail. History will record the person having lost as McCain but the footnotes will lay it squarely on Bush. I sure hope we never have a president who is so widely recognized as a failure as Bush. I have difficulty dealing with how bad he is. But then I thought the same of Nixon and republicans managed to one up themselves.
May 7, 2008 5:19 AM | Reply | Permalink
After checking my home counties and looking at the overall trend on the county-by-county map, the ver next thing I did was check the "military" counties. It is a little hard to determine the effect of the military vote in these counties due to other factors, so then I followed-up by looking at the Republican race in the 3rd District.
As I commented to thing over on "ElectionCentral" yesterday, the 3rd a high percentage of military personnel and with most Independents expected to vote in the Democratic primary, the fate of Walter Jones might be a good measure of how the anti-Iraq War position plays with registered Republicans, who are currently on active duty.
According to WRAL, he won with 60% of the vote.
May 7, 2008 7:50 AM | Reply | Permalink
There's some missing words in the above response, but I got interrupted a couple of times and well, I'm sure you get the idea.
Walter Jones has been voting against the Iraq War for a few years, he was challenged on that issue and he won his Republican primary with 60%.
May 7, 2008 7:54 AM | Reply | Permalink
I got ya. And yeah, I think overall, there has been a definite shift in NC as a whole on the war. Even though "the economy" was listed as the number one issue, I think maybe there's a sense in which that's possible only because "the war in Iraq" is a given. Like, it's not my "number one issue" because obviously I'm voting for someone who is going to get us to a saner place on that front. How could we not be in better hands than we currently are?
Maybe I'm just giving too much credit. Still, I think there's a higher level of reality or proximity or I'm-not-sure-what-to-call-it about the war(s) for most NC voters than for Americans as a generic lot, just because it does live in our "backyard" more. Even the folks who don't know anyone serving directly hear more about what's happening to our military, because the local news covers stories that affect Bragg/Lejeune soldiers. So while the national media seem to have forgotten that there are wars on, our local media track all the downed planes and car-bombed humvees and, yes, they still tell us the names of our dead. I think that makes a difference, don't you?
May 7, 2008 11:03 AM | Reply | Permalink
A long while ago, the NY Times looked at where overseas contributions were coming from (as in Americans overseas). In the chart, it showed contributions from people from military service, with Obama getting more than any other candidate, dem or rep.
May 8, 2008 12:59 AM | Reply | Permalink
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