Trump wins North Carolina, retaining a key state for Republicans in the 2024 election

Former President Donald Trump has won projects in North Carolina, according to NBC News, winning his first major race yet and solidifying the GOP's hold on the state's 16 electoral votes.

Polls had shown Vice President Kamala Harris cutting into Trump's lead in North Carolina when she entered the race in July after President Joe Biden abandoned his re-election bid.

Harris' candidacy sparked enthusiasm particularly among young voters and college-educated voters, a strong voting bloc in the state's Research Triangle.

But North Carolina has always been an elusive prize for Democrats. No Democratic candidate has won North Carolina since Barack Obama in 2008. (Obama lost the state four years later to his Republican rival Mitt Romney.) Before Obama came, Jimmy Carter was the last Democrat to win North Carolina in 1976.

Trump's victory in North Carolina underscores the resilience of his MAGA political movement. It is the third consecutive time he has won the battleground state despite being impeached twice as president and indicted in four different criminal cases after leaving office in 2021.

That he remains a viable political force underscores both voters' disillusionment with the status quo in Washington and their belief that Trump is the antidote.

Harris' most promising path to victory has always been through the three so-called blue wall states that Trump won in his surprise victory over Hillary Clinton in 2016: Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin.

Still, Democrats were hopeful that she would pull off a victory in North Carolina, which might have shown that the party had a path to victory even in states with large rural populations. About a third of North Carolinians live in rural areas.

Some unexpected developments cast doubt on the outcome in North Carolina. Hurricane Helene caused extensive damage in the western part of the state and in the city of Asheville. Trump sought to capitalize politically on the Biden administration's response to the storm.

Harris sought to reassure North Carolinians that the opposite was true. During a visit to the state in early October, she attended a meeting with officials involved in the reconstruction effort and met workers at distribution points for food and essential supplies. The state's Democratic governor, Roy Cooper, praised the federal government's handling of the storm and said emergency responders were on site throughout to provide assistance.

Another shock came in September when CNN reported that North Carolina Republican gubernatorial candidate Mark Robinson had posted inflammatory comments on a porn site a decade ago. Robinson denied making those comments.

Before the article appeared, Trump had praised Robinson, calling him “Martin Luther King on steroids.” But the allegations proved to be an unwanted distraction for the former president. When he appeared at a rally in the state following the CNN report, he did not mention Robinson's name.

Robinson lost his race on Tuesday to Democratic Attorney General Josh Stein.