RALEIGH—North Carolina Democrats were met with disappointment despite high hopes during a tense election watch party in Raleigh Tuesday.
While incumbent congressional representative David Price picked up a win early in the evening, the event’s attendees waited with growing desperation during the night for the results of the presidential election as they monitored local races. Despite initial optimism expressed by both analysts and party-goers, the state’s Democratic Party failed to win in its race for the Senate. Its hopes for legislative gains were also dashed.
“Well, it’s not the outcome that we wanted, but I have zero regrets,” said Democratic senatorial candidate Deborah Ross. “It’s been a huge honor to run to be your U.S. senator. I wanted to thank you for all of the effort that you put into this election—it’s been an election of a lifetime.”
During the evening, Ross conceded to incumbent Sen. Richard Burr, who won by almost six points statewide according to the State Board of Elections.
The results of the gubernatorial election were left in the air at the end of the night as neither Democratic candidate Roy Cooper nor Republican incumbent Pat McCrory reached a clear victory, separated by a margin of fewer than 5,000 votes.
Cooper addressed the crowd at the watch party close to midnight, explaining that North Carolina votes would be recounted and that a final decision might not be reached until Nov. 18.
Attendees of the watch party hailed from across the state and also included Cole Wicker, a Duke junior and North Carolina native.
“[This watch party] is an exciting place to be to see the turnout of North Carolinians rather than just Duke students,” Wicker said. “Being a native North Carolinian, it’s cool to see what people I grew up around came to do.”
Wicker explained that the potential outcome of this electoral cycle could have ultimately led to new state policies on nationally contentious issues such as House Bill 2 and voter suppression controversies. Such a transition might have also improved North Carolina’s reputation as a whole, he added.
“If we get HB2 out of here, that’s when a lot of companies that originally said no could potentially come back,” he said. “But I think in just our reputation as a whole, we’ll have the opportunity to have North Carolina not known as a laughingstock anymore.”
This story was finalized before the presidential election was called.
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