Oxford, North Carolina — She answered the door wearing a gray tank top, Hello Kitty pajama pants and fluffy pink slippers. Her 6-year-old son stood quietly next to her and listened patiently as Liz Purvis began to talk about what was at stake in the November election.
The woman, who gave her name as Cynthia, told Purvis she doesn't watch the news and doesn't know who the president is. When Purvis, 31, a Democratic representative from Granville County, North Carolina, mentioned the looming White House rematch between Democrat Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump, she laughed and then began yelling expletives.
That's the state of the 2024 election from the ground: In this rural county in one of the states expected to decide the presidential election, party activists' steady efforts to drum up enthusiasm for the election are being met with indifference and even disgust from the people who stand to play a major role in determining the course of the country.
North Carolina voters are also deciding a landmark and closely contested gubernatorial election. Democrat Josh Stein will become the state's first Jewish governor, and Republican Mark Robinson will be the state's first Black chief executive. Robinson, an ardent supporter of Trump's who has called him “Martin Luther King on steroids,” has a history of making controversial public comments that critics have deemed homophobic or anti-Semitic. He has strongly defended his past comments.
For now, Cynthia and many others are paying little attention to the election.
“Overall, it's more hopeful.”
In an April poll by the Pew Research Center, about four in 10 Americans said they follow news about the presidential candidates little or not at all, and many Americans are already feeling election fatigue, even if they don't watch TV: About six in 10 U.S. adults surveyed said they are fatigued by too much coverage of the campaign and candidates.
Mr. Purvis was accompanied by an Associated Press reporter on a recent campaign trip near downtown Oxford, the county seat of about 62,000 people on the Raleigh-Virginia border. He knocked on five houses without answering before reaching Cynthia, who declined to give her last name to protect her privacy.
By the end of a sweltering, windless Saturday, Granville County Democrats had knocked on 320 doors during their Memorial Day weekend campaign, the most of any Democratic county party in the state that day.
Democrats were outspending Republicans in North Carolina by nearly 4-to-1 as of June 7, according to data from AdImpact, and have secured far more ad space between now and November. They also appear to be devoting more of their money to low-key activities like door-to-door canvassing.
That has party activists like Purvis feeling optimistic about a state that Trump won twice, though the margin narrowed between 2016 and 2020. The Biden campaign clearly sees opportunity there, and the president has visited the Tar Heel State three times already this year.
“I'm more excited about the state of North Carolina than I've ever been,” Purvis said, “and I think Granville County has great potential to be a part of that.”
Both presidential elections prioritized rural voters, and North Carolina has the second-largest rural population after Texas. In 2020, just 14 of North Carolina's rural counties voted for Biden, while the state's other 64 counties supported Trump. About 53% of Granville County's votes went to Trump, up slightly from 2016. Democrat Barack Obama carried the county in 2008 and 2012.
In North Carolina, just six counties flipped from Obama to Trump.
Granville County is a suburb of Raleigh and Durham, and some residents commute to North Carolina's bustling Triangle region via Interstate 85 or rural two-lane roads. Granville includes five municipalities and is home to manufacturing plants such as Revlon and Bridgestone.
And in lower-level races, county voters could influence whether Republicans can retain their majority in the state Legislature.
“Is this a see-saw back and forth, or are we just catching it at a moment when Republicans happen to have the upper hand? That remains to be seen, right?” said Chris Cooper, a political science professor at Western Carolina University. “We'll know after November.”
Cooper isn't sure Biden will win those places, but he thinks the margin matters because it will determine what Biden needs in urban areas in states that tend to lean Democratic.
“It's not realistic to think Democrats are going to win in rural North Carolina. They're not going to win, they're going to lose,” Cooper said. “The question is, how badly will they lose?”
Daniel Franchi, community organizing director for the North Carolina Democratic Party, instructs volunteers on what to do during the Granville County Democratic Party's door-to-door campaign.
AP Photo/Makiya Seminarra
North Carolina Democratic Party Issues
Rural voters have played a key role in Biden's campaign in North Carolina, according to North Carolina communications director Dorie McMillan, as the president touts his administration's commitment to infrastructure and rural health care, including more than $9 billion in investments through federal infrastructure legislation.
Still, rural North Carolina presents unique political challenges for Democrats, who are seeing declining voter registration numbers in areas like Granville, and most of the rural North Carolina counties that Trump won in 2016 saw their margins widen in 2020.
Then there are the unpredictable fallout from Trump's historic conviction in his hush money trial in New York last month.
North Carolina Republicans hope the ruling will spur conservative voters to the polls. Both the state's Republican Party and the Trump campaign have denounced the case as a “sham,” and national campaign spokeswoman Carolyn Leavitt said the ruling won't stop the former president from “driving voter enthusiasm in battleground states.”
State Republican Party Chairman Jason Simmons said Democrats “really have abandoned rural communities.” Republicans plan to use existing county infrastructure to engage with rural voters and recruit more volunteers ahead of the election, Simmons said.
State Rep. Frank Sossamon, a longtime pastor and incumbent Republican from the county, is relying on the trust he has built in the community to get him through the election. Though his campaign hasn't yet kicked into gear, he's been telling voters he's seeking reelection.
“What I've done and what I'm going to do is grassroots work,” Sossamon said. “I go to people, I look them in the eye, and I let them know what I've done.”
Prioritize face-to-face interactions
In what is shaping up to be a “base-building year” for the state Democratic Party, the party's 26-year-old chairman, Anderson Clayton, said the rural speaking tour, which kicked off in Pasquotank County on April 22, was part of a larger effort to reach voters. Biden's state campaign team visited rural eastern North Carolina on a mini, two-day tour, speaking with Black community leaders and opening two offices.
Bubba Carr, a 64-year-old math teacher, said Democrats need to “push harder” to match the energy they saw in the black community when Obama ran for president. Engaging directly with Granville County's black community, which makes up about 31 percent of the county's population, will be crucial.
“You can't just sit back and think that's going to happen automatically,” said Carr, who is Black. “You have to talk to people and get them to the polls.”
The battle for Granville County voters has reached the doorstep of 85-year-old Mary Wright, who has seen representatives from both parties visit. Wright said she has never voted for either party before, but she won't be voting for Trump, a decision she made in 2016 after an “Access Hollywood” tape was leaked in which the former president bragged about groping women.
Democrats are making campaigning a priority this time around, after the COVID-19 pandemic limited in-person activities and made campaigning more difficult in 2020.
Ellen Hammond, 40, of Butner, was one of about 15 people canvassed in Granville County. It was her first time canvassing, but she plans to do it again. Political divisions make people less willing to talk to their neighbors, Hammond said.
“It's scary, but it's invigorating at the same time, especially when the interactions are so positive,” Hammond said.
By interacting with the residents, you also learn what's important to them. For Cynthia, that's her children.
As Cynthia watched her son ride his scooter after their 10-minute conversation, she expressed her concerns about bullying and overcrowding in public school classrooms. After a few minutes of friendly conversation, Purvis invited Cynthia to the next meeting of the county party.
She smiled and nodded but made no promises.
Associated Press chief elections analyst Chad Day, polling editor Amelia Thomson DeVoe and polling reporter Lynley Sanders in Washington contributed to this report.
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