EDIT: And mainiac, I remain skeptical of a two-page PDF with random numbers on it. C'mon man, give me some meat on that bone. What metrics are they basing this R+3 rating off of?
Cook partisan voting index
Thank you. In looking at how they assess the rating, I stand by my comment. Gerrymandering plays havoc with their calculation. If you look at the breakdown of NC by district, we have three districts which went Dem, all by margins of +19 or more. And ten which went Republican, all by margins of +8 or more. The huge Dem margins skew the numbers toward the center, but those huge margins exist because we have/had districts that were basically "let's stick all the blacks in one district".
It's not that we're a true purple state so much as we're a schizophrenic state. And while the rural countryside remains blood-red, the cities are not themselves oceans of blue (with the exception of Asheville, Chapel Hill and perhaps Durham). Raleigh, Charlotte and Greensboro are very much purple, and Winston-Salem, Fayetteville and Wilmington tend reddish.
I'd like to think demographics favor the Democrats as the state becomes increasingly urban (we are projected to be >50% urban soon) and increasingly non-white. But there are plenty of suburban Republicans and plenty of black evangelicals supporting shit like HB2.
I still see Trump having a very good chance to win here in November. Unless he shits on Dale Earnhardt's grave or something.