When the early votes were posted on Tuesday, Nov. 8, it appeared District 59 Republican state Rep. John Hardister was in trouble in his bid for a sixth term.
Hardister held a very narrow lead over Democrat Sherrie Young.
As the ballots of those who voted on Election Day were posted, Hardister steadily increased his lead and won by a comfortable 12 point margin.
However, the fact that Young finished the night with 15,054 votes for 43.6 percent is something of a shock.
District 59 is rated as a Democrat plus 2 district, which means all things being equal the Democrat should win by 2 points.
But this race was extremely unequal. Young won the Democratic primary with 75 percent of the vote, which was a surprise since there was no evidence that Young campaigned at all. Young spent no money on the primary and didn’t have a website or even a campaign Facebook page.
In the general election, according campaign finance reports, Young didn’t raise or spend a dime. According to those reports Young put $140 into her campaign and then paid herself $140 for the expense of “holding office.” Since Young doesn’t hold any elected office this is at best a questionable campaign finance expense.
But Young lists no other donations or expenses on her campaign finance report.
Young did have some campaign signs for the general election, but how those signs were paid for is also a question since she lists no donations or expenses on her campaign finance report. There is no evidence that the Young campaign bought any advertisements, had any brochures printed or otherwise spent money.
Young also has charges pending against her in Guilford County court for discharging a firearm in the city limits and “going armed to the terror of people.” She allegedly threatened people with a handgun.
Hardister, who was elected to his sixth term in the state House, said that despite the lack of campaign activity by his opponent, “We didn’t take the race lightly.”
Hardister’s campaign finance reports are markedly different from Young’s. The reports show that Hardister raised over $300,000 for his reelection campaign
Hardister said that in the course of his campaign he knocked on about 5,000 doors as well as doing advertising and mailers.
So in this race there was a Republican five-term incumbent who spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on his campaign up against a Democratic opponent running for the first time who officially spent nothing on her campaign.
And at the end of early voting the two were running neck and neck.
Politics is a strange game.
Nothing strange at all – many will vote for anyone who has a D next to their name, regardless of any other factors.
That is exactly why the Republican RED WAVE did not occur in most areas.
Like Joe, hide in your basement and let the press campaign for you.
Well, the final tallies on the overall 2022 vote gives credence to that statement: “One cannot fix stupid.”
Not so strange John. Look at the county wide races, from federal to local, the margins for democrat versus republican is almost the same. They vary only by a couple of percentage points. If you look at the state as a whole, Guilford’s results more closely track the voters in Wake, Mecklenburg, New Hanover, Durham and Orange County. These areas are almost always counter in vote and thinking to the rest of the state. In a state wide race, the margins here are negated and the consensus candidate wins, consensus meaning the candidate most in line with the majority thinking in NC. Look at the judge races, and the US Senate.. Meaning we are out of step with the rest of the state.
Here locally, the margins assure a more liberal outcome, which, again places us in the outlier category across the state. Being there, weakens our position in Raleigh. In short, we are irrelevant in statewide politics. In Raleigh Guilford is known as the snake pit of NC as it relates to politics. For me the take away is that the voting blocks are in lock step and driven by an impressive get out the vote effort that caters to not the best candidate, but one chosen by their vote gathering masters as being closer to the goals of the master, not the voter. Some day the voter may realize the votes they give are not for their well being, or the counties, state or nation, but for the well being of those that pull their strings. Our votes here are also diluted by votes from the numerous colleges in the area which tend to be liberal. In short, people who have no real roots in our area and probably will not stay after college, makes decisions that will impact our leadership and the taxes we will pay in the future. The county will not be a player until it changes.
Welp I’m glad at one gets it.
Player? Boy we haven’t had any state resources or any state official advocate for us to bring enterprise here. We have done that all on our own we are attracting companies from around the world that want to come lay down roots here. We have never needed the state nor do we need them, we just need a democrat as governor so they can’t hinder our growth. We are the third largest county in the state that is an impressive feat considering the dynamic growth in the other two. Our cities look like America that’s why industry comes to those places, rural NC does not reflect an inclusive America therefore it’s dying and drying up, remember I don’t have to cross this county line to do nothing rural folks need us for there life blood not the other way around.
Around here, the faithful will vote for any Democrat-on-a-stick.
The old expression for this is a yellow dog democrat.
Uh no, it’s “yeller dawg”.
Is this something more than a UN educated electorate voting straight democratic ticket? There has to be some other explanation for this and it would be an injustice not to investigate this
Black people would vote for Adolf Hitler if he was black.
But you would only vote for him if he was white?
Good point.
I’d vote for him only if he was a WHITE Republicans.