“North Carolina is the purple state to watch this year.”—Chris Cooper, Western Carolina University professor,  for the London School of Economics & Politics.

In 2024, North Carolina continues to hold its unofficial title as the Purple-est of Purple states, with all types of political scientists echoing Dr. Cooper’s observation that it is a key battleground that could tip the whole election one way or another.

To me, this means one thing: in North Carolina, there is no such thing as not voting.

NC voters don’t have the luxury of casting a protest vote for a candidate who has no chance. They can’t let things slip up on them, like not learning about new voting laws. They can’t forget that in a Purple state, every vote that is not cast is still a vote—a vote for the winner.

I’ve lived in North Carolina for more than 30 years now.  As a progressive voter, I’m both thankful for and mindful of the responsibility I have as a voter in a state where every vote counts. It was thrilling when North Carolina helped put Obama in the White House, and it was devastating when we were the very last state to be called for Trump in 2016. 

This year, I’m equal parts anxious and hopeful.

I’ll start with the anxious part. In 2022, some Purple states edged toward Blue, but North Carolina did not. After a painfully disappointing evening, we ended up with a senator who votes in lock step with Marjorie Taylor Greene and a state Supreme Court that wasted no time in reversing the previous court’s pro-voting rights decision.

Now that the 2024 election is here, NC Republicans are running people who are perhaps the most rabidly extremist right-wing candidates in recent history. They are so extreme, their primary opponents decline to endorse them and the conservative leaning state Chamber of Commerce has sounded alarm bells.

For a Purple state that has widespread support for progressive policies, candidates such as these should be completely dead in the water.  So, this could be good news.

Or it could be terrible.

One reason Mark Robinson and company have a chance of winning in spite of the state’s overall composition is because progressive voters are not as likely to vote as conservative voters.  In particular, young voters, who skew progressive and are trending even more left in ideology, are less likely to vote than older voters.  In 2022, voter turnout was up as a whole but this group’s participation in voting actually declined from 2018, the previous midterm election.

Since 2024 is a presidential election, progressive turnout will undoubtedly be up, but I still see red flags. Progressives are understandably upset about the lack of progress in several arenas and especially the GAZA tragedy.  Many are not excited about a presidential candidate over 80. They may not be familiar with down ballot races–I haven’t seen supporting evidence, but I believe that conservatives are more likely to vote straight party without thinking, all the way down the ballot, while progressives tend to hold off unless they know the pros and cons of a race.

That’s admirable, but again, in a Purple state, there is no such thing as not voting.

The hopeful part of me sees that changing demographics are strongly in our favor. Some have argued that today’s right-wing extremism is largely a reaction to the relentless shift in demographics away from a conservative, white majority to younger, more diverse citizens.

Perhaps more importantly, there’s an undeniable uptick in energy and a palpable sense of urgency among progressive voters.  Throughout the nation, special elections have gone better than expected for Team Blue, and in North Carolina, the state Democratic leadership is young and on fire. They’ve set clear goals about supporting rural counties, targeting young voters and addressing organizational problems, and they are well on the way to meeting them. 

Finally, while young voters continue to have worse turnout than older voters, the trend for young voter participation is good. It’s especially exciting to read that North Carolina ranked  No. 7 in terms of the potential impact of the youth vote on its elections.

I understand that if you’re reading this, you probably don’t need to be reminded about the importance of voting in every election and in every race.  But maybe some of the people around you do. 

Maybe you know a college student who has a million things going on at school.

Maybe you know a neighbor who is discouraged by the MAGA chaos and noise. 

Maybe you know a colleague who just registered but is intimidated by the idea of going to the polls. 

President Biden has said that “From the very beginning, nothing has been guaranteed about democracy in America. Every generation has had to defend it, protect it, preserve it, choose it.”

I think it’s up to us–the Purple state voters who realize what the stakes are–to internalize this quote. Our role in defending democracy could be to let other people in our lives know what it really means to not vote. It’s up to us to share the idea that in a Purple state, people are either voting for the candidate they choose on the ballot, or they’re voting for the winner.

In a Purple state, there’s no such thing as not voting.