Politics of North Carolina
| Year | Republican / Whig | Democratic | Third party(ies) | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | % | No. | % | No. | % | |
| 1836 | 23,521 | 46.90% | 26,631 | 53.10% | 1 | 0.00% |
| 1840 | 46,567 | 57.68% | 34,168 | 42.32% | 0 | 0.00% |
| 1844 | 43,232 | 52.39% | 39,287 | 47.61% | 2 | 0.00% |
| 1848 | 44,054 | 55.17% | 35,772 | 44.80% | 26 | 0.03% |
| 1852 | 39,043 | 49.49% | 39,788 | 50.43% | 60 | 0.08% |
| 1856 | 0 | 0.00% | 48,243 | 56.78% | 36,720 | 43.22% |
| 1860 | 0 | 0.00% | 2,737 | 2.83% | 93,975 | 97.17% |
| 1868 | 96,939 | 53.41% | 84,559 | 46.59% | 0 | 0.00% |
| 1872 | 94,772 | 57.38% | 70,130 | 42.46% | 261 | 0.16% |
| 1876 | 108,484 | 46.38% | 125,427 | 53.62% | 0 | 0.00% |
| 1880 | 115,616 | 47.98% | 124,204 | 51.55% | 1,126 | 0.47% |
| 1884 | 125,021 | 46.59% | 142,905 | 53.25% | 430 | 0.16% |
| 1888 | 134,784 | 47.20% | 147,902 | 51.79% | 2,877 | 1.01% |
| 1892 | 100,346 | 35.80% | 132,951 | 47.44% | 46,973 | 16.76% |
| 1896 | 155,122 | 46.82% | 174,408 | 52.64% | 1,807 | 0.55% |
| 1900 | 132,997 | 45.47% | 157,733 | 53.92% | 1,788 | 0.61% |
| 1904 | 82,442 | 39.67% | 124,091 | 59.71% | 1,285 | 0.62% |
| 1908 | 114,887 | 45.49% | 136,928 | 54.22% | 739 | 0.29% |
| 1912 | 29,139 | 11.95% | 144,507 | 59.24% | 70,272 | 28.81% |
| 1916 | 120,890 | 41.71% | 168,383 | 58.10% | 562 | 0.19% |
| 1920 | 232,848 | 43.22% | 305,447 | 56.69% | 463 | 0.09% |
| 1924 | 191,753 | 39.73% | 284,270 | 58.89% | 6,664 | 1.38% |
| 1928 | 348,923 | 54.94% | 286,227 | 45.06% | 0 | 0.00% |
| 1932 | 208,344 | 29.28% | 497,566 | 69.93% | 5,591 | 0.79% |
| 1936 | 223,283 | 26.60% | 616,141 | 73.40% | 40 | 0.00% |
| 1940 | 213,633 | 25.97% | 609,015 | 74.03% | 0 | 0.00% |
| 1944 | 263,155 | 33.29% | 527,399 | 66.71% | 0 | 0.00% |
| 1948 | 258,572 | 32.68% | 459,070 | 58.02% | 73,567 | 9.30% |
| 1952 | 558,107 | 46.09% | 652,803 | 53.91% | 0 | 0.00% |
| 1956 | 575,062 | 49.34% | 590,530 | 50.66% | 0 | 0.00% |
| 1960 | 655,420 | 47.89% | 713,136 | 52.11% | 0 | 0.00% |
| 1964 | 624,844 | 43.85% | 800,139 | 56.15% | 0 | 0.00% |
| 1968 | 627,192 | 39.51% | 464,113 | 29.24% | 496,188 | 31.26% |
| 1972 | 1,054,889 | 69.46% | 438,705 | 28.89% | 25,018 | 1.65% |
| 1976 | 741,960 | 44.22% | 927,365 | 55.27% | 8,581 | 0.51% |
| 1980 | 915,018 | 49.30% | 875,635 | 47.18% | 65,180 | 3.51% |
| 1984 | 1,346,481 | 61.90% | 824,287 | 37.89% | 4,593 | 0.21% |
| 1988 | 1,237,258 | 57.97% | 890,167 | 41.71% | 6,945 | 0.33% |
| 1992 | 1,134,661 | 43.44% | 1,114,042 | 42.65% | 363,147 | 13.90% |
| 1996 | 1,225,938 | 48.73% | 1,107,849 | 44.04% | 182,020 | 7.24% |
| 2000 | 1,631,163 | 56.03% | 1,257,692 | 43.20% | 22,407 | 0.77% |
| 2004 | 1,961,166 | 56.02% | 1,525,849 | 43.58% | 13,992 | 0.40% |
| 2008 | 2,128,474 | 49.38% | 2,142,651 | 49.70% | 39,664 | 0.92% |
| 2012 | 2,270,395 | 50.39% | 2,178,391 | 48.35% | 56,586 | 1.26% |
| 2016 | 2,362,631 | 49.83% | 2,189,316 | 46.17% | 189,617 | 4.00% |
| 2020 | 2,758,775 | 49.93% | 2,684,292 | 48.59% | 81,737 | 1.48% |
| 2024 | 2,898,423 | 50.86% | 2,715,375 | 47.65% | 85,343 | 1.50% |
Like most U.S. states, North Carolina is politically dominated by the Democratic and Republican political parties. North Carolina has 14 seats in the U.S. House of Representatives and two seats in the U.S. Senate. North Carolina has voted for the Republican candidate in all but one presidential election since 1980; the one exception was in 2008, when a plurality of North Carolinians voted for Barack Obama. However, since that election, the state has remained closely contested with Republicans winning by no more than four points and obtaining a majority of the vote only in 2012 and 2024. This stands in contrast to the post-Civil War era, as the state was a strongly Democratic Solid South state from 1880 to 1964, only voting Republican in 1928.
However, North Carolina has mostly elected Democratic governors in its history; only four Republican governors have been elected since Reconstruction, and of those only one, James G. Martin, served two terms.