NORFOLK, Va. — North Carolina has a split personality when it comes to the elections.
Every four years, when the Presidential is at the top of the ballot it's considered a swing state – but Republicans have won the last three election cycles.
The last time Democrats won the state for president was in 2008 with former President Barack Obama.
On Nov. 5, 2024, former President Donald Trump defeated Vice President Kamala Harris in the Tar Heel state by more than three percentage points.
But down the ballot, voters made different decisions.
"North Carolina does split tickets," said Elon University Political Science and Public Policy professor, Jason Husser. "It has done so consistently for 50 years now."
The Democrats who ran for Governor, Josh Stein; Lieutenant Governor, Rachel Hunt; Attorney General, Jeff Jackson and Secretary of State, Elaine Marshall all won or are currently leading their Republican rivals.
"In fact, the average ticket-splitting between the margin for the president and the margin for the governor has been over ten points over the last 50 years," Husser added.
Stein defeated Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson by more than 14 percentage points, 54.8 to 40.2.
While Husser said he believes there's generally no unifying reason why North Carolinians split tickets, in this cycle, Democrats effectively tied other Republican candidates to the unpopular Republican gubernatorial candidate: Robinson.
"Democrats were able to very effectively run advertisements connecting sort of a personal, friendly relationship between those republican candidates and Mark Robinson."
In another closely watched race in the state, democrat incumbent Congressman Don Davis defeated his Republican challenger, Laurie Buckhout in District 1 in northeastern North Carolina. The newly redrawn district turned it into a toss-up with Davis squeezing out a less than two percentage point win.