Editing Wake County, North Carolina (section)

==Politics==
For much of the 20th century, Wake County was politically dominated by [[conservative Democrat]]s, many of them wealthy Raleighites. By the 1980s, enough socially-liberal Democrat and Republican professionals from the North had relocated to the county to break down this system of affairs.{{sfn|Sherman|2012|pp=80–81}} In 1994, Republicans won their first majority on the county commission in over 100 years.<ref>{{cite news| title = Conservatives take Wake board| newspaper = The Herald Sun| edition = Raleigh extra | page = 38| date = November 13, 1994|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/115244836/the-herald-sun/}}</ref> In 2009, Republicans won a majority on the Wake County Board of Education. Their majority lasted only two years due to several controversies including a student reassignment plan, and Democrats retook control of the board in 2011.{{sfn|Parcel|Taylor|2015|pp=109–110}}

In 2008, the county swung hard to [[Barack Obama]], who defeated [[John McCain]] 56 to 43 percent. Obama became the first Democrat since [[Lyndon Johnson]] to win a majority of the county's vote. In 2012, Obama won Wake County again over Mitt Romney with 54 percent of the vote to Romney's 44 percent – the first time in almost half a century that a Democrat carried the county in consecutive elections. Obama's performance in Wake mirrored his strong showing along [[Interstate 85 in North Carolina|Interstate 85]]. In 2016, Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton won the county 57 percent to Donald Trump's 37 percent, and in 2020 Joe Biden won the county with 62 percent of the vote to Donald Trump's 36 percent, reflecting the nationwide shift towards Democrats in urban and suburban areas.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.wakegov.com/elections/data/Past%20Election%20Results/2016-11-08%20-%20General%20Election/20161108.Summary.htm|title=Wake County, NC General Election November 8, 2016|date=December 9, 2016|website=WakeGOV|access-date=February 3, 2020|archive-date=January 29, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200129090951/http://www.wakegov.com/elections/data/Past%20Election%20Results/2016-11-08%20-%20General%20Election/20161108.Summary.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.kcur.org/post/where-suburbs-moved-left-and-how-it-swung-elections#stream/0|title=Where the Suburbs Moved Left – And How The Shift Swung Elections|last=McMinn|first=Sean|date=November 27, 2018|website=KCUR|access-date=February 3, 2020}}</ref> Biden's margin was the largest for a Democrat in the county since 1948. Trump was the first Republican in over 60 years to fail to receive at least 40 percent of the county's vote.

{{PresHead|place=Wake County, North Carolina|source=<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS|title=Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections|last=Leip|first=David|website=uselectionatlas.org|access-date=March 17, 2018}}</ref>}}
<!-- PresRow should be {{PresRow|Year|Winning party|GOP vote #|Dem vote #|3rd party vote #|State}} -->
{{PresRow|2024|Democratic|236,735|402,984|13,861|North Carolina}}
{{PresRow|2020|Democratic|226,197|393,336|12,297|North Carolina}}
{{PresRow|2016|Democratic|196,082|302,736|28,806|North Carolina}}
{{PresRow|2012|Democratic|211,596|267,262|7,569|North Carolina}}
{{PresRow|2008|Democratic|187,001|250,891|4,353|North Carolina}}
{{PresRow|2004|Republican|177,324|169,909|1,611|North Carolina}}
{{PresRow|2000|Republican|142,494|123,466|2,260|North Carolina}}
{{PresRow|1996|Republican|108,780|103,574|13,401|North Carolina}}
{{PresRow|1992|Democratic|86,798|88,979|31,690|North Carolina}}
{{PresRow|1988|Republican|81,613|61,352|539|North Carolina}}
{{PresRow|1984|Republican|81,251|50,323|297|North Carolina}}
{{PresRow|1980|Republican|49,768|49,003|6,422|North Carolina}}
{{PresRow|1976|Republican|44,291|44,005|479|North Carolina}}
{{PresRow|1972|Republican|56,808|22,807|1,174|North Carolina}}
{{PresRow|1968|Republican|28,928|20,979|17,250|North Carolina}}
{{PresRow|1964|Democratic|22,542|31,653|0|North Carolina}}
{{PresRow|1960|Democratic|18,436|26,050|0|North Carolina}}
{{PresRow|1956|Democratic|15,194|22,427|0|North Carolina}}
{{PresRow|1952|Democratic|15,057|23,393|0|North Carolina}}
{{PresRow|1948|Democratic|4,850|17,939|1,634|North Carolina}}
{{PresRow|1944|Democratic|3,996|18,050|0|North Carolina}}
{{PresRow|1940|Democratic|2,665|18,083|0|North Carolina}}
{{PresRow|1936|Democratic|2,456|19,850|0|North Carolina}}
{{PresRow|1932|Democratic|2,170|14,863|246|North Carolina}}
{{PresRow|1928|Democratic|6,720|9,341|0|North Carolina}}
{{PresRow|1924|Democratic|2,975|8,376|485|North Carolina}}
{{PresRow|1920|Democratic|3,653|8,020|0|North Carolina}}
{{PresRow|1916|Democratic|2,461|4,627|5|North Carolina}}
{{PresRow|1912|Democratic|282|3,996|1,529|North Carolina}}
{{PresRow|1908|Democratic|2,961|3,713|10|North Carolina}}
{{PresRow|1904|Democratic|1,267|3,410|23|North Carolina}}
{{PresRow|1900|Democratic|3,947|4,774|15|North Carolina}}
{{PresRow|1896|Democratic|4,675|5,396|50|North Carolina}}
{{PresRow|1892|Democratic|1,987|3,724|2,935|North Carolina}}
{{PresRow|1888|Republican|5,029|4,511|89|North Carolina}}
{{PresRow|1884|Democratic|4,291|4,750|3|North Carolina}}
{{PresRow|1880|Republican|4,622|4,359|0|North Carolina}}
{{PresFoot|1876|Republican|4,441|4,315|0|North Carolina}}
Democrats fared well in Wake County during the 2008 election. In the 1998 Senate race, [[John Edwards]] won in Wake County, which helped him defeat incumbent Republican [[Lauch Faircloth]]. In 2000 [[Mike Easley]] won the governor's race here with 55% of the vote. In 2004, Easley won again, winning with 59 percent to 40 percent for opponent [[Patrick Ballantine]]. Democrat [[Beverly Perdue]] won Wake County in the 2008 Governor's election by a 51 to 45 percent margin. In 2002, Republican candidate for U.S. Senate [[Elizabeth Dole]] defeated Democrat [[Erskine Bowles]] with 55% of the vote in Wake County, and won by a large margin statewide. However, in 2004, Bowles won the county with 52 percent, despite losing statewide to [[Richard Burr]] by the same margin. In 2008 [[Kay Hagan]] defeated Dole 56 to 40 percent.

Democratic strength is concentrated primarily in [[Raleigh, North Carolina|Raleigh]]. Republican strength is concentrated in the rural and exurban areas in the northern and western parts of the county. The outskirts of Raleigh, and the towns of [[Cary, North Carolina|Cary]] and [[Apex, North Carolina|Apex]], are mostly home to swing voters.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.rollcall.com/2018/10/31/the-north-carolina-race-that-wasnt-supposed-to-be-in-play/|title = The North Carolina Race That Wasn't Supposed to Be in Play|work=Roll Call|date = October 31, 2018|first=  Simone|last= Pathé}}</ref>