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{"id":27467,"date":"2026-10-10T13:04:44","date_gmt":"2026-10-10T13:04:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/david-plouffe-warns-dems-dont-take-north-carolina-for-granted\/"},"modified":"2026-10-10T13:04:44","modified_gmt":"2026-10-10T13:04:44","slug":"david-plouffe-warns-dems-dont-take-north-carolina-for-granted","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/david-plouffe-warns-dems-dont-take-north-carolina-for-granted\/","title":{"rendered":"David Plouffe warns Dems: Don\u2019t take North Carolina for granted"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>National Democrats are increasingly <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/live-updates\/2026\/10\/05\/congress\/democrats-pull-some-north-carolina-senate-ads-01107877\" target=\"_blank\">shifting their attention<\/a> away from North Carolina\u2019s Senate race as polls show former Gov. Roy Cooper ahead, eyeing once long-shot races as possible pickups. But a veteran Democratic strategist who helped deliver the party\u2019s last presidential victory in the state is urging donors not to take a win for granted.<\/p>\n<p>David Plouffe, who managed behind Barack Obama\u2019s narrow 2008 victory in North Carolina, urged Democratic donors and supporters not to grow complacent in the final weeks of Roy Cooper\u2019s Senate campaign, according to audio obtained by Blue Light News.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think that this race &#8230; has I think been the best run race in the country,\u201d Plouffe said on the call. \u201cBut that doesn&#8217;t mean that we can rest easy.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He warned about North Carolina\u2019s relatively fixed partisan makeup as a purple state, making it difficult for a candidate to dramatically expand their base of support.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere&#8217;s certain states that elections happen within a bound, and this one will be that way as well,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>In public polling, Cooper leads Republican Michael Whatley, who has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2026\/09\/12\/gop-anxiety-grows-north-carolina-senate-race-01073311\" target=\"_blank\">struggled to boost his name recognition<\/a> against the much better-known former governor. And as Democrats grow increasingly bullish on their candidate\u2019s chances of flipping the seat \u2014 one of four pickups they need to take control of the Senate \u2014 national groups have begun shifting their money and attention to other contests, including <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/live-updates\/2026\/10\/09\/congress\/dems-push-into-kansas-01114520\" target=\"_blank\">most recently to Kansas<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>But Plouffe said North Carolina needs to remain a priority.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe have to win the ones we have to win,\u201d he said on the call to Cooper\u2019s finance committee.<\/p>\n<p>Just days before Plouffe\u2019s remarks, Senate Democrats\u2019 top super PAC pulled back some of its spending in North Carolina, following a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.politico.com\/news\/2026\/10\/02\/republicans-slf-scale-back-north-carolina-senate-spending-01104964\" target=\"_blank\">much bigger retreat by Republicans\u2019 top super PAC<\/a> in the state.<\/p>\n<p>Plouffe cautioned that North Carolina has historically been a tough state for Democrats at the federal level, especially in recent years. The party hasn\u2019t won a Senate race there since 2008, when Obama became the last Democratic presidential candidate to carry the state, winning by fewer than 15,000 votes. He lost the state in 2012.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEven though we carried the electoral votes back then, we only did so by I think 14,000 votes. So it was our narrowest victory,\u201d Plouffe said. \u201cAnd in 2012, we tried to win North Carolina again with the help of so many people on this phone, and we just couldn&#8217;t get it done. And that tells you how difficult the state is.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Plouffe also cast the stakes of Cooper\u2019s race as extending beyond November, arguing that a Cooper victory could provide a blueprint for the party\u2019s eventual 2028 presidential nominee.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDemocrats need to compete and win in North Carolina in 28,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd it&#8217;s one thing to look how a governor can win a state. The best route, the best scout that you receive, is how someone in a federal race won in a tough state, and that can show you the way.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>National Democrats are increasingly shifting their attention away from North Carolina\u2019s Senate race as polls show former Gov. Roy Cooper ahead, eyeing once long-shot races as possible pickups. But a veteran Democratic strategist who helped deliver the party\u2019s last presidential victory in the state is urging donors not to take a win for granted. David [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27467","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27467","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27467"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27467\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27467"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27467"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27467"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}