Impact of Republican ascendancy on the Democratic Party in North Carolina
Hunt discusses the negative impact of the 1984 and 2000 elections on North Carolina’s Democratic Party. Although the 1980s and 1990s saw a Republican upswing nationally, Hunt argues that the moderate nature of the state's Democratic Party helped to keep the party in power and intact.
Citing this Excerpt
Oral History Interview with James B. Hunt, October 3, 2001. Interview C-0332. Southern Oral History Program Collection (#4007) in the Southern Oral History Program Collection, Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Full Text of the Excerpt
- JACK FLEER:
-
Did you feel that when you finished as governor in '84 and
again in 2001 or 2000 that the Democratic party was stronger than what
it was whenever you started?
- JAMES B. HUNT:
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I thought it was strong. In '84 obviously we had a Republican
elected governor. The toughest year the Democrats had had up to then.
You could argue that it was the toughest year. It was kind of like
Reagan's smashing victory. It was kind of like FDRs
[unclear] modern times. We had strong
leadership. We had strong leadership in the majorities in the
legislature, council of state, our programs had been put in place. You
had the big change in 1994 of course. So I felt like we had strong party
leadership, and it was very helpful and it boded well for the future,
but all of this time the strength of the parties has been going down.
The effectiveness of the parties has been going down.
- JACK FLEER:
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Parties generally, not just the Democratic Party.
- JAMES B. HUNT:
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Yeah, parties generally. You continue to have some realignment within
North Carolina. Conservative Democrats continued although it slowed down
a lot. You had an absolute rush to the Republican Party, and it still
continues in many southern states. We stopped that. I think
that's one of the things we've been very at least
Democrats from our point of view can feel good
about. We gave leadership. We were sponsoring programs, putting them
into place, progress in education, economic development which I should
always talk about, public safety, environmental protection and so on,
children, things that appeal to people by and large. They appeal to the
majority of the people. Because of that and the fact that most people
thought we were kind of on the right track in North Carolina, including
most Republicans, you didn't have a great rushing away from
the Democratic Party. People continued to feel like its leaders were
doing things that they agreed with. So we kept the Democratic Party in
contention. South Carolina, Virginia, all around are going Republican,
staying Republican. North Carolina has kept a strong Democratic
position. But even though that's been strong, the Republicans
have continued to get a little higher in terms of numbers and strength,
and of course the big thing out there now is the independents. I
strongly proposed that the independents be able to vote in the
Democratic Party primaries. I am proud we do that. Registered
independents or unaffiliated, or whatever it is. People that
don't register with one party or the other. So
that's how I see that. I think the kind of Republican tide
that swept over the South was not as strong in North Carolina, and I
think the Democrats mainly because of our leadership in education
[unclear] and developing these other issues
kept the Democratic Party in a strong position.
- JACK FLEER:
-
North Carolina is one of the few states, there are about ten or eleven
that hold their state elections at the same time as presidential
elections. Did you generally find that to be beneficial or a burden?
- JAMES B. HUNT:
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Well, I kind of changed my mind on that over time. I would say that
probably maybe into my second term I used to think maybe we ought to
change our election date. I didn't ever
propose this, but I was kind of growing in my mind. But and of course
the Democratic Party was out of favor with a lot of people, a lot of
southerners.
- JACK FLEER:
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The national Democratic Party.
- JAMES B. HUNT:
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But after Bill Clinton came in, he was more of a moderate and proposed a
balanced budget and in favor of capital punishment, in favor of welfare
reform and things of that sort, leaving off the stuff that happened at
the end in terms of how he was. So the Democratic Party people
didn't feel that resentment. They did in '94 and
expressed it. There are feelings about him too, by the way, about big
government, all this stuff that came out with his health care plans but
that then settled down. I haven't seen any polls on this. But
my sense was that people began to sort of give the Democrats at least
there wasn't a lot of resentment against the party and people
didn't see it as these way out liberals who are in favor of
stuff we don't like and we won't consider them. So
I think, I now believe and I did toward the end of my term that running
in a year that the president is not a bad idea. Every party looks at it
as how does it benefit us. Certainly it's a time when, in our
case, minorities and perhaps women feel pretty strongly about the
positions of the national candidates. So I think it kind of cuts both
ways. I don't really know what the advantage is now, but I
don't see it to be a great disadvantage to the Democratic
Party that I used to think it was becoming.