About
Trail Mix, the campaign blog of the Winston-Salem Journal, is a conversation about North Carolina's elections in 2008. Come here for news and analysis on the U.S. Senate race, the governor's race and all the other statewide races.
Trail Mix is written by James Romoser, the Journal's Raleigh reporter. Got a tip? E-mail me at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
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Quote of the Moment
“It’s ironic that the urban areas defeated an urban candidate.”
—Charlotte Mayor Pat McCrory, on his narrow loss to Bev Perdue in the race for governor
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More Election Coverage
What Ever Happened to Governor Glenn?
Winston-Salem might be an important battleground, but when it comes to state political clout, it’s in a century-old drought.
It’s been 104 years since anyone from Winston-Salem or Forsyth County was elected to any of the 10 executive-branch positions in state government. (Collectively, those 10 statewide elected positions are known as the Council of State.)
The last Winston-Salemite to sit on the Council of State was Gov. Robert Glenn (seen above), who was elected in 1904 and was known for such cheery achievements as banning liquor statewide.
Three residents of the Camel City did try to end the drought in 2008. State Rep. Dale Folwell briefly ran for state treasurer, but dropped out of the race before the Republican primary in order to hold onto his seat in the N.C. House. Dan Besse, a member of the Winston-Salem City Council, ran for lieutenant governor, but he lost in the Demoratic primary.
Winston-Salem’s last hope was Mary Fant Donnan, a Democrat who ran for commissioner of labor and won her primary. She made it a nail-biter against the incumbent commissioner, Cherie Berry, but Berry narrowly defeated Donnan with 50.6 percent of the vote.
A fourth Winston-Salem resident running for statewide office was Suzanne Reynolds, who tried for a seat on the N.C. Supreme Court, but Reynolds also lost a close election to an incumbent.
Of course, the story is slightly different at the federal level, where the Winston-Salem area has had much more recent success at electing its own. Sen. Richard Burr is from Winston, and incoming Sen. Kay Hagan, of Greensboro, is from just one county over.