North Carolina-The State has been trending Democratic in recent Presidential Voting for a number of cycles now. I know for state and (local races probably) the state has elected Democrats over Republicans for a number of years now. The state last had a Republican Governor in the early 1990's before McCroy won last year. I know the State Democratic Party is nowhere near as liberal a the National Democratic Party is.
The NC Democratic Party has since the 1970's been dominated by Progressive types who managed to keep up their populist appeals with John Edwards types who could appeal to rural voters. At the time, the middle and upper class white voters who were heavily GOP dominated the urban counties of Wake and Mecklenburg whilst the Democrats did well in the rural areas of the Mountains (save for the GOP pockets in certain counties), Central and Eastern Parts of the state as well amongst the mill workers, farm laborours and minorities.
Since the 1990's you have had growth of minorities in the cities, the flight of Republican voters from them, the rise of younger more liberal urban whites in those same cities, and the decline of the Democrats in the rural areas. Basically the same thing that has happened elsewhere. Because of timing, the combination of 2010 and 2012 have left state government the most Republican that it has ever been, whilst the state GOP peaked in the early 2000s in terms of voting strength.
Just because the NC Democratic Party put on a populist face, doesn't mean it is any less liberal andn ow that it feels it no longer needs those voters, it won't hessitate to run more to the left. Obama's victory certainly emboldens that illustrating what strong minority and young voter turnout can do and a Progressive campaign that can rally such will be very alluring to the party.