Asheville has a UNC right there. Besides the "New-Agers", you can count on a decent sized student population to turn out for Democrats.
UNC-Asheville is quite tiny though; less than 4,000 undergrads--not enough do much voting-wise.
OP forgot the other swing county in Western NC--Jackson. Of course, it voted for Trump but it was closer than Watauga in 2012. Blame Hillary's collapse among natives for that.
Jackson County is only 10% Native, and, e.g., neighboring Haywood County that is less than 1% Native swung harder towards Trump.
Well, yeah. But the Democratic base in Jackson county is Western Carolina and the part of the Qualla Boundary in the county--so a decline in the Democratic vote and turnout among natives when a county is around 49-51 is of course going to hurt the Democrats. Trump actually won the Cherokee majority precinct in Jackson County, though not the Swain one. The Jackson County one is only barely native majority though--so Clinton probably still won the Cherokee there.
Haywood County is old industrial towns with some outer Asheville commuters, and traditionally has a Blue Dog constituency. Not the sort of place to like Hillary.
