Why are the Charlotte suburbs so much more Republican then the Raleigh suburbs

[Libertas Vel Mors]

Charlotte is surrounded by a bunch of heavily Republican ring counties, like Union or Cabarrus, and even it's inner suburbs are historically Republican and tossup/lean D under Trump. By contrast, the Wake/Johnston county suburbs are a lot bluer, without even counting Orange or Durham counties as suburban. Why?

[morgieb]

Charlotte a culturally Southern city, Raleigh has the research triangle which makes it more culturally Northern ala the DC suburbs or the city of Durham. At least I think that explains it very basically.

[Libertas Vel Mors]

Charlotte a culturally Southern city, Raleigh has the research triangle which makes it more culturally Northern ala the DC suburbs or the city of Durham. At least I think that explains it very basically.

Why did this become a thing? I know as late as 2004 Wake was more conservative then Mecklenburg County (and still is today). What's the difference there?

[TDAS04]

Charlotte a culturally Southern city, Raleigh has the research triangle which makes it more culturally Northern ala the DC suburbs or the city of Durham. At least I think that explains it very basically.

Why did this become a thing? I know as late as 2004 Wake was more conservative then Mecklenburg County (and still is today). What's the difference there?

Charlotte forms a larger percentage of Mecklenburg than Raleigh forms of Wake.  Charlotte is a bigger city, but the counties are similar in population size.

[slothdem]

Charlotte's suburbs are either included in the city boundaries (NC has very liberal annexation laws) or directly outside within Mecklenburg County (such as Matthews or Mint Hill). Once you get into Union or Cabarrus, you aren't really suburban anymore.

[Sol]

Charlotte a culturally Southern city, Raleigh has the research triangle which makes it more culturally Northern ala the DC suburbs or the city of Durham. At least I think that explains it very basically.

Why did this become a thing? I know as late as 2004 Wake was more conservative then Mecklenburg County (and still is today). What's the difference there?

Raleigh is significantly whiter than Charlotte but Raleigh whites are more Democratic leaning than Charlotte whites.

As for why, as stated upthread, whites in the Raleigh area tend to be highly educated, oftentimes more socially liberal types as a result of the importance of high tech industries and education to the Triangle.

[Orser67]

Charlotte a culturally Southern city, Raleigh has the research triangle which makes it more culturally Northern ala the DC suburbs or the city of Durham. At least I think that explains it very basically.

So one way of looking at it would be to say that white voters in Raleigh vote more like white voters in Virginia, while white voters in Charlotte vote more like white voters in South Carolina?

[lfromnj]

Charlotte a culturally Southern city, Raleigh has the research triangle which makes it more culturally Northern ala the DC suburbs or the city of Durham. At least I think that explains it very basically.

Why did this become a thing? I know as late as 2004 Wake was more conservative then Mecklenburg County (and still is today). What's the difference there?

Raleigh is significantly whiter than Charlotte but Raleigh whites are more Democratic leaning than Charlotte whites.

As for why, as stated upthread, whites in the Raleigh area tend to be highly educated, oftentimes more socially liberal types as a result of the importance of high tech industries and education to the Triangle.

https://twitter.com/PoliticsWolf/status/1194803339260657665
Not education. Its a cultural difference although Charlotte educated white areas moved left too.

[DINGO Joe]

As noted in the NC redistricting thread, Cabarrus is showing a noticeable shift to the left.

[Sol]

Charlotte a culturally Southern city, Raleigh has the research triangle which makes it more culturally Northern ala the DC suburbs or the city of Durham. At least I think that explains it very basically.

Why did this become a thing? I know as late as 2004 Wake was more conservative then Mecklenburg County (and still is today). What's the difference there?

Raleigh is significantly whiter than Charlotte but Raleigh whites are more Democratic leaning than Charlotte whites.

As for why, as stated upthread, whites in the Raleigh area tend to be highly educated, oftentimes more socially liberal types as a result of the importance of high tech industries and education to the Triangle.

https://twitter.com/PoliticsWolf/status/1194803339260657665
Not education. Its a cultural difference although Charlotte educated white areas moved left too.

Raleigh has significantly more PhDs and people with higher degrees--on the Census website you can see that Mecklenburg has 12% of its population with a Master's Degree or higher, while Wake has over 16%--a big difference. There's actually an even bigger difference as far as Bachelor's Degrees--Wake has around 48% while Mecklenburg is at 41%. Wake County is also much more highly educated than similarly sized Southern cities.

Obviously both are more educated than the national average, which makes sense--they're cities--but Wake is definitely more so. This makes sense because Raleigh is a massive college town and includes the state's largest university, as well as many high tech companies. It's not rocket science!