The 2016 election results made clear the political divide between rural and urban communities. This was evident in North Carolina, where Democrats won the seven most populous counties.
In Wake County, home of Raleigh, North Carolina’s second largest city, Hillary Clinton received over 50 percent more votes than President-elect Donald Trump, despite losing the state overall.
While Democrats represent a significant majority, Republicans received almost 200,000 votes.
Hannah Fletcher, a freshman studying mechanical engineering and international studies, was one of those who voted Republican.
“It’s frustrating,” Fletcher said when asked about how it felt to be on a college campus, which are known to be disproportionately liberal. “It was one of the hardest transitions for me.”
Although she’s from Chatham County, which voted for Clinton, Fletcher said that here on NC State’s campus, she believes people in the majority aren’t willing to hear the other side’s views.
Jack Pashby, a junior studying nuclear engineering, a student senator representing the College of Engineering and vice chairman of the NC State College Republicans thought otherwise.
“I don’t mind [living at NC State],” Pashby said. “Everyone’s entitled to their own views.”
While Pashby voted for Trump, he didn’t feel harassed or targeted for who he was supporting.
“I didn’t see my views being harmed in any way,” Pashby said.
Fletcher didn’t find this to be the case.
“When I told people that I was conservative, they stopped talking to me,” Fletcher said. “It wasn’t because they didn’t like me. It was because they didn’t like my candidate.”
Fletcher felt as if there was a stigma at NC State against voting Republican.
“When people hear I’m a conservative, they label me as racist even though I vote for primarily economic reasons,” Fletcher said.
Wake County and North Carolina were extremely important to the election, with both candidates holding their final campaign rallies in Raleigh. However, even with all of the excitement and political conversation going on, Fletcher felt as if the discussion was rather one-sided.
“When we painted the [Free Expression] Tunnel, there were people walking by who would yell at us,” Fletcher said.
“Most of my teachers made a comment, one way or another, about how they didn’t like my candidate,” Fletcher said. “It’s like liberals don’t want to hear the other side.”
Pashby had a different experience.
“It’s a very open campus to discuss ideas and everything,” Pashby said.
Wake County is the eighth-fastest-growing county in the United States. An estimated 64 people move to the county every day.
Despite the fact that Wake County hasn’t voted for a Republican presidential candidate since 2004, Pashby remains optimistic.
“The nice thing about [living in Wake County] is that it means we’ve got more work to do.” Trump has come to Raleigh three times in the past year,” Pashby said. “There was a lot of campaigning going on. We have more work to do.”
Trump was last in Raleigh on Nov. 7, the day before the election.
Despite losing Wake County and the other six most populated counties, Trump won nearly every rural county, carrying him to victory in North Carolina and securing its 15 electoral votes.
