In North Carolina, areas that support GOP lawmakers are faring worse now

Republicans have an iron lock on North Carolina’s General Assembly largely because of their support in rural areas, but after six years of Republican rule those areas are faring far worse than the state’s urban areas. A new report from the UNC Population Center shows that of the state’s 553 municipalities, 225 saw population decline in 2010-16. But those leaving – mostly younger people – are not leaving the state. Instead, they’re going to the new North Carolina, the larger cities that offer better jobs and a more diverse social life. Why people leave dying towns and fading counties is no mystery. But it is a puzzle that lawmakers with a rural base have been so indifferent to the condition of their districts and so thoughtless about how to stem the rural-to-urban tide.While providing little help to their rural base, the legislature’s Republican majority has hammered the cities. They’ve eliminated the privilege license tax on businesses, which help city budgets. They passed House Bill 2, a law, since rescinded, that gave legal sanction to discrimination against transgender people and eliminated local ordinances supporting gay rights. The law hurt the state’s reputation for tolerance and led to the cancellation of events and conventions, mostly in cities. And the legislature reached down to gerrymander some county and city voting districts to better Republican chances in mostly blue urban areas.