A recent story in The New York Times asked: “Is the South Truly a Dead Zone for Democrats?”

You’d have to be politically brain dead to believe that.

Look at North Carolina after the November elections:

• We’re one of only 15 states with a Democratic governor and Democratic majorities in both houses of the legislature;

• Across 14 Southern states, Democrats picked up 21 legislative seats. Six (or seven, if Jim Black eventually wins) of those were in North Carolina;

• We elected a Democratic Chief Justice and two Democrats to the Supreme Court, after years of GOP dominance in court races. It helped, of course, that the legislature made the races nonpartisan and publicly funded.

• The 11^th District tossed out a veteran Republican congressman in favor of the Democrat. And we almost beat Robin Hayes.

I wouldn’t argue that all the South is so open to Democrats. And we could lose it all in two years.

But North Carolina and Virginia (see Senator-elect Jim Webb) are Southern states that Democrats can win. Maybe even in a Presidential election.

If we win in the South, we win nationally.

The Democrats have a huge opportunity before them. Republicans, a huge problem.

More on this in future blogs.

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