North Carolina Gov. Bev Perdue (D), hosting this week’s Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, said this morning that she believes President Obama will win the battleground state.
The latest Real Clear Politics polling average has Mitt Romney up by 2 points over the incumbent.
“I think the people in North Carolina are beginning to get engaged in the race,” Perdue said on CNN. “…Quite naturally they’ve begin thinking about the Republican convention. But he who bumps last, bumps best.”
She acknowledged that the state is always close on Election Day — Obama won by .3 percent over John McCain in 2008 — but said “the message will win the day for the president.”
“There’s a clear choice in the race and the folks in North Carolina are focusing on that choice. Do you want to go backwards that caused the economy to implode, or do you want to go forward? The president has made tremendous progress,” Perdue said.
“We all understand folks are struggling, but we at the end of the day we’re focusing on things that have gotten us this far in the last 29 months of job growth.”
North Carolina’s unemployment rate is 9.6 percent. “Our unemployment is higher than average because the manufacturing base is higher than average. And during the economy we imported unemployment more than 300,000 people moved to North Carolina,” the governor said.
Perdue is not seeking re-election this fall.
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