Since the 2010 passage of the Affordable Care Act, North Carolina Democrats have advocated for increasing the state's minimum wage.

In North Carolina, people from the west and northeast supported the Whigs mainly for their policies on education and internal improvements.

In spite of the conservative bent of North Carolina politics, a number of Democrats, such as Terry Sanford and John Edwards, have been elected to represent the state at the federal level.

Senator Elizabeth Dole was defeated for reelection in 2008 by Democrat Kay Hagan, the same year Barack Obama carried the state in his victory over Republican John McCain by a margin of less than one half of a percentage point.

These victories came despite controversies surrounding Jim Black, a Democrat and former Speaker of the North Carolina House of Representatives.

In 2010, Republicans swept North Carolina, taking control of both houses of the General Assembly for the first time since 1896, reelecting Richard Burr to a second term by double digits, and unseating incumbent Democratic U.S. Representative Bob Etheridge.

2014 saw incumbent Senator Kay Hagan defeated for reelection, and the seat of U.S. Representative Mike McIntyre who had retired was taken by a Republican.

Democrats in the North Carolina House of Representatives flipped four seats from Republican held districts in Wake and Buncombe counties.

In 2018, Democrats added a seat to their judicial majority on the North Carolina Supreme Court when Anita Earls defeated Incumbent Republican Justice Barbara Jackson and lawyer Chris Anglin winning by a plurality vote of 48.79%.

Democrats also gained two seats on the North Carolina Court of Appeals and incumbent judge John S. Arrowood ran for his first full term after being appointed by Governor Roy Cooper in 2017.

Legislative Democrats were able to break the Republican supermajority's in both the State House and Senate for the first time since losing control of both chambers in 2010.