James Smith, a 47 year old resident of Georgia, was just trying to have a relaxing night at home with his wife and kids.
After being bombarded for months during the general election, he was done with politics.
“I was just trying to watch CBS,” he said. “But when I turned on the TV, every ad break was political. ‘Raphael Warnock is a SOCIALIST,’ said one. ‘Kelly Leoffler is CORRUPT,’ said another. I thought it would be over after the general election, the ads were so stressful, you know? I’m tired of it.”
Smith decided he had to leave Georgia as soon as possible to get away from the divisiveness of the Georgia runoff elections, so he decided to sell his house. He, his wife and their two kids moved north to Murphy, N.C., near the Georgia border.
“I’m so glad I finally got away from all the politics,” Smith said.
Smith didn’t know, however, that North Carolina’s senate election was the most expensive in U.S. history, with malicious attack ads on both sides.
“But in North Carolina, it’s over now,” Smith argued. “Georgia only has one season-and that’s election season!”
However, Smith is just one of many fleeing the Peach State. Shelly Brown, a retired teacher, is also tired of all the politics.
“First you have people who say our elections are rigged. Then you have hundreds of millions of dollars pouring into our state-what that money could be used for, I don’t know, but not all of it needs to be used for two people,” Brown said.
Over 17,000 people have come over the border between North Carolina and Georgia since election day. Gene Clark, a resident of Franklin, N.C., says he has never seen so much traffic.
“Every day has traffic on Route 73. I’ve never seen that many cars on that road outside of tourism season in my life,” Clark said. “I feel very lucky to live in North Carolina, where elections end on time.”
But not everyone who passes through Franklin is on their way to live in the mountains. Some people have tried to get further away from Georgia than Smith.
Sandy Pfiffer, a new student at East Chapel Hill High School, described the horrors of having millions of dollars pouring into her state.
“Campaigns have been focusing so much on our state-people, ads, you name it,” Pfiffer said. “It’s infuriating that people suddenly care so much about Georgia. Before the election, no one came here, and as soon as the election’s over, they’ll all probably leave.”
Pfiffer’s family moved to North Carolina as soon as they knew that both Senate races would be forced into a runoff.
“Here, in N.C., the person who gets the most votes wins the race. It’s genius!” she said. “Not having a 50 percent threshold is such a smart idea.”
She was amazed by how Thom Tillis and Cal Cunningham did not attack the election officials with the same vitriol and hatred she saw in her home state.
“Isn’t it amazing that there weren’t widespread claims of fraud from both candidates after the results came in? Though it might just be because the Republican candidate won.”
Pfiffer says that North Carolina reminds her of Georgia-with a few exceptions.
“It’s like Georgia because you have mountains and ocean,” she explained, “but not having an eternal election is an added plus.”
Photo courtesy ofUNC Libraries Commons/Flickr
