Morning Digest: Facing reality, Pat McCrory finally concedes North Carolina governor's race

Leading Off

● NC-Gov: On Monday afternoon, Republican Gov. Pat McCrory finally conceded defeat to Democratic Attorney General Roy Cooper. Cooper led by 4,480 votes on election night and now is up by just over 10,000 ballots cast, or 0.22 percent. After a recount in heavily Democratic Durham County proved fruitless for McCrory, he finally threw in the towel, bringing to a close one of the most contentious races in the country in 2016.

It also saw the ugliest possible finish, all thanks to the GOP. Although Cooper's election night lead always looked solid, McCrory nonetheless filed countless protests with various state and county elections boards challenging the validity of hundreds of votes and baselessly alleging fraud, particularly in Durham. However, these challenges utterly lacked evidence, and even Republican election officials repeatedly ruled against the governor. Winning these spurious protests wasn't the point, though, since they were never going to overturn Cooper's lead. Rather, they were focused squarely on delegitimizing the results.

Democrats and nonpartisan observers alike began to fear that McCrory might use the specter of bogus voter fraud to claim the election was rigged and legally contest it before the GOP-held legislature. That would have allowed Republicans to crown McCrory the winner even if he'd lost the popular vote. Fortunately, that ugly scenario didn't come to fruition, but Republicans will likely use McCrory's cries of wolf to justify further voter suppression laws. And while they didn't have the stomach to undo the results of the gubernatorial election, Republicans might try to erase another by packing the state Supreme Court, which saw Democrats take a 4-3 majority thanks to another win last month. It never ends with these guys.

Whatever happens, though, Cooper's win is a huge one for Democrats, and one of the few bright spots on what was otherwise a dismal Election Day. North Carolina is the ninth-largest state, and fast-growing one, too. Tar Heel Republicans had tried to drive this purple state in a radically conservative direction and have now paid a price for their extremism. While the legislature remains firmly in GOP hands, Cooper’s presence in the governor mansion will make a huge difference going forward.