By Paul Shumaker
Republicans turned North Carolina red by building a coalition with conservative Democrats, but those days are gone. For Republicans and Democrats alike, winning statewide in the new North Carolina depends on building a majority coalition with unaffiliated voters, who increasingly outnumber the members of either major party in our highly competitive state.
A potent public-policy issue that either major party could use to build such a coalition this year is energy choice and competition, which is exceptionally popular across our state’s partisan and ideological divides. Unaffiliated voters are up for grabs. They prefer policy solutions over political conflict. They see both parties as out of touch and more focused on playing politics than leading for our future.
Sadly for consumers, Republican lawmakers dismiss energy innovation in favor of a state-sanctioned monopolistic system, while Democrats miscast it as a call to save the environment. Whichever side embraces energy innovation and competition most firmly will have a political edge in North Carolina’s general elections not just this fall, but for at least the next decade.
In North Carolina and America as a whole, any political issue that draws 60% or more public support is a winner. Poll after poll in our state shows that energy innovation is a grand-slam home run, up there with Mom and apple pie. In fact, North Carolina voters across all partisan lines overwhelmingly favor more competition and choice in energy providers.
Across the state, more than four in five voters say they would support lawmakers or candidates who want to change North Carolina’s regulatory policies to allow for more energy competition and consumer choice, according to a poll I conducted last year for the nonprofit organization Conservatives for Clean Energy North Carolina.
Support for more consumer choice and energy competition is consistent across political groupings, including 82% of Republican voters, 77% of Democratic voters, and 84% of unaffiliated voters, the 2023 North Carolina Energy Poll found.
Renewable energy from the sun and wind provides ever-expanding job opportunities across North Carolina, including in manufacturing and production, boosting areas of our state most desperate for economic development. And the more energy we generate at home, the less we depend on anti-American dictators who control oil abroad, bolstering our vital national security.
Here are some of the key findings from the poll:
- More than three in four voters (76.5%) think North Carolina should modernize its energy system by relying more on competition and customer choice, including 72% of Republicans. Fewer than one in eight voters think the current system works well.
- More than 80% of voters support legislation establishing a study to examine options for modernizing Duke Energy’s monopoly, favoring more competition and direct sales from other electricity producers to consumers, including 77% of Republicans.
- About 78% of voters support legislation that would authorize a study to find more ways to modernize North Carolina’s current system to make electricity more reliable and to provide consumers with more options in how they get their electricity.
- About 82% of voters favor modernizing North Carolina’s energy system in the wake of the state’s disastrous 2022 Christmas Eve blackouts that left hundreds of thousands of North Carolinians without power.
- About 85% of voters oppose letting Duke Energy own all-new clean energy generation if other private energy businesses, such as solar, wind, or battery companies, can provide those services at a cheaper cost, including 78% of Republicans.
These poll results are not close; they are conclusive. Few government policy options, such as energy competition and choice, command such enormous public support. And for Republicans and Democrats alike, attracting support from independent voters is the key to long-term success.
Independent voters
Unaffiliated voters, the fulcrum of North Carolina politics, are more highly educated, higher paid, and better-informed on average than the voters of either major party. They want smart choices that best fit them, their household, their budget, and their lifestyle – not mandates.
To gain their support, candidates on either side of the political aisle should talk about alternative energy’s benefits to the state and local economies, job growth, more energy choices for consumers, and technological innovation for better, more affordable lifestyles for all.
If you’re a candidate on the right and you want to build a bridge to unaffiliated voters, you should emphasize energy competition and free markets. If you’re a candidate on the left seeking independent support, focus your argument on energy economics, not saving the planet.
Technological change is accelerating, including energy. Furthermore, this change is only fueling the demand for more and more electricity. Embracing an antiquated energy-delivery model will only leave consumers and businesses in the dark.
The private sector and individual consumers should demand change. Will their elected representatives follow, lead, or get left behind?
Shumaker is a Republican consultant and co-owner of Raleigh-based Strategic Partners Solutions. He advised the successful campaign of U.S. Senators Thom Tillis.