There's a direction to American presidential elections. We spend months thinking about the big topics, democracy, the economy, immigration, wars abroad, culture wars at home.

But as the election gets closer, our focus starts to narrow.

We wonder less about what Americans are thinking

and more about what Pennsylvanians and Arizonans are thinking.

And then we start to wonder about what people in Allegheny County or Maricopa County are thinking.

And the tighter the polls are are the further down we go and it is

tight right now it's close over about half a dozen swing states but the closest of all of them and one that has a very good

chance of being what pollsters call the tipping point, meaning the state

that could decide the election, is North Carolina.

And this will give you an understanding of just how close the presidential race is in the

great state of North Carolina in the Tar Hill state.

Look at this, it's Trump, but by less than a point, we're talking like 0.2 percentage points. It's

basically a tie.

Donald Trump almost certainly can't win the White House without North Carolina.

And if Vice President Harris loses Wisconsin, Michigan, or Pennsylvania, she'll almost certainly

need this state.

I'm Hannah Rosen, this is Radio Atlantic, and today we're talking about North Carolina.

We're not used to this state deciding presidential elections.

With the exception of Obama's 2008 run, Democratic candidates haven't won there since the 1970s.

The idea that North Carolina could be the tipping point is a new feeling,

and I think that may be a little bit of an omen for the future.

That's staff writer David Graham. He writes about politics and he lives in Durham,

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