Good Wednesday morning. I'm Anna Palmer and welcome to your Politico Playbook. Audio briefing. Stay tuned after the show for a message from Business Roundtable.

And I'm Jake Sherman in Charlotte, millions of Republican dollars in a Donald Trump and Mike Pence visit later.

Republicans found a way to hold on to a deep red house seat here in North Carolina.

Dan Bishop, a Republican state senator, beat Dan McCready, a Democrat

who had never before held elective office by 2.08 percentage points or less than 4,000 votes.

This district was once familiar and comfortable territory for the GOP in an afterthought

electorally. Republicans dominated almost everywhere from the well-heeled Mercedes-Line Leafy Charlotte streets

to rural farm counties. In other words, this is the kind of district that was built for Republicans.

But in the Trump era, it has morphed into a battleground. The wealthy suburbs of Charlotte,

Melkenberg County, turned sharply away from Trump and the GOP and toward Democrats.

And the excerpts in rural parts of the district

have become more and more red, mirroring the reshaping of the Republican electorate writ large.

There is a lot to say about Republicans having to fight out a district that was literally drawn for

them to win. But a win is a win. Perhaps most notably the NRCC and CLF, which were at war with each other last

cycle, were able to spend money in a complimentary fashion. They were able to erase a 12-point

McCready lead. But there are some lessons learned here for the GOP and for Democrats. If you hadn't

realized the Republican Party is becoming more and more of a rural party anchored

far away from the well-educated and middle to upper-class city suburbs. The 2010 to 2018 House

GOP coalition is a shadow of what it once was. The party barely has any suburban seats left, having

lost them in Dallas, Houston, Orange County, and New York. Democrats would like you to focus on the

fact that they shouldn't have been competing here and keeping close a victory in and of itself. Participation trophies are lame.

Political parties and candidates fight to win. Democrats didn't raise and spend millions of dollars

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