akashic
1876–2024
Hickory-Lenoir-Morganton, NC·North Carolina

Hickory-Lenoir-Morganton, NC peaked at D+39; 2024 delivered R+44.

Foothills furniture belt where manufacturing identity shapes the electorate

1876 — 2024·38 elections
NC
Latest
R+44
in 2024
Archetype
Populist
since the recent cycles
Population
368,316
2024 ACS

Hickory-Lenoir-Morganton, NC, North Carolina: Populist metro. In 2024, voted R+44%. Republican peak: R+45 in 1972.

Key facts

2024 presidential margin
R+44MIT Election Lab
Political archetype
PopulistAkashic typology
Population
368,3162024 5-year
Median household income
$62,9042024 5-year
White (non-Hispanic)
79.8%2024 5-year
Black
6.4%2024 5-year
Hispanic / Latino
9.2%2024 5-year
Peak Democratic margin
D+39 in 1912MIT Election Lab
Peak Republican margin
R+45 in 1972MIT Election Lab
2024 results by constituent county
4 counties · 0 D · 4 R
R+60
D+60
One cell per constituent county. Ordered by 2024 D-vs-R margin (bluest first). Hover for county-level numbers.
38 presidential elections
Source · MIT Election Lab · ICPSR · VEST (precinct-level 2024).
YearWonMarginDemocraticRepublicanTotal
R
−44.2%
54,047141,120197,173
R
−43.1%
53,197135,614191,092
R
−42.5%
44,659115,076165,862
R
−31.0%
53,279102,287158,073
R
−26.1%
57,80599,411159,303
R
−33.3%
45,20390,638136,398
D
+31.7%
79,28940,924121,106
R
−19.1%
39,28460,152109,306
R
−13.0%
42,78158,170118,733
R
−31.0%
35,78067,949103,882
R
−39.3%
32,94575,768108,929
R
−16.9%
38,83755,17096,714
D
+5.4%
48,29743,29991,980
R
−45.1%
21,29557,39480,002
R
−29.8%
19,25844,27384,006
D
+4.2%
43,19739,69082,887
R
−13.8%
36,18447,78883,972
R
−22.3%
28,99445,66974,663
R
−16.0%
29,48440,68470,168
R
−2.0%
22,16023,14649,033
D
+9.4%
24,64220,40245,044
D
+27.2%
27,54815,76743,315
D
+23.3%
28,54217,76546,307
D
+16.3%
22,74416,34239,284
R
−24.5%
11,81019,47631,286
D
+4.7%
15,53014,12829,871
R
−6.3%
13,64215,46829,110
R
−0.5%
6,8696,94413,827
D
+39.0%
5,9541,25612,048
R
−7.0%
5,3806,18711,604
R
−1.6%
4,5164,6669,500
R
−0.0%
4,8864,88710,007
D
+25.5%
6,7463,97610,857
D
+21.1%
4,8842,8379,684
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Demographics

Race, ethnicity, and ancestry
Click any group to see the ancestries typically reported within it.
American
15.1%
German
13.7%
English
13.4%
Irish
9.2%
Scottish
2.6%
Italian
2.0%
French
0.9%
Source · American Community Survey 5-year estimates, 2024 release. Hispanic/Latino is an ethnicity that overlaps the race categories, so these shares can total more than 100%. Ancestry is a self-reported, multiple-response item; ancestry percentages do not sum to the parent race percentage.
Age distribution by sex
Median age: 43.7 in this county, 39.1 nationally
Male
Age
Female
0.7%
85+
1.3%
2.8%
75–84
3.6%
5.6%
65–74
6.2%
7.3%
55–64
7.3%
6.7%
45–54
6.7%
5.8%
35–44
5.7%
6.1%
25–34
6.0%
4.2%
18–24
3.7%
7.8%
5–17
7.5%
2.7%
<5
2.4%
Source · American Community Survey 5-year estimates, 2024 release.
Median household income
2024 inflation-adjusted dollars
$62,904
Hickory-Lenoir-Morganton, NC ranks near the middle of US counties.
Hickory-Lenoir-Morganton, NC$62,904
North Carolina$72,388
United States$80,734
Source · American Community Survey 5-year estimates, 2024 release.
Poverty rate
All persons below federal poverty line
13.5%
Children face moderate poverty.
Children under 1820.6%
Working age (18–64)11.9%
Seniors (65+)10.9%
Source · American Community Survey 5-year estimates, 2024 release.
Language at home
Population aged 5 and older
90.3%
speak English only
Spanish6.7%
Asian & Pacific Islander2.1%
Other Indo-European0.8%
Other languages0.1%
Source · ACS 5-year estimates, 2024.
Religious adherents
Adherents per capita by tradition
Baptist
27.9%
Methodist
8.8%
Other Christian
7.6%
Mainline Protestant
6.8%
Catholic & Orthodox
6.5%
Pentecostal & Holiness
2.3%
Non-Christian
0.1%
Source · 2020 US Religion Census. Remaining 40.0% of residents not counted as adherents by any reporting body.

Anchored by Catawba County's long Republican lean, this Piedmont foothills metro blends legacy furniture and fiber industries with a growing Latino workforce — a demographic shift that has slowly narrowed margins in local races without flipping the region's overall orientation.

The Democratic margin in Hickory-Lenoir-Morganton, NC peaked at thirty-nine points in 1912. By 2004 the metro had flipped, voting Republican for the first time in many years. The 2024 margin was forty-four points, the most Republican-leaning result in the metro's modern history.

The economic context is the key. The median household income of $62,904 sits well below state and national norms, and 14% of residents live below the federal poverty line. The shift here is part of a broader realignment of working-class places across the country.

Cite this page
All citations released under CC BY 4.0. Attribution: Akashic Intelligence.
Hickory-Lenoir-Morganton, NC, North Carolina — The Long Memory. Akashic Intelligence — The Long Memory. https://tiers.akashic.app/cbsa/25860/. Accessed May 20, 2026. License: CC BY 4.0.
License: CC BY 4.0

Frequently asked questions

How did Hickory-Lenoir-Morganton, NC, North Carolina vote in 2024?
In 2024, Hickory-Lenoir-Morganton, NC, North Carolina voted Republican by 44.2 points (R+44), carried by the Republican candidate. Out of 197,173 votes cast, 54,047 went Democratic and 141,120 went Republican.
What is Hickory-Lenoir-Morganton, NC, North Carolina's political archetype?
Akashic classifies Hickory-Lenoir-Morganton, NC, North Carolina as a "Populist" metro based on its long-arc presidential voting pattern. Across 38 elections in the dataset, the metro has voted Democratic 11 times, Republican 23 times, and other 0 times.
When did Hickory-Lenoir-Morganton, NC, North Carolina last vote Democratic?
The most recent presidential election in which Hickory-Lenoir-Morganton, NC, North Carolina voted Democratic was 2000.
How many people live in Hickory-Lenoir-Morganton, NC, North Carolina?
Hickory-Lenoir-Morganton, NC, North Carolina has a population of 368,316 according to the 2024 American Community Survey 5-year estimates from the US Census Bureau.
What is the median household income in Hickory-Lenoir-Morganton, NC, North Carolina?
Median household income in Hickory-Lenoir-Morganton, NC, North Carolina is $62,904 — below the national median of $80,734. The North Carolina state median is $72,388.
What is the political history of Hickory-Lenoir-Morganton, NC, North Carolina?
Akashic tracks 38 presidential elections in Hickory-Lenoir-Morganton, NC, North Carolina from 1876 to 2024. Of those, 11 went Democratic and 23 went Republican. The metro's archetype — "Populist" — captures the overall trajectory of that voting record.