Taking The Political Temperature In North Carolina

Democrat Barack Obama won the state in 2008. Republican Mitt Romney beat him here in 2012. But that hasn't stopped the president from coming back. He was just here to announce a $70 million economic development project at North Carolina State University in the Research Triangle.

The state also has a conservative Republican governor, Pat McCrory, who sparked protests by signing what some see as a restrictive voting rights law last year. So there's a lot going on in this state that features beaches on the Atlantic Ocean on one side and the Blue Ridge and Smoky Mountains on the other.

Here & Now's Robin Young, broadcasting from the WUNC studio at the Museum of Natural Sciences in Raleigh, takes the political temperature of North Carolina with Laura Leslie, capitol bureau chief for WRAL-TV, the CBS affiliate in Raleigh.