To be fair, North Carolina is a local Blue state. We like our state house and senate to be democrats. Our governors? We like them to be democrats too. Locally we bleed a fair shade of blue.
So to say that Bev Purdue won the office in 2008 isn’t a completely accurate picture. It helped her, sure, but it’s hard to say that was the only factor.
What is true is that she is a wildly unpopular governor.