These countrypolitan counties are the outlying counties across North Carolina that are in the same Metropolitan Statistical Areas as counties with larger cities. According to the federal Office of Management and Budget, these counties are deemed as metropolitan areas due to their economic ties with their neighboring big-city counties, but tend to “retain significant rural and/or small-town legacies,” McCorkle and Salzberg’s articles. According to McCorkle and Salzberg’s articles, the key to Democratic success in North Carolina statewide elections is to “lose less” in the more strongly red countrypolitan counties.