“Gaston County is made up of cities and towns filled with modest homes and businesses. Most of its roughly 200,000 residents are white, and more than half of people aged 25 and over have attended at least some college.

In 2012, Mitt Romney won the suburban county easily, 62 percent to President Obama’s 37 percent, the same margin that John McCain beat Obama by in 2008.

But this year, according to data gathered from August to early October by the polling firm Morning Consult, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton have been running neck and neck in Gaston County, with each supported by about 40 percent of voters.”