North Carolina on our mind

>>> we're back now on this special post election day "daily rundown. "former george with w. bush political director is here. along with us former dnc communications director karen finney and buzz feed editor in chief ben smith . but before i get to you, i want to talk on the phone now with a new governor, governor-elect and former mayor of charlotte, north carolina 's first republican governor in 20 years. governor-elect mccrory, congratulations.

>> great to be on your show. it was a great night.

>> you're one of the few republicans celebrating this morning when it comes at least in a battleground state . what is different in north carolina that didn't happen for republicans in other swing states ? what made your race different? what made things different for mitt romney in the state of north carolina ?

>> i think the two unique things we did, first of all, we ran a positive campaign. for the tenth largest state in the united states , our campaign did not run one negative tv or radio ad against our opponent. every ad talked about what we wanted to do as governor, and i think that's quite rare not only in north carolina politics but national politics, and that message conveyed not only to republicans but to independents and to democrats and the second thing, i think i brought a mayor's attitude to the governor's race. having been mayor for 14 years and also having business experience, i kind of understood what was happening at the grassroots level both in business and in neighborhoods and communities throughout north carolina and they're struggling. we're going through a tough time in the state right now.

>> what was different for you this time than last time when you ran and you weren't able to win and this time you did? presidential year, same thing.

>> i think i had more time to build a relationship with the people of north carolina especially in the rural areas . it's tough being a big city mayor running.

>> a little trust issue for mayors in rural areas ?

>> very tough for big city mayors because the rest of the state -- i have parts of north carolina that are closer to washington, d.c., than they are to charlotte, north carolina . and i had to build a relationship during the last 6 to 12 months with those people and they saw what i did as mayor and realized maybe they could use the same type of leadership throughout the state. so i'm very, very proud of our campaign and hopefully that will tell political consultants across the country that you don't always have to go negative to win.

>> what is your advice for the national republican party ? there is some soul-searching going on this morning, some of it has to do with demographics, some has to do with tone, ideology. what's your advice?

>> i think most of it's tone. i didn't change my philosophy. i didn't change my vision and my strategy, but i made sure that we had a positive tone that was appealing not just to republicans but to democrats and independents and our sta ttistics show that. i mean, even in my own city romney lost by 100,000 votes but we won. and i think that sets forth the tone. if you communicate your values and your fill philosophy and your vision and your business philosophy in the right tone, i think that appeals to people across the board.

>> governor-elect pat mccrory , again, congratulations. thanks for coming on this morning and good luck.

>> thank you very much.

>> our panel is sticking with us. all right. sarah, the one loan bright spot there if you will, nationally, if you will. it was interesting the advice he was trying to give there.

>> and 30 governors, by the way.

>> easy to say when republicans were heavy favorites. he had the luxury of not having to run. what do you take away from last night?

>> well, the race was surprisingly similar to the 2004 race.

>> we kept saying, you are not always ready to jump on that.

>> if you look at it as a president basically went to the polls, got his job approval rating at the ballot box , the popular vote , won close battleground states . it would be interesting to see if the obama team misinterprets the size of their victory.

>> do you feel like you guys did?

>> i think if you look back at history we pushed social security and congress wasn't ready for that and wasn't going to do it. and had president bush gone after immigration, we may be sitting in a very different position as a party.

>> an interesting piece of advice there saying don't misinterpret it. we didn't have a mandate and yet we claimed the 303 electoral votes sort of is not the full story. i think it shows why campaigns matter. the strength of the obama campaign . that's why messina went to chicago in 2011 to start building this thing and the ground game mattered. and the romney campaign outsourced it to the rnc and chicago without a doubt had a better operation.

>> i got to sneak the break in and then you both get in first. i promise. plus you'll be here a bunch of times. don't worry.

>> we're fine.

>> we'll be right back with more of our supersized edition of "the daily rundown." we'll be right back. why is