The 10th is solid GOP country. The district is among the most rural in the nation. While the economy of the southern counties is based largely on textile and furniture manufacturing, many northern residents get by growing Christmas trees and apples and raising poultry and cattle.
Tourists visit the mountains near the Tennessee line and ski around Boone.
Some suburban sprawl has reached into the eastern and southern edges of the 10th, especially in the growing town of Hickory, the district's largest city. While this has added to the numbers of conservative voters, the district was already a Republican stronghold. Catawba County, which includes Hickory, is the district's most populous and votes solidly Republican. Yadkin and Avery are also conservative bastions. Ashe and Alleghany have pockets of Democratic votes but so few that they have little effect.