https://split-ticket.org/2023/05/08/a-generational-cliff/
Article looking at voter registration and party affiliation among the yutes (the whaaaaaaaat?!?!). If Democrats can roll out the youth vote (and interestingly they did in 2020, but didn't as much in 2022 midterms) then NC becomes very much in play. Honestly I am much more skeptical of youth turnout than you generally are. In NC specifically, the new head of the Democratic party is a 25 year old female from Person County who vows to target rural areas of the state. NC has the 2nd largest rural population in the US behind Texas and the Democratic party has largely left those areas in the last 2 decades. The margins are really low here and if she can somehow mobilize the youth vote and claw back some of the Republican vote counts in rural counties, then she is making a template that Democrats can and should use nationally. Especially given their huge advantage in youth party affiliation.