Presidential hopefuls are increasing their visits to North Carolina — a battleground state that has been far from ignored already.
On Thursday, the day early voting got underway in the state, Democratic vice presidential nominee Tim Walz and former President Bill Clinton visited Durham, where they played up themes of health care, the economy and extremism — top issues for North Carolina voters and key talking points of Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris.
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Walz said Harris' plans will be less focused on aiding the wealthy than the plans proposed by her rival, Republican nominee Donald Trump.
“The economy works best when it's fair and it's focused on the middle class,” Walz said while promising that his administration would cut taxes, fight price gouging and push for low pharmaceutical costs. "That seems simple to most of us, but not these guys.”
About an hour later, a bus tour supporting Trump made a stop in Raleigh, where surrogates urged supporters to get to the polls.
"He's one of the best presidents we've ever had in our country," Abel Maldonado, the former California lieutenant governor, told a crowd at the Wake County Speedway. "... We are at a crossroads. We can either save our country or we're going to go the wrong way."
The events were among a dizzying array of campaign stops as the Nov. 5 election approaches. Harris and Trump are locked in a close race for the state’s 16 electoral votes — which are seen by political analysts as crucial to winning the White House. A Quinnipiac poll released Wednesday showed Harris with a two-point lead over Trump in the state. That’s within the 3.1-point margin of error. Trump had a two-point lead in an Oct. 1 poll.
Trump will head to Greenville for a rally Monday. Harris was in Raleigh and Greenville this past weekend.
Clinton and Walz will stay in North Carolina for four straight days. They’ll be in Wilmington and Fayetteville on Friday, then on Saturday they have events in Fayetteville, Wilson and Greenville. On Sunday they’ll be in Rocky Mount and then Raleigh, before heading out.
Hillary Clinton, the former U.S. Secretary of State and 2016 Democratic presidential nominee, also had an event planned in Durham Thursday night — a conversation at Durham Performing Arts Center moderated by author John Grisham, who has a home in Chapel Hill.
The Trump bus tour visited Rutherfordton, Gastonia, Archdale and Raleigh on Thursday. Friday will see stops in Jacksonville, Winterville and Goldsboro.
At each stop, surrogates from both parties made promises. They focused on the issues that are most important to their voters. The economy and healthcare for Democrats. The economy and immigration for Republicans. And, of course, they took the opportunity to hammer the other camp.
In Durham on Thursday, Bill Clinton touted Harris' plan to crack down on meat companies, grocery stores and others who have been accused of colluding with companies they should be competing with, to keep prices artificially high. Harris first announced that plan in a Raleigh visit earlier this year.
"The grocery business has been changing before our very eyes and getting more and more concentrated," he said. "And that's why Kamala Harris became the first presidential candidate ever to say we need a national price gouging law."
Walz said Harris' plans for the economy will be less focused on aiding the wealthy than the plans proposed by Trump. He promoted plans for down-payment assistance for prospective homeowners and “There are outsiders coming into communities, stealing jobs, and making it harder for people living there,” Walz said. “And their names are Donald Trump and JD Vance.”
In Raleigh, a long line of Trump surrogates from across the nation praised the former president and urged people to vote. The promised an “America-first” posturing, prioritizing domestic issues ahead of international relationships. And they reiterated Trump’s pledges to “drain the swamp,” while also tying Harris to Biden’s policies, saying she has been weak on immigration enforcement.
Michael Whatley, the chairman of the Republican National Committee, repeated Trump’s promises to increase border security, tame inflation, and trim government spending.
“Donald Trump has said he's going to, on Day One, end inflationary spending,” said Whatley, the former chairman of the North Carolina Republican Party. “He is going to unleash American energy and bring those prices down. Then he's going to give you tax cuts. … He is going to make sure you have more money in your pockets and your costs are going to be lower.”
“But we cannot win without North Carolina,” Whatley added. “And we cannot win without you.”
The two campaigns' heavy focus on eastern North Carolina towns such as Greenville, Goldsboro, Rocky Mount and Wilson also serves a second purpose: Motivating voters in the state’s only competitive U.S. House race, the 1st District, which stretches from the outskirts of the Triangle to the Outer Banks.
WRAL reported Wednesday that incumbent Democratic Rep. Don Davis has a financial advantage over Republican Laurie Buckhout heading into the final weeks of the election.
But the district — newly redrawn by GOP state lawmakers ahead of this year’s election — would've voted slightly to the right of the state as a whole in the 2022 midterms. It’s expected to be a tossup this year, and whoever wins could also help determine which party controls the U.S. House of Representatives starting in 2025.
Republicans currently hold the majority, but by just two seats. And there are only a few dozen competitive House seats in the nation, out of the 435 total seats.