With indictment hanging over Trump, NC GOP convention kicks off
The 2024 Republican presidential primary election is starting in earnest Friday, right here in North Carolina. And all eyes will be on former President Donald Trump, who is expected to give remarks just days after announcing Thursday that he was indicted for mishandling classified documents.
Trump announced his reelection campaign last year. Ron DeSantis announced his intention to run last month. Mike Pence announced on Wednesday. But none have had the chance — until now — to speak at the same event, making their pitches to voters and letting the nation size them up side by side.
That’s what the North Carolina GOP’s annual convention in Greensboro aims to offer this weekend, as the three candidates vie for their party’s nomination to take on Democratic President Joe Biden in 2024. Biden was also in the state Friday, touting job training programs, his clean energy plans and initiatives for military spouses.
Hundreds of conservative politicians, voters and political insiders packed the Koury Convention Center in Greensboro, holding 2024 strategy meetings throughout the day and awaiting speeches by three of the leading Republican candidates for president — speeches that will start Friday night and continue through Saturday.
“North Carolina has become a must-win state in presidential politics and it's easy to see why,” state GOP spokesman Jeff Moore said. “Our voters serve as a microcosm for weighing the issues Americans care most about, from the economy, to education and everything in between.”
A potential wrinkle in the convention plans came when Trump was indicted for multiple alleged federal crimes related to his handling of classified documents — news Trump himself confirmed Thursday night, followed by the charges becoming public Friday.
Political observers will be keeping a close eye on Trump's next move. Trump might want the opportunity, less than 48 hours after he first announced the indictment, to speak about the charges before a large crowd of his own supporters — exactly what the convention will offer him. But lawyers often advise clients facing charges to avoid saying anything about the case publicly.
Moore said Thursday night that there had been no change in plans and Trump was still scheduled to speak Saturday.
Trump, Pence to speak
Many top Republican politicians are in Greensboro for the convention, seeking the opportunity to meet with some of the party’s most passionate voters.
The presidential candidates aren’t the only ones making a pitch for the primaries coming up in March. Several other races in North Carolina are expected to have competitive GOP primaries, particularly the races for governor and lieutenant governor, and would-be competitors see the convention as their way to connect with county-level party leaders and other people who are influential in communities across the state.
DeSantis will cap off Friday’s activities with a 6:30 p.m. speech, followed by speeches on Saturday from Pence at 12:30 p.m. and Trump at 6:30 p.m.
DeSantis, the Florida governor known for his anti-LGBTQ war of words against the Walt Disney Co. and his attempts to overhaul public education in the nation’s third-biggest state, kicks things off Friday night with a speech capping off a day of closed-door meetings for party members to brainstorm on 2024 strategy with state and national leaders.
DeSantis’ address Friday comes on the same day Democratic President Joe Biden also visited the state, speaking in Rocky Mount and then Fayetteville at the newly renamed Fort Liberty.
It's a sign that North Carolina will be a key battleground state throughout 2024, not just in the Republican primary. In 2020 North Carolina voters favored Trump over Biden by a thin margin, of just over 1% of the 5.5 million of votes cast.
The flurry of activity is scheduled to continue Saturday, with more closed-door meetings punctuated by public speeches by Pence and Trump.
Pence, who was a conservative talk radio host and U.S. Senator from Indiana before becoming Trump’s vice president, is particularly popular in evangelical Christian circles. He's scheduled to speak at 12:30 p.m. Saturday.
The Saturday night spot, about 6:30 p.m., is reserved for Trump. He may have lost the 2020 election to Biden, one of few U.S. presidents to ever lose reelection, but polls show GOP voters tend to favor giving him another chance in 2024.
Trump’s claims about the 2020 election having been stolen from him, though false, have helped him maintain a devoted following in conservative circles. And while it’s still unclear whether the dozens of new criminal charges against Trump might hurt his chances — or if it could actually increase his supporters’ enthusiasm — one thing is certain: Even a conviction wouldn’t ban him from running for president.
A felony record, while it typically stops people from being able to vote, does not stop people from being able to run for president. Socialist leader Eugene V. Debs famously ran for president from behind bars in 1920. And even as recently as 2012, a prisoner nearly won one state’s presidential primary: Then-President Barack Obama barely won the Democratic Party primary in West Virginia that year, as a Texas inmate named Keith Judd, who had managed to get on the ballot, won 41% of the vote.
Democrats eye North Carolina
Heading into the convention — before the news of the indictments broke — Trump enjoyed strong support.
An aggregation of national polling by the website FiveThirtyEight shows nearly 54% of GOP voters want Trump to be the party’s nominee again, followed by DeSantis at 21%, Pence at 5% and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley at 4%.
Once party primaries are decided early next year, the two nominees will likely turn their attention to the half-dozen or so battleground states that have the power to decide presidential elections: North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Wisconsin, Michigan, Arizona and possibly a few others.
North Carolina, the nation’s ninth-biggest state, has 16 votes in the electoral college. And it’s a tricky state to figure out for candidates. Registered Democrats outnumber registered Republicans. Trump won the state in 2016 and 2020, while at the same time voters picked a Democrat to be governor.
Trump’s wins came with about 49% of the vote. Republicans will be looking to improve on those numbers in 2024, while Democrats hope they can keep up their momentum — Biden cut Trump’s winning margin here in half in 2020, compared to 2016 — and flip the state blue for just the second time since 1972.
During a conference call with reporters Friday, Anderson Clayton, the chairwoman of the North Carolina Democratic Party, played up Biden’s record while criticizing those of DeSantis, Pence and Trump, calling them extreme. She said a win for Republicans would be a defeat for LGBTQ people and she warned that it would lead to increased abortion restrictions.
“No matter who comes out on top of the GOP primary, any one of them would be a disaster for North Carolinians and a disaster for this country,” Clayton said. “And we're going to do everything in our power to organize against Republican extremism across all 100 counties in North Carolina.”
She said Biden’s visit to the state Friday enabled him to underscore Democrats’ efforts to help working families and to prevent cuts to veterans benefits, Social Security and Medicare.
“This contrast couldn't be more clear,” she said, “and the stakes couldn't be higher right now.”
