Trump, Haley make final push in NC on last day of early voting for primary election
The two remaining rivals in the Republican presidential primary made their final push in North Carolina Saturday as they look to sway Tar Heel State voters ahead of Super Tuesday elections.
Former President Donald Trump, who is seeking a second term after losing to President Joe Biden in 2020, delivered a nearly 90-minute speech at the Greensboro Coliseum. He’s hoping to build on the support of voters who narrowly delivered him North Carolina in 2020.
Thousands of supporters came out to support him, ranging from retirees to college students who said they'll vote for this first time this year. Trump's campaign played a video honoring what it called the "Jan. 6 hostages" to loud cheers from the audience, a reference to Trump supporters jailed for storming the U.S. Capitol in 2021 after Trump lost the 2020 election.
Less than two hours earlier former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley addressed supporters at Union Station in Raleigh. The former South Carolina governor isn’t expected to win the primary, but her performance in Tuesday’s election could be an indicator of Trump’s support among moderate voters in the state. Approximately 500 supporters came out to back her on Saturday.
Trump has focused heavily on immigration in all three of his presidential campaigns and kicked off his speech Saturday promising to shut down the country's southern border on his first day in office.
"Our border is an open and gushing wound," he said.
But Trump also recently pressured Republicans in Congress to kill a bipartisan bill with funding for border security as well as foreign aid to Ukraine and Israel — something Haley slammed him for in her own speech, accusing Trump of cynically harming border security so that he could continue campaigning on border security issues.
On Saturday, on a stage flanked with rows of American Flags, Haley also blamed Trump for high inflation and the state of the nation's finances, highlighting the $34 trillion national debt. Haley, a former chief financial officer, said that her accounting background is what the nation needs now.
"Right now, the people of North Carolina have a decision to make: Do you want more of the same, or do you want to go in a new direction?" she said to spurts of cheers and applause. "... Now is the time we need a new generational leader that can put in eight years day and night, fixing the things we need fix with no negativity, no drama, no vendettas, just real results for the American people."
The visits are the latest by high-profile candidates, illustrating the importance of this closely contested state, where unaffiliated voters make up the largest bloc, followed by Democrats and Republicans, respectively. Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris was in Durham on Friday, announcing $32 million in new funding for small businesses run by minorities and women.
Trump's trials don't bother his voters
Trump won North Carolina by 4.5% of the vote in 2016 but just 1.5% in 2020. In an interview at the rally Saturday, U.S. Sen. Ted Budd, R-NC, told WRAL that he's not worried about the state continuing that trend and flipping blue this November.
"There's a tremendous amount of buyer's remorse when it comes to Joe Biden," Budd said. "You've got folks that aren't typically political, that are very supportive. They may have been reluctant in 2020, and now they're coming around and they're going to support us in 2024."
Clouding Trump's reelection bid are numerous legal issues, including four different criminal trials that are still ongoing — and a number of other civil lawsuits, some of which he recently lost. Others are unresolved, including the attempt in multiple states to use the 14th Amendment's ban on insurrectionists holding federal office to keep Trump off the ballot entirely.
Trump was recently found liable for sexually assaulting a New York City advice columnist in 1996 and then defaming her in his attempts to deny that fact. In January a jury ordered him to pay her $83 million. He was also ordered, last month, to pay $355 million in a business fraud case in New York.
And Trump faces 91 felony charges in a variety of criminal cases including:
- Efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election and wrongfully remain in power.
- Hush money payments to porn stars that allegedly violated campaign finance laws.
- Allegations that he stole classified documents after losing the 2020 election and tried destroying evidence to cover it up.
Budd said none of Trump's legal issues bother him. "I think they're baseless," he said.
Many in the crowd agreed, with chants of "Trump's not guilty" breaking out sporadically. Greensboro resident Jacob Culbreth, who lined up hours ahead of time to get into the rally, said he won't trust any legal losses Trump suffers in court:
"If he is convicted, it's not going to be just," he said. "I think it's ridiculous."
Trump told the crowd to believe the same thing during his speech: "Every one of these 91 counts, they're not 91 counts. They're not legit. They're Biden counts."
Super Tuesday
Saturday is the final day of early voting before Election Day on Tuesday — when North Carolina will be among 15 states holding their primaries, a date known as Super Tuesday due to the large number of delegates up for grabs in the presidential race.
GOP firebrands including Florida U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz, Colorado U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert and North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson were in the audience Saturday.
Both Republicans and Democrats have primaries for governor and other state races. Trump endorsed Robinson to win the GOP primary for governor on Tuesday, although he misfired on the details of Robinson's rise to fame for a viral video that showed his powerful oratory skills: "I guess he was complaining about taxes," Trump said. Robinson's viral video was about gun rights.
Trump called Robinson, who is Black, a speaker who reminds him of "Martin Luther King Jr. on steroids."
For the presidential race there’s no competition on the Democratic side of the aisle, where the North Carolina Democratic Party only allowed a single candidate to run in the state’s primary: President Joe Biden. Nonetheless, he’ll appear on North Carolina primary ballots next to an option for “no preference.” The no-preference tallies could be an indicator of voters’ enthusiasm for Biden, whose approval ratings have taken a hit over the economy and the handling of international affairs.
The Republican primary is only slightly less predetermined than the Democratic one.
Trump remains highly popular among North Carolina conservatives and is expected to cruise to victory over Haley, despite her Southern roots. Trump recently defeated Haley in her home state of South Carolina with 60% of the vote.
A late January Meredith College poll found Trump leading Haley 76% to 19% among North Carolina Republican voters. A mid-February East Carolina University poll found an almost identical 72% to 20% Trump advantage. On Friday, a High Point University poll showed Trump leading 69% to 24%.
Doug Heye, a longtime local GOP consultant at the Haley event, said that even if Haley isn't polling in the lead her numbers among Republicans do show there's a sizeable chunk of conservative voters who want to move on from Trump and think Haley is the better candidate to beat Biden.
"She's demonstrating there's a hunger out there for a lot of Republicans, not just to get back to normal — but to win," Heye said.
When Republican voters go to the polls they’ll see seven names on the ballot, but Trump and Haley are the only candidates still actively campaigning. The rest have since dropped out, with several endorsing Trump.
Haley’s Republican support in the South Carolina primary came largely from college-educated GOP voters, many of whom oppose Trump, the Associated Press reported. But that voting bloc is relatively small. Haley has also lost to Trump in the Iowa, Nevada and New Hampshire primaries.
At Haley's event in Raleigh Saturday, many in attendance were wearing black t-shirts that said “Barred. Permanently,” a reference to a threat by Trump on Truth Social that anyone who financially supports Haley would be excluded from his political movement. Haley purveyed the threat into a fundraising ploy, giving the T-shirts to donors.
Cecily Christian was one of them. “I was really excited about it," Christian told WRAL News. "I thought it was hilarious. I don't mind being barred.”
“I'm really just sick of the whole Trump/Biden thing,” Christian said, adding that she voted for Biden in 2020 and for Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton in 2016 but would vote Republican this year if the nominee wasn't Trump.
“What we need right now for this country is someone like Nikki Haley,” Christian said. “I think she's less divisive. I think she's someone a lot of people can stand behind on both sides of the aisle."
On Saturday, U.S. Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-NC, was the first speaker at Trump's Greensboro rally. She slammed Haley as a neo-conservative and backed Trump as a social conservative. "Now they're calling us Christian Nationalists," Foxx said, urging critics to call her whatever they want as long as they also call her a Trump supporter.
Despite her string of losses in early primaries, Haley has remained in the race. There are multiple issues that could force Trump out of the race, notably the multiple criminal trials and the 14th amendment insurrectionist challenges. The U.S. Supreme Court is currently weighing those constitutional arguments.
Looking ahead to November
Michael Whatley, the North Carolina Republican Party chairman who Trump is now backing to take over the national GOP, told WRAL in January that Democrats can lose North Carolina and still win the White House. But the same is not true, he said, for Republicans — no matter who the party ends up nominating to take on Biden this fall.
“A Republican will have to win North Carolina to win the White House,” Whatley said in that January interview, a sentiment he echoed in a speech Saturday. “There’s just no path to 270 electoral votes without North Carolina.”
Trump praised Whatley on Saturday for his work leading the NCGOP; North Carolina was the only major swing state Trump won in 2020.
The recent Meredith and ECU polls indicated that the general election in November is still too close to call for North Carolina, which once again figures to be a key swing state.
When asked about a potential 2024 rematch between Biden and Trump, a large number of voters in each poll said they’re still undecided — or dislike both options.
The ECU poll showed 47% of North Carolina voters siding with Trump, 44% siding with Biden and another 10% saying they’re undecided or would vote for a third-party candidate. The Meredith poll showed 44% of voters siding with Trump, 39% siding with Biden and 16% saying they’re undecided or would vote for a third-party candidate.
Trump won North Carolina in 2016 and 2020, but each time with less than 50% of the vote due to third-party candidates.
Despite North Carolina's status as a close swing state, however, it usually leans conservative. In the past 50 years, North Carolina has only voted for a Democratic presidential candidate twice: Jimmy Carter in 1976 and Barack Obama in 2008.
