Trump meets in Gastonia, Greensboro, ahead of Election Day

Donald Trump will rally supporters in North Carolina every day until Tuesday’s election, a flurry of late activity in the only swing state he won in both his 2016 and 2020 campaigns.

Even as Trump looks to expand the electoral map and expand the power of his projects with trips to New Mexico and Virginia, two Democratic states not widely seen as competitive, he is spending a lot of time on North Carolina, which last won a contest in 2008. Democrat endorsed for president.

The former president’s path to the 270 electoral votes needed to win the presidency will become significantly more complicated if he loses North Carolina. The fast-growing southern state gave Trump his smallest margin of victory – 1.3 percentage points – over Democrat Joe Biden four years ago.

Trump will campaign Saturday in Gastonia, west of Charlotte, and Greensboro, with a stop in Salem, Virginia, in between. He will be in the eastern city of Kinston on Sunday and in Raleigh on Monday. Those four rallies will bring his total number of events in North Carolina since Oct. 1 to nine. His running mate, Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, has been to the state six times in the same period, most recently on Friday.

Vice President Kamala Harris, Trump’s Democratic rival, will also be in North Carolina on Saturday for a concert and rally in Charlotte. Her campaign has not announced any other trips to the state before Election Day.

The extensive damage caused by Hurricane Helene in western North Carolina has created a dose of uncertainty about the state of affairs here. Floods destroyed homes and displaced people in several counties, including the liberal city of Asheville and the conservative rural areas surrounding it.

Trump’s team has said it is confident in its chances in North Carolina. Democrats see Trump’s attention to the state as a signal of optimism for Harris.

“The repeated appearances may indicate that Trump’s campaign is in trouble,” said Democratic state Rep. Marcia Morey of Durham. “If Trump continues his dangerous, violent rhetoric in recent days, it could backfire. A campaign of personal retaliation does not win people’s votes.”

Trump adviser Jason Miller said Trump’s late campaign trips are not a red flag.

“I’m not worried about anything,” Miller told reporters on Friday. “We have a smart strategy that will get President Trump through 270 states, maybe even a few states that surprise you, that will slip in there. But we are going to follow our strategy. Our strategy comes from our data and our purpose. “

Trump, in a ‘Fox & Friends’ interview Saturday morning was asked about his message to women after businessman Mark Cuban suggested that the former president does not surround himself with strong and intelligent women.

Trump said he is defended by “women who make men look like babies” and that he has “given women opportunities too.” He cited Kellyanne Conway, who managed his 2016 campaign, and Susie Wiles, his current campaign manager.

He also said he was “so disappointed” by Julia Roberts, who provided the voiceover for an ad about women hiding their voices from their husbands. He predicted she would look back at it and cringe. ‘Can you imagine a woman not telling her husband who she is voting for? Do you ever hear anything like that?’ he asked.

About half of North Carolina’s 7.8 million registered voters had already voted Friday, buoyed by early in-person voting, which ends Saturday afternoon.

North Carolina Republicans are encouraged by early turnout among their supporters after national and state GOP leaders shifted to a “bank your vote” strategy this year rather than focusing on Election Day turnout.

As the campaign begins its final days, more than 50,000 more Republican registered voters than Democrats had voted early or absentee, even though there are more than 100,000 registered Democrats statewide than Republicans, according to state election data. It is unclear whether Republicans’ early turnout will result in higher overall turnout for Trump supporters.

Independent voters now make up the largest group of registered voters in North Carolina. Trump lost ground to independents between 2016 and 2020.

The state’s voters have shown a tendency to divide their fortunes over the years. That’s why, while Republicans have controlled the state legislature since 2011, Democrats have held the governor’s mansion for all but four years since 1993.

The Republican Party’s hopes of breaking that hold Tuesday appeared to have diminished in recent weeks after the party’s candidate for governor, Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, received unwanted publicity from a CNN report alleging that he made explicit racist and had placed sexual messages in the message of a pornographic website. on board more than ten years ago.

While Robinson denied writing the posts and sued CNN for defamation last month, his campaign nearly imploded, raising fears that a major victory by Democrat Josh Stein, the state’s attorney general, could undermine GOP candidates in other races can damage.

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Associated Press writers Adriana Gomez Licon in Detroit and Jonathan J. Cooper in Phoenix contributed to this report.