GREENSBORO, NC – Riding a new wave of momentum after his debate performance, Vice President Kamala Harris He’s ramping up his campaign Thursday with two rallies in North Carolina as he tries to win back a key battleground state and shut down one of the former presidents. Donald TrumpThe main paths to victory.
Both campaigns see the state play a key role in November. Trump narrowly won in 2020, and no Democrat has won a presidential race here since Barack Obama in 2008. Democratic Attorney General Josh Stein and Republican Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson are in a tight race for governor.
“Voters in North Carolina are building a strong coalition to elect Vice President Harris and defeat allies like Donald Trump and Mark Robinson, who are pushing the extreme Project 2025 agenda to erode our freedoms, raise costs for our families, and repeal Medicaid. We fought hard to deliver the expansion.” said Dori McMillan, North Carolina communications director for the Harris campaign. “It’s going to be a close race — but we’ve built a campaign ready to win close races and reach voters across the political spectrum in our urban and rural areas.”
according to Survey at Quinnipiac University This week, Harris leads Trump 49% to 46% in North Carolina, within the poll’s margin of error. It’s still a pretty tight race, but it’s an improvement for Democrats from where President Joe Biden left off in the spring. A Survey at Quinnipiac University In April, Trump found Biden leading 48% to 46%, again within the margin of error.
A Harris campaign official said his team is embarking on a new, more aggressive phase, with staff watching video from this week’s debate all day Wednesday, choosing moments to move into new TV and digital ads.
For months, Biden’s team insisted North Carolina was within reach, but Biden struggled to overtake Trump in part because he failed to galvanize younger voters. Now, the Harris campaign says there is an unprecedented rush of volunteers, especially young people, across the state.
Since Harris became the presumptive nominee, another campaign official said, more than 20,000 new volunteers have signed up. About 2,000 North Carolinians signed up to volunteer during Tuesday night’s debate, the official said, with almost a quarter of those students participating in campus festivities.
“Younger voters are not traditionally engaged in politics at the same level as older voters,” said Wake Forest University political science professor John Dinan. “The challenge is: How do you attract them?”
It’s not clear how much of a push it was Taylor Swift endorsement will provide this week.
“It’s definitely going to help the Harris campaign,” Dinan said, though how much Swift will move the needle is an open question.
A little over 12 hours after Swift confirmed on Instagram, More than 337,000 people visited a custom URL in his post that directed people to a government site that helps voter registration, according to the General Services Administration, which oversees the website. State-specific data was not available.
Anderson Clayton, the youngest chairman of the state Democratic Party, said Democrats have registered more than 2,500 students at Appalachian State University this year and 200 students at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill on Tuesday alone.
“Young people are not monolithic voters,” Clayton, who was elected state chairman at age 25, said on MSNBC Wednesday. “We care about the issues that every person on the ballot cares about.”
Health care has been a big issue for the Harris campaign, especially in North Carolina. Biden and Harris in March they campaigned together here, promoting the state’s Medicaid expansion. Harris also promised to eliminate medical debt for millions and political experts say A program in North Carolina could offer a road map for the federal government.
Other demographic considerations may make a difference here. 1 in 5 North Carolina residents are black, and the number of Latino voters is growing. Both are key constituencies for Democrats. A Harris campaign official said 26 field offices have opened across the state in the past month, including six more in rural communities.
Meanwhile, the Trump campaign is ramping up its efforts to sue voters. State GOP spokesman Matt Mercer argued that Republicans have been signing up Democrats for years for better policies. He accused Democrats of holding back and questioned how much work was being done in their new field offices.
“The Republican leadership in North Carolina is being tested and has proven to have a superior ground game,” he said. “Not abandoned in 2020 like the Democrats.”