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GASTONIA, N.C. (AP) — Donald Trump will rally supporters in North Carolina every day until Tuesday's election, a flurry of late activity in the only swing state that he won in both his 2016 and 2020 campaigns.
Even as Trump looks to expand the electoral map and project strength with trips to New Mexico and Virginia, two Democratic states not widely viewed as competitive, he is putting considerable time into North Carolina, which last backed a Democrat for president in 2008.
The former president's path to the 270 electoral votes needed to capture the presidency gets 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 campaigned in Gastonia, west of Charlotte, and Greensboro on Saturday, 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 events in North Carolina since Oct. 1 to nine. His running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, has been in the state six times during the same period, most recently on Friday.
Vice President Kamala Harris, Trump's Democratic rival, also was in North Carolina on Saturday for a concert and rally in Charlotte. Her campaign has not announced any other travel to the state before Election Day, though she's sending her husband, second gentleman Doug Emhoff, to Greenville on Monday.
The extensive damage from Hurricane Helene across western North Carolina has created a dose of uncertainty about the state of play here. Flooding destroyed homes and displaced residents in several counties, including the liberal city of Asheville and the conservative rural areas surrounding it.
Trump's team has said it is confident about his chances in North Carolina. Democrats see Trump's attention on the state as a signal of optimism for Harris.
“The repeat appearances may signal Trump’s campaign is in trouble,” said Democratic state Rep. Marcia Morey of Durham. “If Trump continues with his dangerous, violent rhetoric these last few days, it may backfire. A campaign of personal retribution does not win votes from people.”
Trump adviser Jason Miller said Trump's late-campaign travels are not a signal of alarm.
“I'm not worried about anything," Miller told reporters Friday. "We have a smart strategy that's going to get President Trump across 270, maybe even a couple of states that surprise you, that slide in there. But we’re going to follow our strategy. Our strategy comes from our data and our targeting.”
As he does at most of his events in North Carolina, Trump said in Gastonia that his daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, whom he installed as co-chair of the Republican National Committee, is from the state, and that Lara and Eric Trump named their daughter Carolina.
“It’s an amazing place. You’ve been through a lot,” Trump said, alluding to the hurricane before repeating a debunked claim that the Federal Emergency Management Agency prioritized people living in the country illegally over hurricane victims. “Your government has not helped you too much, I can tell you. Your government, FEMA, has let you down because they wanted to spend the money on illegal migrants instead.”
Later in Greensboro, only about half of the seats were filled in a massive 22,000-seat arena when Trump started speaking after 9 p.m. Trump spoke at another arena that’s part of the same complex just 11 days earlier, though Harris filled the larger venue when she spoke there recently.
Roughly half of North Carolina's 7.8 million registered voters had already voted as of Friday, buoyed by early in-person voting, which ended on Saturday afternoon.
North Carolina Republicans have been encouraged by early voter turnout among their supporters after national and state GOP leaders switched this year to a “bank your vote” strategy, rather than focusing on Election Day turnout.
Entering the final days of the campaign, over 50,000 more GOP registered voters than Democrats had voted early or by absentee ballot, even though there are over 100,000 more registered Democrats than Republicans statewide, according to state elections data. It is unclear whether the Republicans' early vote surge will result in a higher overall turnout for Trump supporters.
Independent voters now make up the largest group of registered voters in North Carolina. Trump lost ground with independents between 2016 and 2020.
Harris took the stage in Charlotte after rocker Jon Bon Jovi warmed up the crowd, sticking closely to the speech she's been delivering in her final tour of the battleground states.
Harris supporter Gwen Garnett, 66, said Trump barnstorming North Carolina is “just part of the process. It does not worry me at all.” She gave Harris’ candidacy a spiritual dimension.
“This is an anointed time for her to be in this role,” Garnett said. “I just believe it’s God’s timing.”
The state’s voters have shown a propensity to split their ticket 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 GOP's hopes to break that hold on Tuesday appeared to dwindle in recent weeks after the party’s nominee for governor, Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, received unwanted publicity from a CNN report that alleged he made explicit racial and sexual posts on a pornography website’s message board more than a decade ago.
While Robinson denied writing the messages and sued CNN for defamation last month, his campaign nearly imploded, raising fears that a large victory by Democrat Josh Stein, the state's attorney general, could harm GOP candidates in other races.
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Robertson reported from Raleigh and Charlotte, North Carolina. Associated Press writers Adriana Gomez Licon in Detroit and Jonathan J. Cooper in Phoenix contributed to this report.