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Kamala Harris Makes Push In North Carolina, The Only Swing State Biden Lost

RALEIGH, N.C. — Vice President Kamala Harris kicked off a final sprint of campaigning in swing states ahead of next week’s election by urging North Carolina supporters on Wednesday to take advantage of the final days of early voting.

“Early voting, as Jennifer said, has started here in Wake County,” she said, referring to Jennifer Bell, the former Trump voter who is now backing her and who introduced her at the event. “You can vote early now through Saturday, Nov. 2, and we need you to vote early, North Carolina.”

Harris spoke to a boisterous crowd of about 8,000 gathered at an open-air amphitheater a few miles outside downtown Raleigh. She ran through a slimmer version of the closing message she introduced Tuesday night in Washington, D.C., centered on the idea that while her Republican opponent, former President Donald Trump, would spend his time nurturing his many grievances, she would spend her time working for voters.

“There are many big differences between he and I, but I would say a major contrast is this,” she said. “If he is elected, Donald Trump will walk into that office with an enemies list. When I am elected, I will walk in with a to-do list full of priorities about what I will get done for you.”

Harris has mainly been campaigning in a single state each day, but on Wednesday she began a new tempo, with scheduled stops in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, and Madison, Wisconsin, later in the day. Campaigns traditionally hold rallies in key states not just to motivate the thousands of supporters who show up but to reach millions of voters who learn of the visit from local news reports.

Vice President Kamala Harris speaks during a campaign rally at the Walnut Creek Amphitheatre on Wednesday in North Carolina.
Vice President Kamala Harris speaks during a campaign rally at the Walnut Creek Amphitheatre on Wednesday in North Carolina.

Win McNamee via Getty Images

The coup-attempting former president, who is also now a convicted criminal awaiting sentencing and faces dozens more felony charges, in recent weeks has been scheduling events in the same state or even the same city as Harris soon after she has announced her plans to visit. On Wednesday, he was set to start his own rally shortly after Harris finished hers about an hour east in Rocky Mount.

Raleigh and the surrounding area in the state’s Research Triangle is home to hundreds of thousands of college-educated, suburban voters, many of whom traditionally backed Republicans but have broken with the party since it was taken over by Trump in 2016.

Along with changing demographics that favor Democrats — more young and Latino voters — college-educated voters helped President Joe Biden come within 75,000 votes of Trump in the state in 2020. Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton lost to Trump by 173,000 votes there four years earlier.

Of the seven states likely to be the closest, North Carolina is the only one not carried by Biden in 2020 when he defeated Trump by 74 votes in the Electoral College. Of the six he did win — Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — all but Nevada were won by Trump in 2016.

If Harris can manage to hold on to the three “blue wall” states (Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin), she would not need to win any of the four Sunbelt states. However, winning North Carolina, which has 16 electoral votes this election following the 2022 reapportionment, would allow her to lose either Wisconsin, which has 10 electoral votes, or Michigan, which has 15, and still win the presidency.

All seven states have polls showing races well within the margin of error.