Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump held campaign rallies in North Carolina on the final Saturday before the presidential election. They campaigned within blocks of each other in Milwaukee, and later, their planes landed within a few hundred yards of each other in Charlotte. This marked the fourth consecutive day both candidates campaigned in the same state, highlighting the limited number of competitive states remaining in the tight race.
Trump addressed a crowd in Gastonia, warning that the “suburbs are under attack”. Harris rallied supporters in Mecklenburg County, about 35 miles away, criticizing Trump as “increasingly unstable” and prioritizing personal grievances over the well-being of the American people. “This is not someone who is thinking about how to make your life better,” Harris said.
The candidates’ opposing approaches emphasized the importance of North Carolina in the election. The state has a history of switching between parties and is currently considered a key battleground. Early voting in the state ended on Saturday, and polls show a close race, highlighting the significance of mobilizing voters in the remaining days. “Please talk to your friends, your family and your neighbors,” Harris said, encouraging those who had already voted to promote voter turnout. “To those who have not voted, no judgment, but please do get to it.”
In North Carolina, the Harris campaign has been focused on reaching beyond traditional Democratic strongholds, targeting independent and moderate Republican voters who might be disillusioned with Trump’s rhetoric. A campaign official stated that Harris’s closing arguments aim to reassure voters that her administration would prioritize their concerns above partisan conflicts. “Unlike Donald Trump, I don’t believe that people who disagree with me are the enemy,” she said.
Harris addressed abortion rights, tying North Carolina’s strict abortion laws to Trump’s appointment of three Supreme Court justices who overturned Roe v. Wade. “One in three women lives in a state with a Trump abortion ban, including North Carolina,” she said, prompting boos from the crowd. “We all remember how we got here,” she added, referring to Trump’s influence on the judicial landscape. While abortion is still legal in North Carolina, it is banned after 12 weeks of pregnancy, with exceptions for rape, incest, or to protect the woman’s life. Several attendees at Harris’s rally said that protecting reproductive rights was their primary reason for supporting her.
The rally was occasionally interrupted by protests regarding the U.S. response to the ongoing conflict in Gaza. Protesters displayed banners and shouted slogans, but Harris used these interruptions to reaffirm her commitment to democracy. “It’s alright, y’all,” Harris said. “Democracy can be complicated. This is what democracy looks like.”
“We all want that war in the Middle East to end,” Harris added. “We want the hostages home, and when I am president, I will do everything in my power to make it so.”
North Carolina supported Trump in 2020 by a margin of less than 1.5 percentage points, but demographic shifts have made the state increasingly competitive for Democrats. Democratic strategists see Mecklenburg County, where Charlotte is located, as crucial to winning the state’s electoral votes due to its larger number of registered Democrats compared to 53 other counties combined. However, voter turnout in the county was lower than the state average in 2022, making it a key focus for the Harris campaign.
“I believe we’re at a crossroads of America that we want to create for our future,” says Maria Thrasher, a 54-year-old small business owner from south of Charlotte who identifies as an independent voter but supports Harris this cycle. “I’m concerned for my daughter. I’m concerned for my nieces and the girls that are coming behind us and them having less rights than my grandmother and my mother’s generation.”
North Carolina has not been won by a Democratic presidential candidate since Barack Obama in 2008.