Kamala Harris rally/ North Carolina early voting/ Raleigh election 2024/ Harris Trump North Carolina/ North Carolina battleground state/ Newslooks/ RALEIGH/ J. Mansour/ Morning Edition/ Vice President Kamala Harris held a rally in Raleigh, North Carolina, Wednesday to encourage early voting. Polls show Harris and Republican candidate Donald Trump neck-and-neck in this crucial swing state. Democratic leaders in North Carolina, including Governor Roy Cooper and Attorney General Josh Stein, joined Harris, emphasizing the stakes of the upcoming election.
Harris Pushes Early Voting in Raleigh: Quick Looks
- Campaign Stop Details: Harris rallied at Raleigh’s Coastal Credit Union Music Park to urge voter turnout.
- Polling Tie: A recent Elon University poll shows Harris and Trump evenly split in North Carolina.
- Democratic Messaging: Democratic leaders like Gov. Cooper and AG Stein contrasted Harris’s vision with Trump’s, calling it a choice of “hope over hate.”
- Battleground State Significance: With 16 electoral votes, North Carolina is pivotal in the election, making early voting a key focus for Harris.
Kamala Harris Rallies North Carolina Voters in Raleigh
Deep Look
Vice President Kamala Harris energized Democratic supporters in Raleigh, North Carolina, on Wednesday, focusing on the state’s early voting period, which ends this Saturday, November 2. This visit marked her 20th stop in North Carolina since she assumed the vice presidency nearly four years ago, underscoring the high stakes for this battleground state. Harris urged rally-goers at the Coastal Credit Union Music Park to vote early and bring others to the polls, emphasizing the impact of each vote in the closely contested state.
Recent polling data reflects North Carolina’s importance in the election’s outcome. An Elon University survey of 800 registered voters released Tuesday reveals a dead heat, with 46% of respondents supporting Harris and 46% backing Republican candidate Donald Trump. The poll highlights North Carolina’s role as a critical battleground among seven states with the potential to shift the election outcome. President Joe Biden narrowly lost the state in 2020, finishing 1.3 percentage points behind Trump, making North Carolina’s 16 electoral votes a prime target for both parties.
As Harris prepared to address the crowd, thousands had already gathered at the amphitheater hours before her speech was set to begin. Democratic leaders, including North Carolina Attorney General and gubernatorial candidate Josh Stein, took the stage to rally support, calling the election a battle between “hope and hate.” Stein spoke about Harris’s vision as a positive force for unity and progress in contrast to the divisive approaches he associated with Trump and Republican gubernatorial candidate, Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson.
Stein argued that the choice facing voters this election is stark, noting, “Our vision, Kamala Harris’s vision, is positive, forward-looking, welcoming. It’s about creating opportunity for every person.” He urged voters to mobilize others, reminding the crowd that victory was within reach if they actively participated in turning out voters over the next week. As Stein concluded, the crowd responded with raised hands, affirming they had already voted or were committed to doing so.
Governor Roy Cooper followed Stein, supporting Harris by outlining how her leadership would differ from Trump’s, which he described as focused on personal gain rather than community welfare. Cooper shared similar sentiments during a recent press briefing after voting early in Raleigh, saying, “Trump is too focused on his own power and his own revenge to care about your life… but Kamala Harris cares about you.”
The Harris rally in Raleigh coincided with Trump’s visit to North Carolina, as he campaigned in Rocky Mount later that day. Both candidates’ appearances in the state underscore its critical role as Election Day approaches, with Harris aiming to galvanize the Democratic base while Trump rallies his supporters. The high voter interest, as seen in early voting turnout, indicates a fierce contest ahead in this pivotal battleground.
‘I don’t consider Trump to be a real Republican’
Jennifer Phelan, 60, said ahead of Vice President Kamala Harris’ rally in Raleigh, North Carolina, that she feels nervous because the election seems so close. To her, it shouldn’t be. “It just seems very much like a cartoon of good and evil,” Phelan said. She still feels fairly confident in North Carolina flipping blue from the conversations she’s had since she started volunteering in March, as well as the enthusiasm she sees among fellow volunteers. Phelan remembers discussing the race when Biden was atop the Democratic ticket, and she said more people seemed hesitant about supporting him. That hasn’t been the case as much with Harris leading the ticket, she said.
She’s also had conversations with some conservatives who said they’d vote for Harris because they don’t like Trump — adding that those were “real Republicans” in her eyes. “I don’t consider Trump to be a real Republican,” she said.
‘We’re the closest we’ve been since Obama won in ’08’
Liz Kazal, a rallygoer at Vice President Kamala Harris’ rally in Raleigh, said she’s “cautiously optimistic” about the election — a lesson she said she learned from 2016 when Hillary Clinton lost to Donald Trump. “You hope for the best and plan for the worst,” she said on Wednesday. Kazal, 35, said she’s tried to do some form of volunteering every week — door-knocking with her 2-year-old daughter, phone banking and fundraising for Harris with friends and family. Over the next week, Kazal said she plans to go door-knocking more and hold a phone banking session at her home.
“We’re the closest we’ve been since Obama won in ’08,” Kazal said. Kazal has family members who are Trump supporters, but it’s been hard to talk to them about politics. To Kazal, it seems like Trump “transcends politics for them.” “I’m at a loss for how to talk to them,” Kazal said. “But yeah, I’ve been able to talk about other issues.”
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