WILMINGTON, N.C. (AP) — In a weekend courtroom reprieve, former President Donald Trump will campaign in North Carolina on Saturday as he juggles legal issues and his rematch against President Joe Biden.
Trump’s evening stop in the coastal city of Wilmington marks his first rally since his criminal hush-money trial began this week with jury selection in Manhattan. The occasion offers the former president another chance to amplify claims that the many pending charges are an establishment conspiracy to take him down — and, by extension, suppress the voters who first elected him eight years ago .
“They want to keep me off the campaign trail,” Trump insisted earlier this week in Harlem, where he visited a convenience store and addressed a crowd of media outside. Instead of going after violent criminals, he claimed, “They’re going after Trump.”
Saturday’s event also underlines the importance of North Carolina, a presidential battleground that Trump won over Biden by 1.5 percentage points in 2020. That was the smallest margin of any state Trump won. Saturday will mark the second time in as many months that Trump comes to the state.
“The presidential race will run through North Carolina,” the governor said. Roy Coopera Democrat, in a recent interview.
North Carolina is one of seven states that both the Trump and Biden campaigns have said they will devote significant campaign resources to winning. Trump has insisted he wants to broaden the map, even to his native New York, which is heavily Democratic. However, most Republicans agree that Trump will have a difficult path to a majority in the Electoral College if Biden were to win North Carolina’s fifteen electoral votes. Trump tacitly acknowledged North Carolina’s status by tapping then-Republican State Chairman Michael Whatley to lead his campaign’s effective takeover of the Republican National Committee.
There is no precedent for the kind of campaign Trump must run now — in North Carolina and nationally.
With opening arguments in his trial expected Monday, Trump will be confined to the courtroom for the foreseeable future, limiting his ability to see, raise money and make phone calls to voters. Biden, by contrast, spent several days this week campaigning in Pennsylvania, another key battleground. Trump aides have promised weekend meetings and events on Wednesday, while Trump’s trial is expected to be in recess on a weekday. The former president’s campaign has also promised additional appearances on weeknights in New York, such as in Harlem.
That scheme increases pressure on Trump to maximize his limited opportunities to reach voters and gain media attention beyond his charges.
In North Carolina, Biden’s campaign has already hired statewide leadership and field organizers for offices across the state. That’s in addition to state party staff who began an organizing program ahead of municipal races last year and are looking ahead to this year’s statewide races — including an open race for governor since Cooper is barred from seeking a third term.
“We had to build energy on the ground early,” said Democratic state Chairman Anderson Clayton, noting that the last Democratic presidential candidate to win North Carolina — Barack Obama in 2008 — had staged the state in a hotly contested primary campaign that challenged the state’s position of power. state had introduced. last year.
Matt Mercer, spokesman for the North Carolina Republican Party, countered that veteran GOP staffers have been working in the state since the 2020 election cycle. Mercer said the GOP, from Trump to volunteers, will emphasize a family-first message on the economy and public safety.
Voters, Mercer said, “understand the importance of what these messages mean to them in their daily lives” and are “enough” with Biden, “whether it’s about skyrocketing inflation, the open southern border or the migrant crime crisis.”
Trump will be joined Saturday by North Carolina Republican gubernatorial candidate Mark Robinson, who has endorsed Trump and called “Martin Luther King on steroids.” Robinson is the state’s first black lieutenant governor.
Cooper narrowly won the office of governor in 2016 and 2020, convincing just enough swing voters even as Trump carried the state in each of those presidential contests.
The governor argued that Biden’s record — low unemployment, rising wages, stabilized inflation, investments in infrastructure and green energy — will resonate in a geographically and demographically diverse state.
“Joe Biden has done more in his first two years than most presidents can hope to do in two terms,” Cooper said, adding that juxtaposing Biden’s achievements and Trump’s baggage will convince enough voters to vote for the president to be re-elected.
