Trump Fights to Protect Razor-Thin Lead in North Carolina
Some Republicans say storm damage, scandal surrounding party’s nominee for governor cause concern
"Republican-leaning North Carolina appears headed toward a photo-finish in the presidential election, prompting former President
Donald Trump to spend extra time to find an edge against Vice President
Kamala Harris in a state he narrowly won four years ago.
... The Harris-Walz campaign launched voter-education and mobilization efforts across hard-hit areas in the western part of the state, including in Burke, Jackson, Buncombe, Henderson and Watauga counties, according to the campaign. The campaign’s door-knocking efforts in those counties include a “wellness check” to assess residents’ needs after the hurricane. Those conversations happen before the campaign talks about the election and how to vote, the campaign said.
Harris isn’t scheduled to visit the state this week but she was here Oct. 5 to survey the damage from Helene, and came back the following weekend. This week, she has put more focus on the “blue-wall” states of Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania that make up her likeliest path to capturing the White House.
... According to an analysis by Christopher Cooper, director of the Public Policy Institute at Western Carolina University, Trump won about 55% of the vote in 2020 in the 13 counties hardest hit by Helene. Biden won 45%. He said the findings indicate that much of Trump’s support is likely to be from people whose ability to vote is affected by the hurricane.
North Carolina’s GOP chairman Jason Simmons pushed back on the assessment, saying that hurricane-ravaged counties largely “are turning out in margins above where they would typically be.” North Carolina voters last week set a first-day
early voting record despite continuing hurricane-recovery efforts across the state.
Cooper said Trump might be polling so closely with Harris because of the scandal surrounding Mark Robinson, the Republican candidate in the governor’s race. A CNN report last month detailed Robinson’s
alleged antigay and racist comments a decade ago on an online pornography forum. It was latest scandal involving Robinson, an antiabortion candidate who has acknowledged that he had paid for his now-wife’s abortion.
Some Republicans in the state worry that Trump’s fate could be tied to Robinson, which Cooper said was a possibility.
“The best case scenario for the Republican Party is split ticket voting,” said Cooper. “
The bad news scenario for Republicans is if [Robinson] takes some of these low-propensity voters and makes them stay at home on the couch.” ..."
[TELL YOUR HUSBAND TO GET HIS FAT ASS OFF THE COUCH AND VOTE??]