Trump and Harris seek votes in battleground North Carolina with six days to go

Kamala Harris and Donald Trump will make some of their final election pitches to voters on Wednesday in North Carolina, a swing state with a Democratic governor who has backed Republican presidential hopefuls for more than a decade.

North Carolina has 16 Electoral College votes, making it one of the make-or-break battleground states that could decide who wins the November 5 presidential election.

The contest between US vice-president Harris and former president Trump is too close to call nationally, and last month's hurricane damage has made North Carolina's results specially hard to predict.

On Wednesday, Harris will be in the fast-growing state capital Raleigh, with about 480,000 people, while Trump will hold a rally in Rocky Mount, a city of 50,000 people.

Harris and Trump are battling for a state Trump won by less than 1.5 percentage points in 2020.

Their visits come after Harris' biggest rally, which took place on Tuesday evening in Washington where she warned of the dangers of returning Trump to office. She spoke at the spot near the White House where on January 6 2021, Trump told his supporters to march to the US Capitol and to “fight”.

At stake in the election is who will run the world's richest and most powerful country. Harris and Trump diverge on support for Ukraine and Nato, abortion rights, taxes, basic democratic principles and tariffs that could trigger trade wars.

Talking about trade on Tuesday, Trump explicitly mentioned the EU.

“They're brutal. They sell millions and millions of cars in the US. No, no, no, they are going to have to pay a big price,” he said. 

The Trump campaign late on Tuesday accused President Joe Biden of referring to Trump supporters as “garbage”, after Biden spoke about Trump's New York rally on Sunday that featured racist and other vulgar remarks made by Trump backers.

According to a transcript posted by a White House spokesperson on X, Biden said: “The only garbage I see floating out there is his supporters. His demonisation of Latinos is unconscionable and it's unAmerican.”

Biden said later he was talking about the language used, not Trump's fans.

LONG WAIT FOR RESULTS?

Residents in North Carolina, specially in the rural, hard-hit western region, are trying to put their lives back together after devastating hurricane damage last month.

Many of the counties lean Republican in the region.

While some state officials, including some Republicans, praised federal clean-up efforts, Biden and Harris have been the targets of criticism and false rumours, including ones spread by Trump over how much aid arrived and how fast it came.

Representative Andy Harris of Maryland, who chairs the hardline House Republican Freedom Caucus, said in an exchange last week that given the destruction caused, the state legislature should pre-emptively declare Trump won the state's 16 Electoral College votes to avoid “disenfranchised voters”.

The state's governor Roy Cooper, a Democrat, criticised Harris on CNN on Tuesday.

“North Carolina's electoral votes will be reflected by the votes from the ballot box,” he said.

“We want to make sure that everybody has an opportunity to have their voice heard.”

Trump leads Harris by only 1 percentage point in North Carolina, according to a polling average by FiveThirtyEight. The last time the state backed a Democratic presidential nominee was Barack Obama in 2008.

If the election is as close as polls suggest, the outcome in North Carolina may remain unclear for a week or more.

Absentee ballots that arrive on November 5, as well as ballots from overseas and military voters, are tallied during the 10-day canvas period that follows election day.

In 2020, media outlets did not call North Carolina for Trump until November 13, 10 days after the election.

More than a third of North Carolina's registered voters have cast ballots in the 2024 election, according to the state's board of election.

Later on Wednesday, Harris will travel to Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, two other states in contention.

Her Madison, Wisconsin rally will feature performances by musicians, including the band Mumford & Sons. Trump will also be in Wisconsin for a rally with former pro quarterback Brett Favre.

Reuters