SCOTT DETROW, HOST:
One of the battleground states that has been getting a lot of attention this year. We will be reporting here all week because North Carolina has become a major focal point for both presidential campaigns. Millions and millions of dollars are being spent. Rallies are being organized, and the polls show a race that is essentially tied. There are also a lot of factors that make the race hard to predict, including damage from Hurricane Helene and also some far-right downballot candidates that are really hanging over the other races on the ballot as well. Joining us to talk about this is Colin Campbell, capitol bureau chief at member station WUNC. Hey, Colin.
COLIN CAMPBELL, BYLINE: Hey, Scott.
DETROW: So let's start with this. Barack Obama won North Carolina in 2008, and ever since then, Democrats have been trying to win it and coming up short. Why does the party think they have a shot in North Carolina this year?
CAMPBELL: Well, in short, we've got lots of immigration here. North Carolina's urban areas are some of the fastest growing in the country. And a lot of that is younger, college-educated people who tend to vote for Democrats. Places like Charlotte and Raleigh seem to get more blue with every single election cycle. But those gains for Democrats have, at least so far, been offset by losses in some of the more rural parts of the state, where Democrats want to sort of change that trend. Joe Biden lost here by just about one percentage point back in 2020. And ever since Biden dropped out of the race, Harris and Trump have been pretty much tied in most polls, or it's certainly well within the margin of error, even when Trump seems to be a little bit ahead.
DETROW: What does all this look like on the ground in North Carolina?
CAMPBELL: Well, we've seen visits from the candidates and their surrogates nearly every week. It's almost lost track of who's here or what day. It's mostly focused on the urban areas. Trump has multiple stops this week in the state. Former President Bill Clinton just wrapped up a bus tour. Here he is talking about former President Trump.
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BILL CLINTON: He wants four more years of chaos, four more years of the blame game. We want a leader who will take us to buckle down.
CAMPBELL: So Clinton was out in the eastern side of the state, but out in Western North Carolina, in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, election officials have been scrambling to move some polling places, add some flexibility into the absentee ballot rules aimed at helping voters who still might be displaced from their homes due to flooding. Voters from those affected counties are going to have the option to return their absentee ballots to election offices anywhere in the state up until the polls close on election night.
DETROW: And there's been a lot of speculation and conversation about the fact that that's a heavily Trump part of the state and then whether those folks would be able to get their votes in in time. Let's just talk about Trump in North Carolina for a moment. Why is North Carolina in particular so important for Trump to win if he wants to return to the White House?
CAMPBELL: Well, the 16 electoral votes here in North Carolina has more than other swing states, aside from Pennsylvania and Georgia. If he lost here, he'd have to win most of the other swing states, including some of the so-called blue wall states like Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, and that seems like a really long shot scenario for Trump.
DETROW: We're focusing on the presidential race, but there's a lot of other races on the ballot in North Carolina. And the gubernatorial race especially has gotten a lot of national attention. Walk us through how some of the other races on the ballot are causing some concerns for Republicans at this point.
CAMPBELL: Yeah. The Republican candidate for governor, Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson, is trailing really far in the polls, has lost support from many of his fellow Republicans after a CNN report last month that said he posted pro-slavery Nazi comments on a porn website. He's since filed a defamation lawsuit challenging the report as false. Republicans are also running a candidate for state school superintendent who's made some social media posts calling for the execution of Barack Obama and other Democrats. So there's a worry all of that might damage turnout among some of the more moderate Republican voters that just may not like any of these candidates.
DETROW: Yeah. What are some of the other issues that are likely to play a role in the state?
CAMPBELL: Abortion's big here. The Republican-led legislature passed a 12-week abortion ban with some exceptions last year. Democrats are concerned that wins for GOP candidates in this year's election might mean a more restrictive ban might be on the table here next year. Meanwhile, immigration - lots of Republican candidates here are also talking about that. Even though North Carolina is thousands of miles from the border, there's a ballot question about that, amending the state Constitution to ban noncitizen voting. It's already illegal, but that's seen as sort of a turnout driver to energize some Republican voters.
DETROW: Colin Campbell covers politics in North Carolina for members station WUNC. Thank you so much.
CAMPBELL: Thanks, Scott.
DETROW: And we're going to have more coverage from this key swing state throughout the week as our series We, The Voters continues. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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