Former President Donald Trump is barnstorming North Carolina in the final days of the 2024 election, with at least four stops planned between now and Nov. 5.
Trump will travel to Kinston, in eastern North Carolina on Sunday, his campaign announced Friday. The city of about 20,000 people lies in Lenoir County, a heavily agricultural county bisected by U.S. Highway 70 that is a popular midway stop for Raleigh-area residents heading to the beaches farther east.
The former President, his running mate JD Vance, and their opponents, Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, have spent significant time in the state of late, indicating that the race for North Carolina’s 16 electoral votes is important for both campaigns’ paths to success.
Polls consistently show Harris and Trump locked in a dead-heat race to win North Carolina. The recent campaign visits have come at such a rapid clip that the Trump-Vance campaign press releases recycle rhetoric about economic turmoil under the Joe Biden-Harris administration.
They routinely condemn the administration for causing commodity prices to rise 21.8%, “costing North Carolina families an extra $1,000 each month.” Inflation nationally has dropped and stagnated at about 2.4% in recent weeks, nowhere near historic highs.
“The average Tar Heel household has already lost nearly $28,000 to inflation, spending an additional $3,210 on food alone since January 2021,” the Trump campaign said in its latest rally announcement, echoing verbatim at least the last three rally press releases that were sent out.
Trump has a rally scheduled in Charlotte on Saturday, according to an internal campaign calendar that made the rounds on social media Friday. The list, riddled with incorrect spellings, lists a rally in Charlotte and another at the “Fist Horizon Coliscum” in “Gronsboro” on Saturday and another in “Kingston” North Carolina on Sunday. The former President will be in Greensboro and Kinston on those days.
Trump will then be in Raleigh on Monday, speaking at Dorton Arena at the State Fairgrounds. He was in Rocky Mount earlier this week, on the same day that Harris delivered remarks in Raleigh.
Vance closed out the week with a rally in the town of Selma, southeast of Raleigh.
Vance was in High Point for a Turning Point USA event on Thursday morning. Both Trump and Harris held rallies in the state on Wednesday.
Both are already scheduled to return before the week is out, pushing hard for North Carolina’s 16 electoral votes. Trump will hold rallies in Greensboro and Gastonia on Saturday, while Harris is going to Charlotte the same day.
