2024 US Election

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump returned to North Carolina on Saturday, stumping in the southern battleground state that both Democrats and Republicans are treating as increasingly critical to victory in November.

But the former president campaigned in Wilmington, along the state's southern coast, without Lieutenant Governor Mark Robinson, the Republican gubernatorial nominee and one of the former president's top surrogates in the state, following a CNN report about his alleged posts on a pornography website’s message board.

Robinson has denied writing the posts, which include lewd and racist comments, saying Thursday that he wouldn’t be forced out of the race by “salacious tabloid lies.”

Trump's campaign has appeared to distance itself from Robinson in the wake of the CNN reporting, which the AP has not independently verified, saying in a statement to the AP that Trump “is focused on winning the White House and saving this country" and calling North Carolina “a vital part of that plan," without mentioning Robinson.

While Robinson won his Republican gubernatorial primary in March, he’s been trailing in several recent polls to Democratic nominee Josh Stein, the state’s attorney general. State Republican officials have stood by Robinson, whose decision to keep campaigning could threaten Republican prospects in other key races, including Trump’s efforts in a battleground state he previously won twice.

Democrats have seized on the opportunity to highlight Trump's ties to Robinson, with billboards showing the two together, as well as a new ad from Vice President Kamala Harris ' campaign highlighting the Republican candidates' ties as well as Robinson's support for a statewide abortion ban without exceptions. According to Harris' campaign, it's their first ad effort related to tying Trump to a down-ballot race.

Outdoor rally

Trump's first outdoor rally since the second apparent attempt to assassinate him was at a Wilmington airport, where a large American flag hung from a crane, with hundreds of chairs and standing room for many more spectators. Bulletproof glass surrounded the area on stage, a new precaution for outdoor venues the Secret Service implemented after a bullet grazed Trump's ear during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.

Charlie Kimball, a 46-year-old former construction worker from Burgaw, who said he is on disability, dismissed the allegations against Robinson as “fake news."

“That’s his personal life. Who cares?” Kimball said. “It’s all hearsay. … It’s not true. It’s all speculation. Where’s the proof?"

A Republican has carried North Carolina in every general election since 1976 save one, when Barack Obama won the state in 2008. Trump won there in both his previous campaigns but by less than 1.5 percentage points over Democrat Joe Biden in 2020, the closest margin of any state that Trump won. That's part of why Democrats see the state as winnable this fall.

With neither Senate seat up for grabs, the gubernatorial contest has been North Carolina's marquee down-ballot race this year. Robinson has become a natural top surrogate for Trump in the state and a frequent presence at campaign events there, appearing with the nominee as recently as last month at an event. Trump has long praised Robinson, who is Black, referring to him as “Martin Luther King on steroids."

Endorsing Robinson ahead of the Republican gubernatorial primary, Trump continued: “I think you’re better than Martin Luther King. I think you are Martin Luther King times two.”

State up for grabs

While more visits have been made by presidential contenders to the Rust Belt battlegrounds of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, both Harris and Trump have made multiple trips to North Carolina, highlighting the state’s importance. Following Biden’s departure from the race in July, Trump held his first large-scale rally there, turning his full focus toward Harris.

Wilmington is home to New Hanover County, which Biden won in 2020. But his margin over Trump in the county was among his slimmest in the state.

Julia Novotny, 55, of Wilmington, said she's come around to supporting Trump after initial reservations because of allegations that he's been sexually abusive to women, which he denies.

“He’s classy, he’s a gentleman, he looks good in a suit, and he has strong values,” Novotny said. “Everybody makes mistakes, and whether he did or didn’t, I don’t know, but you know what? Leave him alone. He’s a good man. He wants to change this country. Our country is in the dirt, and the only man who pulls us out is Donald Trump.”

Vice President Kamala Harris is stepping up her efforts to win over voters who belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, enlisting prominent members of the faith to make the case in pivotal Arizona that Donald Trump does not align with the church's values.

Her state campaign announced on Thursday an advisory committee to formalize the outreach to current and former members of the church, widely known as the Mormon church.

With nearly 450,000 church members in Arizona, about 6% of the state's population, Latter-day Saints and former church members could prove critical in what will likely be an extremely close race.

Latter-day Saints have traditionally voted Republican and are likely to remain part of the GOP coalition. Clustered in solidly Republican states, they have long been a major force in GOP primaries and local politics across the West, but they have not held much sway in national elections. In 2020, about seven in 10 Mormon voters nationally supported Trump, according to AP VoteCast, while about one-quarter backed Democrat Joe Biden.

Core to Harris’ strategy is preventing Trump from running up big margins with demographic groups that favor him. While she is unlikely to win anything close to a majority of Latter-day Saints, picking up a small share of their votes would make a big difference in a state with a recent history of tight elections. Biden won by just under 10,500 votes in 2020. Democratic Attorney General Kris Mayes won by just 280 in 2022.

Constitution and faith

Latter-day Saints supporting Harris in Arizona make a faith-based appeal for backing the Democratic ticket despite any reservations, pointing to church teaching that the U.S. Constitution is divinely inspired.

“The Constitution is a tenet of our faith, and we certainly shouldn't be voting for people who have shown a disdain for it,” said Joel John, a former Republican state lawmaker who will serve as a co-chair of the committee. “And we certainly shouldn't be supporting someone who tried to overthrow it on January 6.”

John said that explains how his faith guides his own support for Harris but emphasized he's not speaking on behalf of the church and doesn't judge Latter-day Saints who vote differently.

The Salt Lake City-based church does not endorse candidates or political parties, but John said Latter-day Saints are encouraged to elect politicians who are “good, honest and wise." He said those are moral traits that Trump lacks and that transcend any policy differences they might have with Harris, such as her economic plans or position on gun rights.

Halee Dobbins, a spokesperson for the Republican National Committee, said Democrats have “allowed progressive policies to erode traditional values."

“President Trump has consistently stood with believers by protecting religious institutions, appointing constitutionalist Justices, and defending Christian values nationally and abroad,” Dobbins said in a statement. “He has made it a priority to protect religious communities, not fight against them.”

Trump behavior

While many conservative-leaning religious voters warmed to him long ago, Trump has struggled to win over Latter-day Saints. For many members of the church, Trump's penchant for foul language and demeaning rhetoric toward women and people of color clashes with the church's values of humility, morality and compassion.

It has not helped that Trump has feuded with U.S. Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, among the best known members of the church, and former U.S. Sen. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz.

In Arizona, Latter-day Saints make up an outsize share of the population in metro Phoenix's East Valley, a suburban area where ticket-splitting voters have rejected Trump-backed Republicans, helping to push a reliable GOP state into a battleground. Mesa, Arizona's third-largest city with more than 500,000 people, traces its modern history to a settlement founded by pioneers from the faith in the 1800s.

Church members also settled in swaths of rural Arizona and their descendants remain deeply rooted there.

Voting on morals

Democratic efforts to woo Latter-day Saints are not new. Hillary Clinton in 2016 drew parallels between Trump's pledge to stop Muslim immigration and the history of religious persecution against Latter-day Saints. Biden went further four years later, investing in organizing church members as Harris is trying to do now.

The “social expectation" for members of the faith to align with conservatives is strong, but Harris has an opening in particular to win over younger Latter-day Saints, who, like the country at large, are more diverse, said Brittany Romanello, an anthropologist, Mellon postdoctoral fellow and faculty associate at Arizona State University. Her research includes culture and identity of Latter-day Saints.

“Mormons have been shown to have this attitude that they aren’t just voting based on party affiliation only,” said Romanello, who was raised in the church but is no longer practicing. “They’re voting based on morals.”