Donald Trump will rally supporters in North Carolina every day until Tuesday’s election, a late flurry of activity in the only swing state he won in his 2016 and 2020 campaigns.

Although Trump seeks to expand the electoral map and project strength with trips to New Mexico and Virginia, two Democratic states that are not considered competitive, he is spending considerable time on North Carolina, which last backed a Democrat for president in 2008. .

The former president’s path to the 270 electoral votes needed to capture the presidency becomes significantly complicated if he loses in North Carolina. The fast-growing southern state gave Trump his smallest margin of victory (1.3 percentage points) over Democrat Joe Biden four years ago.

Trump will campaign in Gastonia, west of Charlotte, and Greensboro on Saturday, with a stop in Salem, Virginia, in between. He will be in the eastern city of Kinston on Sunday and in Raleigh on Monday. Those four rallies will bring the total of events in North Carolina since October 1 to nine. His running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, has been to the state six times during the same period, most recently on Friday.

Vice President Kamala Harris, Trump’s Democratic rival, will also be in North Carolina on Saturday for a concert and rally in Charlotte. His campaign has not announced any other trips to the state before Election Day.

The extensive damage caused by Hurricane Helene in western North Carolina has created a dose of uncertainty about the situation here. Flooding destroyed homes and displaced residents in several counties, including the liberal city of Asheville and the conservative rural areas surrounding it.

Trump’s team has said it is confident in its chances in North Carolina. Democrats see Trump’s attention to the state as a sign of optimism for Harris.

“The repeated appearances may indicate that the Trump campaign is in trouble,” said Democratic state Rep. Marcia Morey of Durham. “If Trump continues his dangerous and violent rhetoric these past few days, it may backfire. A campaign of personal retaliation does not win people’s votes.”

Trump adviser Jason Miller said Trump’s late-campaign trips are not a red flag.

“I’m not worried about anything,” Miller told reporters Friday. “We have a smart strategy that will get President Trump through 270, maybe even a couple of states that surprise you, that will slide in there. But we’re going to follow our strategy. Our strategy comes from our data and our guidance.”

Trump, in a “fox & Friends” on Saturday morning, was asked about his message to women after businessman Mark Cuban suggested that the former president doesn’t surround himself with strong, intelligent women.

Trump said he has been defended by “women who make men look like babies” and that he has “given opportunities to women, too.” He cited Kellyanne Conway, who ran his 2016 campaign, and Susie Wiles, his current campaign manager.

He also said he was “very disappointed” in Julia Roberts, who provided the voiceover for an advert about women hiding their vows from their husbands. He predicted she would look back and shudder. “Can you imagine a wife who doesn’t tell her husband who she’s voting for? Have you ever heard anything like that?” asked.

About half of North Carolina’s 7.8 million registered voters had already voted by Friday, buoyed by early in-person voting, which ends Saturday afternoon.

North Carolina Republicans have been encouraged by their supporters’ early turnout after national and state GOP leaders shifted this year to a “stack-your-vote” strategy instead of focusing on Election Day turnout. elections.

Entering the final days of the campaign, more than 50,000 more registered Republican voters than Democrats had voted early or by absentee ballot, even though there are more than 100,000 more registered Democrats than Republicans statewide, according to election data state. It’s unclear whether increased early voting by Republicans will result in higher overall turnout by Trump supporters.

Independent voters now make up the largest group of registered voters in North Carolina. Trump lost ground between 2016 and 2020.

Voters in the state have shown a propensity to split their ballot over the years. That’s why, while Republicans have controlled the state legislature since 2011, Democrats have held the governor’s mansion for all but four years since 1993.

The GOP’s hopes of breaking that hold on Tuesday appeared to dim in recent weeks after the party’s gubernatorial candidate, Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, received unwanted publicity from a CNN report alleging that he had made explicit posts of a racial and sexual in a message from a pornography website. board more than a decade ago.

While Robinson denied writing the messages and sued CNN for defamation last month, his campaign nearly imploded, raising fears that a big victory for Democrat Josh Stein, the state attorney general, could hurt Republican candidates in other contests.

___

Associated Press writers Adriana Gómez Licón in Detroit and Jonathan J. Cooper in Phoenix contributed to this report.