By james art
KEVIN GRIFFIN Staff Reporter
The Triad remains a key area of focus for candidates from both the Trump and Harris campaigns as they each battle for North Carolina in the final week before Election Day.
Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump is set to return to Greensboro on Saturday with a rally planned at First Horizon Coliseum, less than two weeks after his last appearance at the Coliseum’s special events center.
Ahead of Trump’s visit, Republican vice presidential nominee Ohio Sen. JD Vance participated in a town hall with High Point University students hosted by the conservative group Turning Point USA on Thursday.
Answering questions from students, Vance touched on key themes of the campaign, defending Trump’s plans for tariffs as a means of penalizing companies that operate outside the United States and promoting tougher policies to deport undocumented immigrants, according to a video posted on C-SPAN.
He also told the crowd that a Trump administration would be better for the future of young people.
“My simple argument to all of you and to your entire generation is that you should be angry,” he said, claiming that “a failed generation of American leadership” is responsible for policies that put home ownership and wealth accumulation out of reach. reach for younger Americans.
“It was a political choice,” Vance said. “The failure that befell your generation was a political choice, and we can make a different political choice, but only if you guys get angry at the position you’ve been put in and vote for a change in leadership.”
Trump’s Democratic rival, Vice President Kamala Harris, has not returned to Greensboro since her rally at the Coliseum in September. But her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Waltz, stopped in Greensboro on Wednesday and appeared in Winston-Salem two weeks before.
John Dinan, professor of political science and chair of the Department of Politics and International Affairs at Wake Forest University, said he thinks the focus on the Triad is likely a result of how that region’s political landscape differs from other urban areas in the state.
He explained that “areas around Winston-Salem, High Point, and Greensboro are a little closer to being balanced between Republicans and Democrats, compared to Raleigh, Durham, and Charlotte, which are all very heavily Democratic.”
“So I’m not surprised that Republicans in particular have been targeting the Triad with visits in recent weeks as they try to increase turnout among Republican voters in a metropolitan area that’s a bit more Republican-friendly, especially in the surrounding areas , than other major metropolitan areas in the state,” Dinan said. “That’s the best explanation, for example, of why Trump would make two stops in Greensboro within two weeks.”
Dinan also pointed to North Carolina’s high turnout as a sign that both campaigns believe the state is close.
Christopher Cooper, a political science professor at Western Carolina University, agreed, saying earlier this week that the race “is as close to a tossup as it gets.”
Cooper pointed to a poll released earlier this week by news organization WRAL that showed Trump and Harris tied at 47 percent. Another poll released this week by Elon University put Trump and Harris at 46 percent each.
The 538 polling average showed Trump leading Harris 48.3 percent to 47.2 percent on Thursday.
On the state of the race, Cooper said, “You could argue that maybe Trump is slightly favored. I think you could argue that it’s an even ball game, which I am. I don’t think there’s any reason to say Harris is the favorite, but that doesn’t mean I don’t think she can win. She certainly can.
Both Cooper and Dinan noted the unusually high turnout among Republicans in early voting. Republicans made up nearly 34 percent of the more than 3.6 million people who had voted as of Wednesday. Democrats and unaffiliated voters trailed Republicans by about 32.7 percent of the vote each.
It’s a different story in Guilford County, where Democrats lead the turnout. Democratic voters represented 42 percent of the more than 176,000 voters who had cast ballots in person as of Wednesday. Unaffiliated voters are second with 30 percent of the total vote in the district, followed by Republicans with 27.8 percent.
Cooper said this represented a reversal of previous election cycles in which Democrats had an advantage in early voting.
“It’s hard to know, frankly, what to make of it,” Cooper said, adding that it could be an indication of Republican success in turning out their supporters or simply a sign that many Republican voters are now feeling more – convenient for them to come to the polls earlier.
Dinan said there has been an effort among Republican office-seekers and strategists to increase their early voting numbers, which could at least partially explain the higher turnout among Republicans.
He also called for caution in interpreting early voting data.
“In short, the early voting numbers look good for Republicans, but it’s important not to read too much into those numbers, for a variety of reasons, as a way to predict the outcome of the race,” he said.