As part of his economic appeal, President Joe Biden visited Raleigh on Thursday, and his campaign is considering using the state as a possible pickup opportunity in November.
During his official “Bidenomics” visit to North Carolina, Biden announced fresh investments of $82 million to link thousands of North Carolina homes and businesses to high-speed internet through the American Rescue Plan. At a time when many voters are still very sceptical of Biden’s economic policies—a recent ABC News/Ipsos survey indicated that only 31% of respondents approve of Biden’s handling of the economy—the White House is making yet another push to showcase their work to decrease prices for Americans.
Similar to what Franklin Roosevelt accomplished a generation ago with electricity, our objective is to ensure that every American has access to affordable and dependable high-speed internet by the year 2030. This is what Biden told the crowd. Whether or whether you voted for me, I pledged to serve as president for the entire United States. All Americans, regardless of their state’s political leanings, benefit from these investments. Nobody will be left behind.
The campaign is plotting its electoral route to a second term, and the trip coincides with that. For the first time in sixteen years, Democratic strategists and Biden’s staff think they can turn the state blue. In 2008, Barack Obama narrowly defeated John McCain in North Carolina, the state’s only Democratic presidential candidate to do so. That was preceded by Jimmy Carter in 1976.
In 2020, Biden was within 1.3 percentage points of defeating then-President Trump in the state, which gave some Democrats optimism that Trump may win a rematch in November.
North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper, who is a member of the Biden campaign’s national advisory board, stated, “He has assured me that we are in their sphere of states that they’re going to pay a lot of attention to.” In addition to my firm belief that President Biden will be reelected, I also think he will win North Carolina. And rest assured, we will spare no effort in our pursuit of his success.
Some doubt that Biden can actually use the state as a pickup opportunity in November. Some demographic shifts have occurred in the state since Obama’s 2008 election. North Carolina’s population is getting older, which the state’s budget and management office says is due to factors like the “ageing of the Baby Boom generation,” longer life expectancy, and people migrating from other states and countries.
An activist for the Republican Party who collaborates with Republicans in the North Carolina legislature, Brent Woodcox, predicted that Obama would “ultimately write off North Carolina as not winnable for a Democrat,” a strategy that politicians in the state have used since Barack Obama’s campaign.
Nonetheless, by early 2024, the Biden team had already signalled its desire to bring North Carolina within striking distance of the Democratic victories of 2020. The campaign has just appointed David Berrios as state campaign manager and L.T. McCrimmon and Scott Falmlen as senior advisers, in addition to featuring the state in its early slate of television ads.
Unlike his three trips to Pennsylvania this year, Biden had never visited a battleground state before his visit to North Carolina in 2024. Earlier this week, Vice President Kamala Harris visited Charlotte to have a conversation about preventing gun violence.
Our expectation is that North Carolina will be quite competitive,” stated Quentin Fulks, the principal deputy campaign manager for Biden. “That’s why we’re running an aggressive operation that builds on years of significant investments in the state. We invested early, both in paid and in our infrastructure.”
Although Biden will be delivering an economic speech in North Carolina this week, his staff sees abortion as a rallying cry for Tarheel State supporters and will contend that the state has been intimately impacted by the decision of the Supreme Court to reverse Roe v. Wade. Last year, despite Democratic Governor Roy Cooper’s veto, the Republican-controlled legislature of the state succeeded in passing a ban on abortions after 12 weeks. This issue has the potential to sway state-wide campaigns, including the gubernatorial contest in 2024, which is shaping up to be among the most heated in the nation.
Diversifying populations
Using the growth in the Raleigh/Durham and Charlotte metro areas, where Biden did well against Trump, Democratic strategists say that the state’s demographics are moving in their party’s favour.
In the next months, campaign and Democratic officials aim to increase support among Black voters and suburbanites. It is acknowledged that Democrats need to gain ground in rural areas that voted for Trump in 2020.
The North Carolina Democratic Party chair, Anderson Clayton, hails from the rural town of Roxboro, located north of Raleigh. He is 26 years old. Rural areas, Black voters, and young people are her primary targets as she tries to sell the president’s achievements, such as the bipartisan infrastructure bill, to them.
“Damn, Anderson, you’re 26 now, girlfriend,” people often comment to me. “What gives you such a rush when you think about planning an event for an 80-year-old?” “Clayton said,” he said. For the simple reason that I hail from a now-desolate rural area of this state. Furthermore, the locals should be able to look forward to a bright future.
Two advertisements airing on Black-owned television and digital sources showcase a personal testimonial from a Black farmer praising the advantages of Biden’s policies; this is part of the early outreach to rural Black voters that the Biden campaign has begun.
The survival of many Black farmers is precarious. Spokesperson Patrick Brown, of Henderson, North Carolina’s Brown Family Farm, claimed, “Joe Biden gets it” in an advertisement. “Our community is directly addressed by the laws passed by the Biden-Harris administration.”
A concentration on HBCUs
The Biden campaign has also used digital ads to promote funding for HBCUs, such as geotargeting ads around homecoming events at South Carolina State University, North Carolina Central University, and North Carolina A&T University in South Carolina.
Those kinds of messages, according to Douglas Wilson, a political strategist who is on the board of the New Rural Project, which aims to engage voters in rural areas, could help win over Black voters at a time when Biden is seeing strains in a crucial coalition member, especially if they promote economic initiatives that benefit Black entrepreneurs and communities.
A lot has been achieved, but not all that Black voters were hoping for in the first four years has been achieved, according to Wilson. “It’s going to take a big effort to make sure that message continues to get out, so I’m glad the president is starting that now as early as possible.”
He continued, “I believe that voters will eventually come home to the president,” in reference to the growing likelihood that Donald Trump will be the Republican nominee.
A case of Democratic ideals in flux?
“Wishful thinking,” Woodcox called the prospect of Democrats running for North Carolina in 2024.
Expanding into North Carolina “is probably going to be counterproductive,” Woodcox noted, although he acknowledged that it is acceptable for a campaign to want to increase its map size at this stage.
Older voters have skewed Republican since 2008, and North Carolina has become a more grey state overall. Additionally, Woodcox noted that he is not contesting in the same state as Barack Obama.
“Showing up” is the most important thing Biden and Harris can do before November, according to Clayton.
‘I simply want to know who I’m voting for.’ I encounter people on a regular basis who are like that, right now. “I long to shake their hand and learn from them,” Clayton declared. His message is highly sought after. The vice president should speak to them. We Democrats in North Carolina don’t feel ignored no matter where we are, and they want us to know that we’re essential.
