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WINSTON-SALEM, North Carolina (AP) – President Donald Trump is fighting to fill a vacancy on the Supreme Court, howling with unfounded allegations of voter fraud and warning that violent mobs are infiltrating the suburbs.
But on a recent morning along Arbor Street, a quiet tree-lined street lined with majestic brick and Tudor colonials near Winston-Salem, the women targeted by Trump’s messages faced far more tangible threats.
As conservative activists roamed the neighborhood, a young mother, holding a baby, screamed through a closed window that she was in quarantine. Across the street, another focused on teaching his children their daily lessons at the kitchen table.
And a few doors down, Christina Donnell, 49, an independent who voted for Trump four years ago, said through a black mask that Trump’s “terrible” handling of the pandemic and divisive leadership in general are her mainstays. worries.
“It’s embarrassing for the country,” Donnell, a former Washington-based attorney, said of Trump’s leadership. “It is a shameful model.”
In one of the nation’s largest swing states, Trump’s drive to inject new dynamics into the final weeks of the 2020 election is overshadowed by the terrifying realities of everyday life during a pandemic. Trump and his allies hope the growing struggle for the Supreme Court nomination will help unify a fractured Republican Party that has lost its grip on college-educated suburban voters, particularly white women.
But for many, the coronavirus and related economic challenges are far more pressing issues.
Trump’s defiance is sharp here in North Carolina, a state his top advisers describe as a “must win.” A loss in state, which Democrats have accomplished only once at the presidential level in the past 30 years, would make Trump’s path to a second term incredibly difficult and point to serious challenges elsewhere on the electoral map.
Public polls, backed by private discussions with campaign strategists for Trump and Democrat Joe Biden, indicate that North Carolina remains a real problem five weeks before Election Day. And lest there be any doubts about Trump’s concerns about his position here, he has traveled to North Carolina every week for the past five weeks, second only to Pennsylvania.
Trump’s position will also help decide the races for governor and senator, a set of competitive races that has drawn more political advertising dollars to North Carolina than any other state in the nation. More than $ 246 million has been spent or set aside to communicate with North Carolina voters online and on television about the presidential and Senate races so far, according to media tracking firm Kantar-CMAG. Florida follows with $ 236 million and then Arizona with $ 223 million.
Trump also sent Vice President Mike Pence to North Carolina twice in the past five weeks, in addition to four visits from Trump’s children.
The president’s daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, a native of North Carolina, led a Women for Trump event in rural eastern North Carolina last week to help energize the president’s base. I was scheduled to visit again on Monday.
“This is a must-win state for whoever becomes the next president,” Lara Trump said in an interview.
She said the Supreme Court debate could help motivate the rank and file on each side, including some “close aides” who may not have voted at all. But she pointed to a more serious concern for suburban women.
“When it comes to suburban women, they want safety and security. They have seen what has happened to many of our Democratic-led cities across the United States, “Lara Trump said.” It’s absolutely terrifying to see the chaos, the destruction, the violence. “
After his comments, he led an event for about 200 people in which the pandemic was not mentioned at all on stage or by several voters who asked questions. The Supreme Court appeared only once. The conversation became much more focused on the possibility of voter fraud, an issue that President Trump has repeatedly raised as polls show him lagging behind, although experts report there is no significant evidence of such fraud.
As in other swing states, the Democrats’ shutdown message has focused on healthcare, especially the Trump administration’s ongoing judicial fight to repeal former President Barack Obama’s healthcare law and protections for those with pre-existing conditions that are part of it.
However, Biden’s team has relied heavily on publicity to get its message across, because the candidate himself has not had a regular presence in North Carolina, or anywhere else, during the pandemic. Biden made his first trip as a Democratic nominee to the state last week. His running mate, Kamala Harris, is scheduled to make his first appearance Monday at a Raleigh event focused on healthcare.
“He needs to get back to his game,” said former North Carolina Gov. Jim Hunt, a Biden ally, calling on Biden’s campaign to step up the poll in person. Hunt said the election is “as tight as a tick.”
North Carolina is a clear example of the deepening divisions that have defined American politics in the Trump era.
Obama in 2008 was the only Democrat to dominate the state after 1976, but he continues to trend towards a bluer shade of purple thanks to the influx of transplants from the north with college education that have been concentrated in urban and suburban Carolina. North, especially around Charlotte and Raleigh. . Those booming regions are increasingly voting for Democrats, while the more rural areas of the state are increasingly voting for Republicans.
It’s really a case of two North Carolinas where voters focus on completely different sets of issues, said Morgan Jackson, a prominent Democratic strategist who works on the state’s Senate and gubernatorial races.
Undecided voters in the suburbs went from Obama in 2008 to Trump in 2016 and threaten to lean towards Biden because of the pandemic.
“When you think about the set of problems that they are focused on, their lives are still centered on COVID,” Jackson said, noting that many have school or college-age children whose lives have been transformed by the pandemic several months after their death. first. exploded in the United States.
Biden’s team privately believes he has already won the suburbs, while those close to the Trump campaign are hopeful that the Supreme Court fight may divert voters’ attention from the pandemic, especially as the fight unfolds. by confirmation intensifies in the coming weeks. Trump nominated Federal Judge Amy Coney Barrett to fill Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s vacancy over the weekend. Republicans hope to finalize confirmation before the November 3 election.
The drama of recent weeks is making life difficult for conservative leaders like Chris McCoy, a senior adviser to the group Americans for Prosperity Action, who has spent months reaching out to swing voters in the suburbs to help North Carolina Republican Senator Thom Tillis to win a second term. .
“This has been one of the most grueling counting efforts I have ever been a part of,” said McCoy, a veteran of North Carolina politics. “It is very delicate out there. We have good days and bad days. “
Back on Arbor Street, there were more signs on the lawn expressing support for Black Lives Matter than for Trump.
Donnell explained that she voted for Trump four years earlier because she thought he would be better off in economics and taxes. But two years into her presidency, she was so shocked by his behavior that she left the Republican Party and went independent.
Still, she is not sure how she will vote in November. Nor is she a “fan” of Biden.
The Supreme Court can influence his vote, but not in the way Trump expected.
“I would hate to see the court go ultra-conservative. I’m a lawyer. That is a big problem for me. … I am concerned that women’s rights may disappear, ”Donnell said. “That’s what I would lean towards Biden.”
