Vance says North Carolina crucial for a Trump victory

Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio) said it would be 'very hard' for former President Trump and himself to win the general election this fall without a victory in North Carolina.

“If you just look at the Electoral College map … it’s very hard for us to win unless we’re able to get North Carolina,” Vance told reporters from the state on Saturday. “I feel very good about it.”

Vance noted that he and Trump are likely going to win the state's rural areas, but said voters need to show up and “we know what we need to do.” He criticized Vice President Harris and her policies that have “failed North Carolina.”

Vance’s comments come just after The Hill’s Decision Desk HQ shifted the race in North Carolina to a toss-up.

Once seen as a state that surely would have gone to Trump, the Tar Heel State is now seen as a battleground after the launch of Harris’s campaign.

The vice president held two rallies in Charlotte and Greensboro this week, just days before Vance’s visit. The attention on North Carolina signals how badly each party wants to win the state’s 16 Electoral College votes.

Harris is leading Trump by 0.1 percentage points in North Carolina, according to an aggregation of polls. A Quinnipiac University poll released Monday declared the race too close to call for either candidate.

Since President Biden stepped aside and Harris took over the ticket, the race has tightened as she’s polling better than Biden did in several key swing states.

Just before Biden dropped out of the race, Trump had a 4.9 percentage point lead over Biden in North Carolina.

Ballots will begin being mailed to voters in North Carolina on Sept. 24. It’s later than the original Sept. 6 date after independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. dropped out of the race and tried to get his name off the ballot to help Trump in critical states.