- Donald Trump has won North Carolina, according to the AP and CNN.
- Both Harris and Trump campaigned extensively throughout the state, which has 16 electoral votes.
- Harris performed strongly in the Raleigh and Charlotte areas, while Trump did well in rural places.
Former President Donald Trump has won North Carolina, according to the Associated Press and CNN.
The victory in the Tar Heel State is an important win for Trump, who was a frequent presence in the state before the general election.
Both candidates worked hard to reach voters throughout North Carolina, making frequent stops in the state to rev up support among their respective political bases. Harris sought to activate support from minority voters and young voters, while also making a pitch to independents and moderate Republicans on issues like the economy and reproductive rights. Meanwhile, Trump stuck to a conservative message on immigration and social issues to turn out his backers.
Western North Carolina, including Asheville, was hit especially hard by Hurricane Helene. The storm devastated the region with flash flooding and landslides in late September. Both Harris and Trump visited the region after the storm as they sought to rally residents ahead of what will be a long road to recovery.
Trump won North Carolina in 2016 and 2020, but in both instances the margins of victory were under 4 points.
In the state’s high-profile gubernatorial race, state Attorney General Josh Stein, a Democrat, defeated Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, a Republican.
For much of the year, the race was relatively competitive. But in a bombshell CNN story published in September, the network reported that Robinson had made a series of racist, antisemitic, and sexually explicit comments on a pornographic site over 10 years ago — which put the contest squarely in the national spotlight.
Before the article was published, Stein already had a sizable advantage over Robinson in most public polls. But after the details of the report became public, Stein’s advantage over Robinson grew much wider. And Trump, who had long praised Robinson, seemingly began to distance himself from the man whom he said earlier this year was “Martin Luther King on steroids.”
Robinson has strongly denied posting the comments attributed to him in the CNN article, and in October he filed a defamation lawsuit against the network.
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