Trump to visit storm battered region of North Carolinapublished at 16:19 British Summer Time
Brandon Drenon
US reporter
Donald Trump will be making campaign stops in the storm-battered areas of western North Carolina on Monday.
It’s the part of the state where Hurricane Helene caused the most devastation and where some people are still without clean water, internet service or power.
The area is also a Republican stronghold, Michael Bitzer, chair of Catawba University’s Department of Politics, told the BBC.
“If you take those 25 counties that were designated by the administration as disaster counties, and you add up all of their votes, they’re basically 61% Republican to 39% Democratic [for the presidential race],” he said.
Bitzer said that reality could make “a very narrow margin of victory for Republicans even more narrow”.
North Carolina is one of seven key battleground states that could determine the election, and it’s a place that Democrats have invested into heavily this election cycle, having barely lost the state in 2020 – by just 1.4%.
Recent polling suggests the race in North Carolina is a tie between Trump and Harris.
“Flip a coin,” Bitzer said.
“That’s the best predictive model that any of us have right now.”