North Carolina
Biden campaign chair: Florida not a battleground but ‘bullish’ on North Carolina
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WASHINGTON ― The chair of President Joe Biden’s reelection campaign said she does not consider Florida a battleground state in the 2024 election but is “bullish” on winning a different state that Donald Trump carried the last election − North Carolina.
The Biden campaign aggressively talked up Florida being in play for Biden after the state’s Supreme Court in March upheld Florida’s strict abortion laws and also cleared the way for a referendum guaranteeing the right to an abortion to go before Florida voters on the November ballot.
But in an interview with Puck News published Monday, Jen O’Malley Dillon, the campaign’s chair, said, “No,” when asked directly whether she sees Florida as a battleground state.
Florida, with 30 electoral votes up for grabs, last voted Democratic in a presidential election in 2012, when President Barack Obama edged Republican Mitt Romney by less than 1 percentage point. It’s shifted red in the two elections since. Trump, the former president, carried Florida over Hillary Clinton 48.6%-47.4% in 2016, and he expanded the margin of victory to 3.3 percentage points over Biden in 2020.
In a statement to USA TODAY, the Biden campaign insisted the president can carry Florida in November and touted recent campaign investments in the state − including television ads running this week − even if the Sunshine State isn’t among top battlegrounds.
The Biden campaign, which has 28 staffers working in Florida after making an additional 20 hires this month, will have 13 offices across Florida by the end of the week. Biden visited Tampa, Fla. in April to discuss access to abortion and Vice President Kamala Harris gave remarks in Jacksonville, Fla. in May.
“Florida is in play for President Biden and Democrats up and down the ballot,” Dan Kanninen, the Biden campaign’s battleground states director, said in a statement. “The president has a strong story to tell on the issues that matter most to Floridians, which is why our campaign continues to scale up our presence and investments into the state.”
More: Is Florida now in play for Biden? 3 takeaways for 2024 from court’s abortion rulings
The most heavily contested states of the 2024 campaign are six swing states that Biden won in 2020: the so-called “Blue wall” states of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, as well as Georgia, Arizona and Nevada.
The Biden campaign has circled North Carolina, which Biden lost by 1.3 percentage points to Trump in 2020, as a prime possible pick-up − and invested heavily there − while the Trump campaign has talked about flipping two Biden states to expand the map: Virginia and Minnesota.
“We have multiple paths to victory,” O’Malley Dillon told Puck News, referring to the 270 electoral votes to secure victory, later emphasizing the Tar Heel State in her interview. “I am bullish on North Carolina, and I don’t f— around in saying that, because I was bullish on Arizona (four years ago) and that’s because we looked at it very closely.”
More: The next Georgia? Biden campaign targets North Carolina to reshape 2024 electoral map
Biden flipped historically red Arizona into the Democratic column in 2020, becoming the first Democrat to win the state since Bill Clinton in 1996.
Why so bullish on North Carolina?
North Carolina, which last voted Democratic in 2008 and has 16 electoral votes, is attractive for Biden and Democrats for several reasons.
Biden 2020 loss to Trump in North Carolina was the smallest margin of all the states he lost. And North Carolina’s booming suburbs with college-educated voters around Charlotte and Raleigh’s “Research Triangle,” combined with its sizable Black population, is a similar formula that put Georgia, once a reliably red state, in play for Democrats.
“We lost it by just 1.3 percentage points in 2020 and we did not play there, number one. Number two, obviously, there’s some element of demographics, but I don’t believe that’s enough,” O’Malley said of North Carolina.
O’Malley Dillon, who was campaign manager during Biden’s 2020 run, above all pointed to “extreme laws” that have passed the Republican-controlled North Carolina, including new abortion restrictions, and a “beyond-extreme candidate running for governor,” referring to Mark Robinson, North Carolina’s Republican nominee for governor.
Democrats believe the state’s new abortion law, which bans most abortions after 12 weeks of pregnancy, will help energize their base. And they believe Biden can benefit from the candidacy of Robinson, a firebrand Republican lieutenant governor with a trail of controversial statements. Robinson is running against Josh Stein, North Carolina’s Democratic attorney general, in the race to replace outgoing Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper.
“If you put all those pieces together … we really see that (North Carolina) is in play,” O’Malley Dillon said.
Trump currently leads Biden in North Carolina by 5.8 percentage points, according to the Real Clear Politics average of polls. Trump leads Biden in Florida by 7.6 percentage points, according to polling averages.
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HAMPTON, Tenn. (WVLT) – The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency said its wardens are investigating the eighth boating death of the year following an incident on Watauga Lake.
At around 7 p.m. on Friday, the TWRA was dispatched to a boating incident at Rat Branch boat ramp after the caller said the operator had fallen overboard in the no-wake zone and did not resurface.
The victim, identified as 36-year-old Alexander Luster, of Boone, North Carolina, was participating in a bass tournament and fell overboard prior to the start of the event, TWRA officials said. First responders recovered his body shortly after 11:30 p.m.
TWRA said an autopsy has been ordered, and the incident, which is the eighth boating death in Tennessee this year, remains under investigation.
Copyright 2026 WVLT. All rights reserved.
RALEIGH, N.C. (WTVD) — A graduation ceremony for NC State University’s Department of Biological Sciences at Reynolds Coliseum on Friday night left hundreds of family members outside, frustrated and emotional after they were not allowed into the building.
Inside, graduates were met with pomp and circumstance as they walked across the stage to accept their degrees.
Outside, people shouted in confusion as they realized they would not be permitted to enter.
“I’m hurt. She’s hurting. We’re hurt,” said Dr. Darlene Jackson, a grandmother from Winston-Salem. “They’re asking, can’t we get here? But this is ridiculous. Ridiculous.”
We get here, and we are turned away. That’s BS. It shouldn’t be happening like this. They did not plan this well,
– Sally Charlet, NCSU grandparent
Families said they arrived about an hour before the 7:30 p.m. ceremony, only to find a line wrapped around the building. Many said they were eventually told the venue had reached capacity.
“They are saying the fire marshal shut it down because it’s too crowded,” Jackson said. “They should have known how many occupy this. They should have had it in a different place.”
Sally Charlet said she flew in from Florida earlier in the day to watch her granddaughter graduate.
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“We get here, and we are turned away,” she said. “That’s BS. It shouldn’t be happening like this. They did not plan this well, and they should have tickets. That would have made a lot of sense.”
According to GoPack.com, Reynolds Coliseum seats about 5,500 people.
Some families said they were especially devastated after years of supporting their students’ work.
This is awful, and it needs to be made right.
– Eddie McFall, NCSU parent
“It’s very disheartening,” said Rhonda Bartone, whose son earned his Ph.D. In toxicology. “He did a five-year program getting his Ph.D., and we have no family. And they’re seeing him get his Ph.D. right now. We had to text his professor and ask him to please take some pictures of him. It’s hard not to cry.”
Several people outside shared photos sent by students inside showing empty seats.
“There was unfortunately not better planning for the hundreds of students, maybe even thousands of students, and, of course, thousands of students, even more people, parents, siblings, loved ones,” said Julia Norton, whose fiancé earned his Ph.D.
One father, Eddie McFall, who is also an alumnus of NC State, said he has three children at the university, including a senior graduating Friday.
“His mother was five feet from the door when they shut it down,” he said. “Won’t let anybody in there.”
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About 45 minutes after the ceremony began, someone came outside to address the remaining crowd. Families were told their only option was to watch a livestream from the student union or on their phones.
“I can go to my house and watch the livestream,” McFall said. “Who’s the event coordinator? Who from the school did this? This is awful, and it needs to be made right.”
NC State did not respond to questions about how the situation unfolded or why the event was not ticketed. The university said it provided a livestream for those unable to attend in person and had posted earlier in the week advising visitors to expect delays around the coliseum.
Copyright © 2026 WTVD-TV. All Rights Reserved.
NORTH CAROLINA — Fifteen lineworkers from North Carolina’s electric cooperatives recently traveled to Guatemala to help bring first-time access to electricity to a rural village.
The group spent three weeks working in El Plan Nuevo Amanecer.
Crews constructed three miles of line, bringing power to more than 50 homes, a school, two churches and the community’s only health clinic.
Photo: North Carolina’s Electric Cooperatives
Without access to bucket trucks or heavy machinery, volunteers worked by hand across rugged terrain.
The project helped bring light to the village, creating new opportunities for education, economic growth and safer everyday life for the community.
The effort was done alongside NRECA International.
Volunteer lineworkers represented several North Carolina electric cooperatives, including EnergyUnited, Union Power Cooperative, Cape Hatteras Electric Cooperative, Jones-Onslow EMC, Edgecombe-Martin County EMC, South River EMC, Surry-Yadkin Electric Membership Corporation and Rutherford EMC.
Photo: North Carolina’s Electric Cooperatives
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