North Carolina
JD Vance holds first solo rally in North Carolina
RALEIGH, N.C. — Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance held his first solo rally in North Carolina Wednesday, touching heavily on inflation, housing affordability and immigration.
With less than 50 days until Election Day and less than a month until early voters cast their ballots, the campaign trail is heating up in the Tar Heel State.
This was just one of the many rallies held within the past week, with both Democrats and Republicans fighting for the state’s 16 electoral votes. Vice President Kamala Harris held a rally in Greensboro last week. Gov. Tim Walz, Democratic candidate for vice president, held a rally in Asheville Tuesday and former President Donald Trump will hold a rally in Wilmington Saturday.
Wednesday, Vance held a rescheduled rally from August at the Union Station for his first visit to the state’s capital. Supporters filled the venue, lining up outside of the station hours before the vice presidential nominee took the stage.
After giving his opening remarks, Vance began talking about Harris’s policies on American energy production to the packed audience.
JD Vance holds first solo rally in North Carolina (Spectrum News 1/Sydney McCoy)
“When you go to war on American energy and you have a vice president who seems to hate her own energy producers, it’s not just bad for the people who are producing American energy. And it doesn’t just raise costs on consumers, though. It certainly does that. It empowers some of the worst people in the world because they’re all getting rich,” Vance said.
He said he and former President Donald Trump’s plan would be to “drill baby, drill” and have hopes to bring more production of manufacturing and farming back to America.
“Our plan is very simply manufacture more in the United States of America, grow more food in the United States of America, self-reliance American jobs for American workers. That is the path to prosperity and also national security,” Vance said.
Other topics included illegal immigration, which he said has increased the price of many things within the states, including taxes, and brought drugs and crime to the country.
“Our message to illegal aliens who have come to this country, who’ve driven up the cost of housing, who have made it more expensive for Americans to afford a good life, to the drug cartels who have brought in pounds and pounds tons and tons of fentanyl into this country. Our message is simple. In six months, pack your bags because you’re going home,” Vance said.
Trump’s running mate also stated how many North Carolina families are not able to afford a lifestyle they could have three years ago, blaming the Biden administration.
“Home prices, especially here in Raleigh and some of the big cities, housing is completely unaffordable for young Americans. [It’s] 56% higher thanks to Kamala Harris’s policies. And I’ve got three kids, and I think I speak for all the parents and the grandparents out there. We want our young families to be able to afford the American dream of homeownership,” Vance said.
Vance, who said he at one point used to live pay check to pay check, did comment on the inflation report that was released a few hours prior to his speech, to which he argued a half a point decline will not help Americans.
North Carolina
2026 primary turnout report released for eastern NC counties; see your county’s numbers
Here are the voter turnout numbers for the 2026 primary election, according to the North Carolina State Board of Elections.
Hyde County had the highest voter turnout, while Onslow County had the lowest turnout. Check out what the voter turnout in your county was below:
BERTIE COUNTY
Ballots Cast:
31.85% (3,911 out of 12,280)
CARTERET COUNTY
Ballots Cast:
29.06% (16,543 out of 56,931)
CRAVEN COUNTY
Ballots Cast:
18.63% (14,119 out of 75,778)
DUPLIN COUNTY
Ballots Cast:
21.93% (6,981 out of 31,832)
EDGECOMBE COUNTY
Ballots Cast:
18.16% (6,428 out of 35,396)
GREENE COUNTY
Ballots Cast:
19.70% (2,147 out of 10,900)
HYDE COUNTY
Ballots Cast:
37.27% (1,123 out of 3,013)
JONES COUNTY
Ballots Cast:
25.91% (1,805 out of 6,966)
LENOIR COUNTY
Ballots Cast:
16.73% (6,251 out of 37,371)
MARTIN COUNTY
Ballots Cast:
17.61% (2,858 out of 16,228)
ONSLOW COUNTY
Ballots Cast:
11.44% (14,816 out of 129,537)
PAMLICO COUNTY
Ballots Cast:
24.03% (2,446 out of 10,180)
PITT COUNTY
Ballots Cast:
15.71% (19,429 out of 123,705)
TYRRELL COUNTY
Ballots Cast:
30.49% (723 out of 2,371)
WASHINGTON COUNTY
Ballots Cast:
28.66% (2,312 out of 8,067)
WAYNE COUNTY
Ballots Cast:
21.49% (16,408 out of 76,358)
North Carolina
Statewide tornado drill has NC schools and workplaces practicing safety
Wednesday, March 4, 2026 6:41PM
RALEIGH, N.C. (WTVD) — North Carolina schools and businesses took part in a statewide tornado drill Wednesday morning as part of Severe Weather Awareness Week.
The National Weather Service led the drill at 9:30 a.m., broadcasting it on NOAA Weather Radio and the Emergency Alert System. Schools, workplaces and households across the state were encouraged to join in.
The National Weather Service didn’t issue a follow up alert to mark the end of the drill. Instead, each school or business wrapped up once they felt they had practiced the procedures thoroughly.
Wednesday’s drill also replaced the regular weekly NOAA Weather Radio test.
SEE | New warning for parents amid new ‘fire-breathing’ social media trend
Make sure to download the ABC 11 Mobile App ABC11 North Carolina Apps for Connected TV, Mobile News, Echo
Copyright © 2026 WTVD-TV. All Rights Reserved.
North Carolina
North Carolina Rep. Valerie Foushee holds narrow lead over challenger Nida Allam
Nida Allam in 2022; Rep. Valerie Foushee (D-NC) in 2025.
Jonathan Drake/Reuters; Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
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Jonathan Drake/Reuters; Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
Incumbent Rep. Valerie Foushee holds a narrow lead over challenger Nida Allam in the Democratic primary for North Carolina’s 4th Congressional district as ballots continue to be counted.
In a race seen as an early test of whether Democratic voters desire generational change within the party, Foushee holds a lead of just over 1,000 votes with 99% of results in so far, according to the Associated Press.
Under state law, provisional votes will be counted in the coming days in a district that includes Durham and Chapel Hill. If the election results end up within a 1% margin, Allam could request a recount.
Successfully ousting an incumbent lawmaker is often extremely difficult and rare. However, there have been recent upsets in races as some voters are calling for new leaders and several sitting members of Congress face primary challengers this cycle.
Allam, a 32-year-old Durham County Commissioner, is running to the left of Foushee, 69, framing her candidacy as part of a broader rejection of longtime Democratic norms.
On the campaign trail, Allam ran on an anti-establishment message, pledging to be a stronger fighter than Foushee in Congress, both in standing up against President Trump’s agenda and when pushing for more ambitious policy.
“North Carolina is a purple state that often gets labeled red, but we’re not a red state,” she told NPR in an interview last month, emphasizing the need to address affordability concerns. “We are a state of working-class folks who just want their elected officials to champion the issues that are impacting them.”
She drew a contrast with the congresswoman on immigration, voicing support for abolishing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Foushee has declined to go that far, advocating instead for ICE to be defunded and for broader reforms to the federal immigration system.
Allam also clashed with Foushee over U.S. policy towards Israel. As a vocal opponent of Israel’s war in Gaza, Allam swore off campaign donations from pro-Israel lobbying groups, such as AIPAC, and repeatedly criticized Foushee for previously accepting such funds.
Though Foushee announced last year that she would not accept AIPAC donations this cycle, she and Allam continued to spar over the broader role of outside spending in the race.
Their matchup comes four years after the candidates first squared off in 2022, when Allam lost to Foushee in what became the most expensive primary in the state’s history, with outside groups spending more than $3.8 million.
However, this year is poised to break that record. Outside groups have reported spending more than $4.4 million on the primary matchup, according to Federal Election Commission filings.
WUNC’s Colin Campbell contributed to this report.
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