North Carolina
‘You win by going across the entire state’: Trump and Harris vie for North Carolina
Landon Simonini found himself standing in the middle of a Charlotte highway lane at 2.30 in the afternoon, stuck in an artificial traffic jam while drivers waited for Kamala Harris’s plane to land and the motorcade to clear for the rally later that day.
He was out of his car, because why not? He wasn’t going anywhere soon. His red Make America great again cap stood out among others cursing the traffic gods.
Simonini, born and bred in Charlotte, builds houses. His livelihood depends to some degree on Charlotte’s tremendous growth. But all growth isn’t great, he said.
“This is a traditionally southern state,” Simonini said. “Over 100 people move to Charlotte a day. That is changing the election map. I am born and raised in Charlotte, for 33 years. I have lived here my entire life. I went to school at UNC Charlotte. This is my city. It is a conservative city and I want to keep it that way.”
But in America’s nail-biting 2024 presidential election, North Carolina is now in play. It rejoins a select list of crucial swing states whose voters will decide if Harris becomes America’s first woman of color to win the White House or if Donald Trump returns to the Oval Office from which he wreaked political chaos for four years.
Up until about two months ago, the odds didn’t look like this.
Though the margins in North Carolina have been close for decades in presidential races, Obama in 2008 was the last Democrat since 1976 to win the state, eking out a win by three-tenths of a percent. Biden’s weakness earlier this year threatened to turn North Carolina into an also-ran contest. Every poll through June had Trump beating the president by at least two points, with an average around six.
Party affiliation can only tell so much in a state with a storied history of split-ticket voting. Almost four in 10 of North Carolina’s 7.6 million registered voters choose not to affiliate with a political party. But between August 2020 and August 2024, Republicans added about 161,000 new registered voters in North Carolina while Democrats lost about 135,000 registered voters.
Trump won the state by about 75,000 votes in 2020, a margin of about 1.3%, his closest winning state, before losing the election. Biden won the four states with closer margins – Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Arizona and Georgia.
Biden’s withdrawal and Harris’s ascent scrambled the math. North Carolina’s secretary of state, Elaine Marshall, described the reaction as euphoric.
“It’s such a dramatic contrast from that venom, that poison, that hatred that’s coming from Republican events,” she said. “That contrasts so strongly with the hope and the expectations of the future from Democratic party events.”
The Trump campaign reportedly abandoned its efforts to mount a serious contest in New Hampshire, Minnesota and Virginia recently. That leaves seven states in the political battleground – Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and now North Carolina.
Counting electors aside from the remaining non-battleground states, Harris starts with 226 and Trump with 219. North Carolina can deliver 16 electoral votes to the victor. A candidate must have 270 electoral votes to win the presidency. Only Pennsylvania has more electors among the remaining battleground states.
A re-energized Democratic electorate has been visible in polling data, which now shows the state as tied. Part of that is the roughly 20% of North Carolinians who are Black; increased African American voter turnout helped Obama win the state in 2008.
But the enthusiasm is far more widespread, and was visible this week, when Harris drew 25,000 people to two rallies this week, one in Charlotte and another a few hours later in Greensboro. It was the vice-president’s 17th trip to North Carolina and her ninth just this year.
If Harris wins North Carolina and holds in Michigan and Wisconsin, she need only win one of the four other swing states to clinch the presidency. But if Trump wins North Carolina, he can win the presidency with Arizona, Georgia and Wisconsin even while losing elector-rich Pennsylvania and Michigan.
Melissa Benton waited on one foot for traffic to clear Tuesday night outside the Greensboro coliseum. Her right knee rested on a scooter, keeping her broken ankle off the ground. She came up from Charlotte for the event, she said.
Benton is an Atlanta-area transplant. She left Georgia out of frustration with how her community had changed with growth. The irony is not lost on her.
Locals complain about the rising cost of living, and skyrocketing housing costs are first on the list. Even people who have weathered the slow-motion collapse of the furniture industry over the last 30 years are being saddled with property tax increases as their homes rise in value.
“Every time I meet a native Charlottean, I’m always like, ‘Listen, I’ve been where you are right now,” Benton said. “I swear I’ll be a great citizen, because I understand what it’s like for new people to come in.” She has a keen eye on municipal problems, services and infrastructure. “But it’s also keeping Charlotte Charlotte, and we’ve lost sight of that in some big cities.”
Affordable housing is a crisis in Charlotte, much like it is in Atlanta and Greensboro and most large cities in the US. But in North Carolina, it’s not just an urban problem. Lenoir – pronounced “len-OR” – up at the edge of the Brushy mountain range of the Appalachians, is in one of 73 rural counties in the state, and it has a problem with market rate housing too. About a third of North Carolina’s voters live in rural counties.
The Democratic party has a field office in Lenoir. The lieutenant governor, Mark Robinson, held a campaign event there on Wednesday for his gubernatorial run. Marshall, the secretary of state, held a discussion there last week. No part of the state can escape battleground politics today.
Democrats have long expected a brutal fight in North Carolina, and have been investing time, money and personnel into the state for the last year.
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“The Democratic party is certainly trying to reach young people,” Marshall said. It’s also trying hard to connect with young women who may have abortion politics on their mind. “They’ve got Sunday school, and they’ve got work, getting the kids fed and kind of stuff. So suburban mom, working professional women, you know.”
Harris’s visit to North Carolina for her first rallies since the debate is no accident. North Carolina is that important. Trump has planned a rally in Wilmington on North Carolina’s coast next week. JD Vance, his running mate, will be in Raleigh next week as well. The Republican campaign has been sending surrogates to local events regularly. Two weeks from now, former housing secretary Ben Carson will speak at the Salt and Light conference of the North Carolina Faith and Freedom Coalition.
The Democratic party has 26 field offices in North Carolina with 240 paid staff, according to the campaign. The choices of placement for some of the offices, such as rural Wilson county in the state’s “Black belt” and Lenoir in western mountain country, speak to movement away from a focus on high-density urban territory that’s friendly to Democrats.
Democrats are also using their significant financial advantages in fundraising to swaddle broadcast and social media in a blanket of Harris advertising. Organizers say they’ve been on the air with ads for a year. Ad tracking firm AdImpact notes that Democrats have reserved about $50m in ad buys through the end of the cycle, with particular attention paid to Black and Spanish-language media outlets. Trump only began advertising in earnest in August.
But Republican campaign leaders view much of that effort as artificial.
“We feel like, from our standpoint, that the race is a toss-up, but we feel like we still have an advantage,” said Matt Mercer, director of communications for the North Carolina GOP. “One of the big reasons is our leadership. You know, we didn’t abandon a ground game at any level in 2020. What you’re seeing from Democrats is an effort to catch up.”
The Republican campaign is decentralized, Mercer said, accommodating far-flung efforts in a state that’s 560 miles wide from Manteo in the east to Murphy in the west. “You win statewide by going across the entire state, and that means going west of I-77 and east of I-95.”
“For every person that’s moving to Charlotte or Raleigh, you’ve also got retired couples moving to the coast, or you’ve got military deciding to stay in the state,” Mercer said. “You know, I think Democrats kind of fall into this trap where they think growth is all going to benefit them, and they’re just missing it.”
The GOP dominates North Carolina’s legislative branch, which has enough Republicans to override a gubernatorial veto. But North Carolina’s governor, Roy Cooper, is a Democrat and the state has elected a Democratic governor for most of the last 30 years, even as it has delivered wins to Republican presidents.
Josh Stein, North Carolina’s attorney general and the Democratic nominee to succeed Cooper, has maintained a consistent lead over Robinson throughout the year. Robinson is an unusually controversial candidate even by standards set in the Trump era, with a litany of offensive and antisemitic attacks made on social media or in public statements.
Robinson has tried to keep a low profile over the last few months, even as Stein has used his financial edge to batter Robinson with ads drawing primarily on the lieutenant governor’s own words. In recent weeks, Robinson has taken to the campaign trail, meeting with small groups in small towns far away from urban centers, haranguing the media and calling Stein’s ads deceptive. “Josh Stein is a liar,” he said, demanding that a news reporter convey that message to his opponent, along with a demand for a debate.
Stein has, so far, declined.
James Adamakis watched a Robinson stemwinder from a seat at Countryside BBQ in the small town of Marion, North Carolina, on Tuesday. It’s a popular stop for politicians in North Carolina’s rural mountains. A picture of Barack Obama’s visit in 2011 hangs proudly on the wall next to the cash register.
Adamakis works in juvenile justice. The military veteran supports Republicans because they’re tougher on crime he said. But he acknowledges that even people who share his political values may vote in peculiar ways in North Carolina.
He described the conversion of one of his friends into a Republican. “It was the economics, where he just kept seeing the inflation and buying groceries and everything,” Adamakis said. “He was like, why is the media and Biden saying that it’s good when it’s not? I think that the economy cuts across lines.
“Everybody you meet in western North Carolina still may vote Democrat, but they still don’t like that.”
But political diversity is about more than race in North Carolina. The economy of a place like Research Triangle Park near Durham is fundamentally different from the banking sector in Charlotte, or the tourism of the southern coast, or mountain towns struggling to reinvent themselves.
“It might be easier in my job if there were just one [swing voter], but there’s not,” Mercer said. And I think that dynamism is what makes the state so interesting and so hard to win, and why you truly need to understand the entire state.”
North Carolina
J.R. Smith Graduates From North Carolina A&T, Fulfilling A Promise Years In The Making | Essence
J.R. Smith has accomplished nearly everything a basketball player could hope to achieve. He spent 16 seasons in the NBA, won two championships, played alongside some of the biggest names in the sport, and built a reputation as one of the league’s most fearless scorers. Yet one of the achievements he seems proudest of arrived far from the court.
On May 9, Smith graduated from North Carolina A&T State University, earning a degree in Liberal Studies with a concentration in Applied Cultural Thought. For the 40-year-old former NBA star, the moment represented the ability to overcome a challenge he once believed might be beyond his reach.
Smith’s path to graduation was anything but conventional, because after entering the NBA directly out of high school in 2004, college wasn’t a part of the plan. Years later, following retirement from basketball, he enrolled at the Greensboro-based HBCU and joined the school’s golf team, becoming one of the most recognizable student-athletes in the country. His decision began with a conversation during a vacation in the Dominican Republic.
“Probably the golf trip with Ray Allen,” Smith told ESSENCE. “I was in the DR doing this trip and I saw Ray running back-and-forth to his computer and I asked him what he was doing, and that kind of tipped the whole thing.”
Returning to the classroom required Smith to confront challenges that had followed him since childhood. Diagnosed with ADHD and dyslexia at a young age, academics was a tall order. While he made a career out of hitting difficult shots in packed arenas, college often demanded something different. “To me being a student again,” Smith said when asked what was harder than playing professional basketball. “Being in the NBA and playing in the NBA was something I was born to do and for me academics was something that didn’t come easy to me.”
Over the course of five years, Smith committed himself fully to the experience of college. He worked with tutors multiple times each week, spent long nights completing assignments, and gradually became more comfortable in an environment he once resisted. “For me, it just gives me the opportunity to continuously get better,” he said. “As I got older, I actually wanted to do it more opposed to fighting against it when I was younger.”
Despite the championships, accolades, and financial success, Smith explains that there was one major factor that motivated him to graduate. “My main thing was keeping my promise to my mother,” he said. As news of his graduation spread, congratulations poured in from former teammates including LeBron James, Dwight Howard, and Richard Jefferson. Many celebrated the accomplishment as a reminder that growth does not end when a professional career does. Smith hopes others see something similar in his journey.
“To me just to inspire,” he said. “Inspire [people] to do something outside the box that they wouldn’t normally think of or normally do or something that they’re not good at and take your personal development as seriously as they could.”Smith’s story also serves as a powerful example of what HBCUs continue to provide: opportunity, community, and a place where people can reinvent themselves at any stage of life. “It’s never too late,” he said. “I don’t think it’s ever too late to go.”
North Carolina
Former staffer claims sexual harassment in ethics complaint against NC insurance commissioner
A Forsyth County woman has filed an ethics complaint against North Carolina Insurance Commissioner Mike Causey, alleging that the official sent her what she called inappropriate text messages for years while she worked in the Department of Insurance.
Causey, meanwhile, says he would welcome an investigation into the allegations, telling WRAL News in an interview this week: “The truth will come out.”
Former regulatory analyst April Taylor filed the complaint last week with the State Ethics Commission. The DOI said Wednesday it has received a copy of the complaint.
Taylor is alleging sexual harassment. She also claims Causey campaigned on state time and misused a state vehicle.
Taylor alleged last month that Causey sent her a series of inappropriate text messages during her nine years at the department. She made the allegations in an article published by The News & Observer.
On Wednesday, Taylor shared images of the text messages with WRAL. She characterized her relationship with Causey as “friendly,” citing family ties dating back before she worked there. But the messages reflect a more complicated dynamic.
“Just don’t let me catch you in the room alone,” reads one message.
“I might jump your bones. Watch out!!!” reads another.
The messages made her uncomfortable, she told WRAL News, adding: “At the time, I didn’t know how to respond.”
Taylor told state investigators that she has many more text messages and screenshots to prove Causey was campaigning on state time while at a department office in Archdale. She also said Causey used a state vehicle for personal use, including to attend her great-aunt’s wedding in 2025.
“Although Causey and I had a friendship,” Taylor said in her filing, “he crossed the line many times, leaving me feeling uncomfortable and violated.”
She said she first attempted to raise the concerns
– unrelated to the text messages
– about Causey to the Office of the State Auditor, related to his official capacity as the state’s Insurance Commissioner. She alleged that the auditor’s office expressed little interest in investigating. A spokesperson for State Auditor Dave Boliek challenged her narrative, saying her complaint “draws incorrect conclusions.”
In her complaint, Taylor said: “I am willing to take a polygraph exam and testify before legislatures. Evidence will be furnished upon request.”
In her role as an analyst at the department, Taylor’s job led to frequent communication with Causey.
Taylor, who resides between Greensboro and Winston-Salem, allowed WRAL to read through text messages exchanged with Causey over the years.
Much of the communication observed appeared friendly or work-related. But Taylor says some texts went too far – particularly those that commented on her appearance.
WRAL asked Causey about Taylor’s allegations. He declined to comment, saying it was a personnel matter. He added that he was open to an investigation into the initial allegations.
“We want to make sure everything is clear and transparent,” Causey said, “because we certainly have nothing to hide to the public, to the lawmakers, or to any of my fellow elected officials.”
Causey acknowledged to the N&O that he sent work-related texts to Taylor. But he told the newspaper that he didn’t recall sending comments related to her appearance. Taylor disputes that.
“Throughout the years, I thought they were inappropriate,” Taylor said. “I felt uncomfortable. I responded with laughing emojis because I didn’t know how to respond. What am I supposed to do, respond with mad faces? He may look at it as a form of rejection.”
Taylor said she was in an appointed position. “He could have let me go for any reason,” she said.
Asked why she didn’t push back against the messages, Taylor said: “I just didn’t want to make the situation uncomfortable. Just wanted to laugh it off.”
Several messages sent by Taylor to Causey were flattering in nature, including heart and smiling emojis, as well as references to Causey as a “handsome” man. “I felt the laughing emoji was my way of trying to shut it down,” she said.
A spokesperson for the department declined to comment on the allegations.
“Commissioner Causey and NCDOI will fully comply with any requests by the N.C. State Ethics Commission regarding this or any other matter,” Barry Smith a DOI spokesman, said in a statement.
North Carolina
‘Bonsai in the Blue Ridge’ exhibit brings dozens of displays to North Carolina Arboretum
ASHEVILLE, N.C. (WLOS) — The North Carolina Arboretum will host a bonanza of bonsai this week with “Bonsai in the Blue Ridge,” a limited-time exhibition of more than 50 living sculptures as part of the American Bonsai Society’s Learning Seminar 2026.
Between June 4-7, arboretum visitors can explore the exhibits for a $5 admission fee, along with the arboretum’s regular parking fee. A press release from the arboretum said there will also be opportunities to register for seminars, workshops and tours led by bonsai artists for an additional cost.
GROWING YOUR GARDEN? PLENTY OF PLANTS FOR PURCHASE AT THE ARBORETUM’S SPRING SALE
“The American Bonsai Society brings together people who share a passion for bonsai. Through world-class publications and events such as the Learning Seminars, ABS promotes and educates, sharing techniques that showcase North American artistic expression and encouraging the use of plant species that grow well in the United States, Canada, and Mexico,” ABS Convention Chair Scott Barboza said in a written statement.
FILE IMAGE of a bonsai plant that is part of the North Carolina Arboretum’s Bonsai Exhibition Garden. (Photo: North Carolina Arboretum)
Bonsai is the ancient art of shaping trees over time to create miniature living sculptures. The North Carolina Arboretum is no stranger to the art, having established the Bonsai Exhibition Garden in 2005, which showcases up to 50 specimens of traditional Asian bonsai subjects, tropical plants, American species and plants native to the Blue Ridge region.
IKEBANA INTERNATIONAL ASHEVILLE STAGES FLORAL DESIGN EXHIBITION AT NC ARBORETUM
“Bonsai in the Blue Ridge” takes place 5 to 7 p.m. Thursday, June 4, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday and Saturday, June 5 and 6, and 9 a.m. to noon Sunday, June 7.
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See a full schedule of events for this week’s seminar at americanbonsaisociety.org.
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