Joe Biden to visit Durham on Sunday as North Carolina’s early voting numbers soar
More than one million North Carolina voters have already cast their ballots, and Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden is hoping to increase those numbers.
Biden will visit Durham on Sunday for a 1 p.m. event aimed at getting out the vote, his campaign announced Friday. No other details were released Friday afternoon.
Biden held an event in Charlotte on Sept. 23 in his last appearance in the state. Biden is leading President Donald Trump in national polls and holds a small polling lead in North Carolina.
Election Day is Nov. 3. But North Carolinians have been voting since early September via absentee by-mail ballots and, since Thursday, by in-person early voting. More than 556,000 people have voted by mail and more than 468,000 have voted in-person as of Friday afternoon.
North Carolina has 7.2 million registered voters. More than 4.7 million voters cast ballots in the 2016 presidential contest in North Carolina.
Democratic vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris was scheduled to travel to Asheville and Charlotte on Thursday, but canceled due to a coronavirus positive test among her staff. Harris instead did a virtual event. Harris visited Raleigh on Sept. 28.
“We want you to start voting up and down the ballot,” Harris told North Carolina supporters Thursday.
Biden, Harris and other surrogates have appeared in digital ads imploring supporters to vote.
Trump has made regular stops in the state, which has 15 electoral votes that are key to any path to victory for Trump. He has made five visits to the state in the last six weeks, including a rally at the Pitt-Greenville Airport on Thursday, and announced another visit for Wednesday in Gastonia.
Trump, 74, told about 2,000 supporters that he would win North Carolina.
“This is the most important election of our lives, maybe in the history of our country. So get your friends, get your family, get your neighbors, get out and vote,” Trump said in North Carolina.. “The red wave is coming. The red wave is coming.”
Vice President Mike Pence spoke an event in Selma on Friday.
Actress Kerry Washington and her husband, former NFL player Nnamdi Asomugha, will be in Durham for three voter mobilization events Saturday on behalf of the Biden campaign. In-person early voting runs through Oct. 31.
Biden, 77, served as vice president from 2009 to 2017. President Barack Obama, with Biden on the ticket, carried North Carolina in 2008, but lost the state while winning re-election in 2012.
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