Harris campaign seizes on suburban women as a key part of its North Carolina strategy
Source: NBC News
Sept. 21, 2024, 5:00 AM EDT
When Vice President Kamala Harris took the reins of the Democratic nomination in late July, something happened in North Carolina. Volunteers started pouring in by the thousands. Of the more than 23,500 people who stepped forward, 94% of them had never done so before, according to the campaign. In the week after President Joe Biden stepped aside, voter registration among women overall spiked and was even more pronounced among women of color, according to a tracking firm.
And all of it happened before the worst scandal yet hit GOP gubernatorial candidate Mark Robinson, in which he proclaimed himself, according to CNN reporting, a “Black Nazi.” Robinson had already been regularly featured in North Carolina ads targeting women that show him advocating for a ban on all abortion and saying it isn’t about the life of a mother. “It’s about killing a child because you weren’t responsible enough to keep your skirt down,” Robinson says in one video clip.
The turmoil around Robinson and the signs of a surge in energy around Harris are sustaining Democrats’ optimism in the Tarheel State, particularly among women, even though the state hasn’t gone blue since Barack Obama won it in 2008. Part of the Harris campaign strategy in North Carolina, according to a campaign official, includes attempting to bulk up turnout not just among Black voters but also among women in and around the suburbs.
That is on top of attempting to make inroads in rural parts of the state. They also are targeting Republicans they have identified as having been turned off by Trump — or Robinson. That includes in counties where Nikki Haley, the former governor of neighboring South Carolina, overperformed in the Republican primary. At a Sept. 12 rally in Greensboro, some of Harris’ biggest cheer lines came around reproductive rights, an issue animating female voters across the country.
Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/kamala-harris-campaign-suburban-women-north-carolina-strategy-rcna171904
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