North Carolina voters affected by Hurricane Helene are determined not to let the storm prevent them from voting for former President Donald Trump, Sen. Ted Budd, R-N.C., told Newsmax on Tuesday.
North Carolina is considered one of seven battleground states that will decide the presidential election outcome between Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris.
Officials said North Carolina surpassed its 2020 early voting record and that turnout in western counties hit by Hurricane Helene outpaced the rest of the state.
Budd, appearing on "Wake Up America," said the effects of Helene on voting have been "actually the opposite of what we thought early on."
"We thought so many people would be displaced or unable to even make it to the polls. But those folks, I mean, they're crawling over creeks. They are riding in on four wheelers. They're voting," Budd told co-hosts Alison Maloni and Sharla McBride.
"They've been voting early as well in unprecedented numbers. So, these people are crawling over broken glass to go vote for Donald Trump and [Ohio Sen.] J.D. Vance. I'm so impressed with them. They're taking care of their very lives and trying to figure out the road ahead for themselves and their neighbors and their communities personally, but they know how important it is to vote."
Budd said Trump's experience as a successful businessman can help rebuild areas that were ravaged by the hurricane.
"Nobody understands how to rebuild western North Carolina like somebody who has built cities and who has changed skylines," Budd said. "So, we need somebody that knows how to build and rebuild as the president of the United States, not somebody that's been a lifetime bureaucrat. We need somebody that's an entrepreneur and knows how to get North Carolina back on track."
McBride asked Budd whether Trump, in delivering his closing message at a Monday rally in Raleigh, North Carolina, was convincing enough to motivate voters to cast their ballots for him.
"Oh, he surely has. He has left nothing in the locker room. He's put it all out there," Budd said. "He's coming home in wee hours of the morning from rallies yesterday [Monday]. So much energy. I don't know how he does it. J.D. Vance is doing the same thing. So they are taking nothing for granted. Not just in North Carolina, but in all these swing states and our whole country.
"You've seen me venture into New York, do a rally in California. So it's been amazing where they've gone, southwest Virginia, places that they traditionally wouldn't have gone, they're venturing into, and so I'm just so proud of them. Look, no result is guaranteed. That's why we have to turn out and vote. But they have certainly put in every effort and have been so organized."
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