Harris Campaign Appears to Be Surrendering North Carolina

With just a week to go before Election Day, Democrat Vice President Kamala Harris' campaign is pulling millions of dollars of advertising from major North Carolina markets, the Carolina Journal reported Tuesday.

In a post Tuesday morning on X, ad tracking firm AdImpact reported Harris' campaign reserved $2.7 million Monday for a barrage on ads in the state in the week leading up to Election Day on Nov. 5. But on Tuesday morning, the campaign canceled $2 million worth of those ad reservations.

The move was announced a day before Harris' scheduled rally Wednesday in the state capital of Raleigh, the only media market in North Carolina where she is leading her Republican rival, former President Donald Trump, who also is holding a rally Wednesday in North Carolina in Rocky Mount.

In the Journal's latest statewide poll, Harris and Trump are tied with 47% each but Trump leads from Charlotte to western North Carolina by 12 percentage points and by 9 points in North Carolina's coastal area. They are tied in central North Carolina at 45% each and Harris leads in the Triangle area of Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill by a 55%-40% margin.

North Carolina, the only battleground state Trump won in 2020, is almost two weeks into early voting, and registered Republican voters are significantly outpacing Democrats. More than 3 million votes have been cast in the election, the Journal reported, and in comparing turnout to this point in 2020, Dr. Andy Jackson of the Civitas Center for Public Integrity at the John Locke Foundation in Raleigh, posted on X that Democrats' turnout is down by more than 340,000 voters and Republican turnout is up by 9,000 voters.

Democrats also have been hurt by lower turnout in key voting blocs: Black and young voters, according to the Journal. The early vote totals for Black voters have dropped by more than 40,000 from 2020, according to Dr. Michael Bitzer, chair of political science and director of the Center for North Carolina Politics and Public Service and Catawba College. In 2020, 92% of Black voters cast their ballots for Joe Biden, according to the Pew Research Center.

Plus, the Journal reported that more voters in the state aged 18-25 have voted Republican than Democrat, beating their turnout levels from 2020 at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Younger Republicans are up by 1,600 votes, closely in line with 2020 turnout, the Journal reported, but young Democrats are down by 37,000 votes, placing the groups neck-and-neck in early voting turnout.

Newsmax reached out to the Harris campaign for comment.

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