It’s a kitchen table kind of election—just ask North Carolinians.
As former President Donald Trump makes the case that he can manage the economy better, Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris must persuade voters she can improve things even as she defends the administration she has co-helmed for almost four years.
Even as Democrats tout job growth, tech reshoring, and other achievements under President Joe Biden, many Americans feel the pinch of aggregate inflation, high housing prices, and more.
Kannapolis
Kannapolis offers one vantage point on the Tar Heel State.A blue-collar former mill town north of Charlotte, it’s split between two red counties, Rowan and Cabarrus, and is home to a diverse array of residents. A statue of the late NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt, Sr. honors one famous native. And while there’s no statue (yet) of George Clinton, the funk music pioneer, he too was a Kannapolis native.
On the morning of Oct. 17, there was a long line to vote at the Kannapolis train station. Thankfully, it was, as they say in Kannapolis, a blessed day: sunny, dry, and, though cool, not cold.
A nearby Irish pub was decked in Halloween decorations. Three flags—American, Irish, and Blue Lives Matter—fluttered above the entrance. Signs for Harris, Trump, and other candidates crowded the grass nearby.
During a recent appearance on “The View,” the vice president was asked if she would have diverged from Biden on any choice he made as chief executive.
“There is not a thing that comes to mind,” she said, later adding that she would appoint a Republican to her cabinet. She also suggested health care and domestic violence would be more significant in her administration, though without overtly criticizing the current president.
Phyllis Kimble, a retired IT worker, had a ready answer when asked what she hoped the vice president would do differently from Biden.
“I just hope she’ll make this economy better than what it is. That’s my main thing,” the Harris voter said.
Alfonso Patterson, another early voter for Harris, told The Epoch Times he is concerned about his rising property tax bill.
It clearly matters to Jordan and Lauren Williams. They came to the train station to vote for Trump and gubernatorial candidate Mark Robinson, also a Republican.
“As a business owner, I need the economy to get back to where [it was],” Lauren Williams said.
“Just go out for a day and get gas, buy groceries, and try to go get a Big Mac, and see where you’re at,” she said.
Bo Bollinger, a newly retired regional service manager for a scientific company, put it more bluntly.
Talking Economics, or Not, in Durham
As the people of Kannapolis cast their early ballots, both campaigns were stumping throughout the state.Surrogates for Trump took part in a multi-day North Carolina bus tour. Participants included Michael Whatley, the Trump-aligned GOP leader who formerly oversaw the North Carolina Republican Party.
The nominee himself was missing but would not be not for long. He was scheduled to speak in Asheville, a city hit hard by Hurricane Helene, on Oct. 21. That same day, he will join an “11th Hour Faith Leaders Meeting” in Concord, North Carolina, with his son Eric and Trump administration alumnus Dr. Ben Carson.
Harris was also outside the state. Yet she had held a rally at East Carolina State University in Greenville on Oct. 13.
Trump’s running mate, Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), held a rally in Wilmington, North Carolina, on Oct. 16, and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Harris’s running mate, visited the state on the afternoon of Oct. 17. Walz appeared in the gymnasium of a Durham, North Carolina, community center alongside a blast from the Democrats’ past, former President Bill Clinton.
Clinton and former President Barack Obama have actively campaigned for Harris. Meanwhile, although former President George W. Bush has not endorsed a candidate this cycle, his vice president, Dick Cheney, has backed Harris.
At the Durham event, before the two national Democrats appeared, local politicians warmed up the crowd. One was Mark-Anthony Middleton, Durham’s mayor pro tempore.
“As Durham goes, so goes the state of North Carolina,” he said.
That’s not quite right, though optimistic enough for a political speech.
Home to elite Duke University and the Research Triangle, a regional tech hub, Durham County always votes for Democrats—in 2020, by more than 80 percent. In one precinct, No. 13, Biden claimed almost 93 percent of the vote. Yet in the rural northern third of the county, more than 78 percent of Precinct 28 voters chose Trump.
Near an early voting site at the gateway to Duke’s tree-lined campus, Elizabeth, an undergraduate who was “not sure yet” of her major, wore a coconut tree-themed t-shirt, signaling her enthusiasm for Harris. She had already cast her early ballot.
The economy did not make her list of top issues, which were, in her words, “women’s rights and access to voting.”
“I think it’s more of a popular thing to support the Democrats on a campus like Duke,” said Dana Baca, a pre-med student. The early voter for Harris noted that Duke’s Republican organization had recently reactivated.
She didn’t highlight the economy as a motivation for her vote either. Her reasons for choosing Harris were, in order of importance, abortion, concern for racial minorities, and U.S. policy on Israel.
“I support whatever Vice President Harris and President Biden are doing,” she said, adding she hoped for a rapid cease-fire in the Middle East.
Noah Mason, who had just voted for Harris with his parents, said the economy is his top concern, “tied in with climate change, especially.”
Mason, who is bartending while taking a gap year from college, hopes to make enough money to move out of his family’s home without taking on massive debt.
His mother, Kelli, believes the Democrats have managed the economy effectively. She cited tech investments—North Carolina’s Wolfspeed is getting CHIPS Act funding for semiconductor component manufacturing in nearby Siler City—as well as overall economic growth.
“We have 401(k)s that have done exceedingly well in the past two years and three years,” she said.
At the Durham community center, Clinton focused on the kitchen table.
He touted a proposed national price-gouging law as a fix for what he called “residual inflation,” blaming large grocery chains for the high price of groceries.
Clinton also promoted Harris’s plan to raise the earned income tax credit. He also praised Biden’s record, pointing to employment growth that Trump has attributed in part to post-COVID “bounce-back jobs.”
Other topics—for example, foreign policy at a time of rising international tension—were almost afterthoughts.
Clinton finally mentioned Israel and the Palestinians near the close of his speech. That was when a young woman in the crowd waved a small Palestinian flag.
Cassidy, who did not wish to share her last name, told The Epoch Times she didn’t brandish the flag as an act of protest.
“I’m voting for Harris, no questions asked,” she said. “It’s more like, ‘Hey, stop funding Israel.’”
She said her own life experiences, including weight fluctuations and a lack of money during grad school, had left her with “empathy for other minorities that I’m not a part of.”
But Cassidy’s stated empathy for those with different perspectives did not necessarily extend to conservatives, particularly her own flesh and blood.
The Apex View
In Apex, North Carolina, first-time voter Ryder Shaw and his mother, Ashley Anderson, rejected the idea of not empathizing with a family member, even if they have different politics.“I don’t really care what someone’s political view is as long as they have good personal values,” Shaw said.
Along with Shaw’s girlfriend, fellow first-time voter Alaina Tumminelli, they cast their early ballots for Trump.
“It honestly seems like both candidates want to do the same thing for our country, but in different ways,” said Tumminelli, who studies at East Carolina University with Shaw.
Apex, named for the high point of the Chatham Railroad, is a blend of older and newer Southerners. At a downtown restaurant, men and women in Southeastern Conference prep attire peruse an encyclopedic menu of bourbons. On a side street, open front porches are lined with inviting rocking chairs.
Unlike Cassidy and some others in Durham County, Shaw, Anderson, and Tumminelli brought up concerns with the economy, including inflation. They weren’t reassured by the deceleration of inflation in recent months.
“As a college student, I feel like it can be hard sometimes to even go get simple groceries or a tank of gas,” Shaw said.
“The salary you make has gone up, but you’re still paycheck to paycheck,” Anderson said.
Shaw said his friends, all of whom are conservative, care a lot about this election as future first-time home buyers. He described one friend who wanted to live his American Dream: get married, have kids, and buy a home.
“He doesn’t know if he’s going to be able to get a house,” Shaw said.
“It’s hard to plan out a life when you don’t know where the economy’s going to be, or if it’s even going to improve,” Tumminelli said. “It could be the difference between you being able to support a family and you barely being able to support yourself.”
For now, she and her boyfriend are supporting two dogs, Bowser and Andy, and a cat—“Sylvester, but we all call him Pink Nose,” Tumminelli said.
But not every early voter in Apex thinks the economy is bad.
Suresh Balam, an engineer, wouldn’t reveal who earned his vote.
“Both have their pros and cons,” he said of Trump and Harris.
“As far as the markets are concerned, I think it’s all doing good,” Balam said when asked about economic conditions.
Inflation, he added, “is probably under control now.”
