Donald Trump is no longer the favorite to win the state of North Carolina in the 2024 presidential election, according to a leading election forecaster.
Sabato’s Crystal Ball announced this week that it moved North Carolina from ‘Leans Republican’ to ‘Toss up’ amid a surge in support for Vice-President Kamala Harris.
“This is the first time this cycle that we have moved any electoral votes away from the Republican column into the Toss-up column,” analyst wrote.
North Carolina now joins Nevada, Arizona, Wisconsin, Michigan, Georgia and Pennsylvania as toss-up states.
President Joe Biden won 6 out of the 7 toss-ups states in 2020 on his way to winning the White House. He fell short in North Carolina by 1.3 percentage points.
A Democratic presidential candidate hasn’t won North Carolina since President Barack Obama in 2008.
But, with Kamala Harris at the top of the ticket, Democrats in North Carolina believe they can carry the state in 2024 due to the surge in Democratic voter registration in the state since Biden dropped out of the race last month.
Furthermore, there is also a closely watched gubernatorial race where Democrats believe the far-right MAGA candidate Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson will drive turnout to thwart him. .
A New York Times/Siena College poll released last week shows Harris leading Trump 49 percent to 47 percent in the state. FiveThirtyEight’s average of polls in North Carolina has Harris slightly ahead of Trump by less than 1 percent.
