President Joe Biden’s campaign chair, Jen O’Malley Dillon, said on Monday she is “bullish” on Biden succeeding in the battleground state of North Carolina, previously won by former President Donald Trump in 2020.
Biden and Trump earlier this year became the presumptive 2024 Democratic and Republican presidential nominees, respectively. Polls have shown that the results will be tight, as the pair are statistically tied in most surveys or having only marginal leads.
Battleground states will play a key role in determining the election due to the Electoral College, which awards each state a certain number of electoral votes based on population. A presidential candidate needs to secure 270 electoral votes for victory, and winning the national popular vote does not guarantee success. Surveys from battleground states may be more telling than those of national polls.
O’Malley Dillon on Monday appeared on John Heilemann’s Puck News podcast Impolitic as she discussed the presidential race and Biden’s battleground-state strategy.
She agreed that in addition to Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Nevada, Arizona and Georgia, North Carolina is also seen as a battleground state for the Biden campaign, adding that she is “bullish” on the Tar Heel State.
Newsweek has reached out to Biden and Trump’s campaigns via email for comment on Monday.
“Yes … I think the job of the campaign is to keep as many battleground states in play for as long as possible so we can navigate any flexibility in the race … At the end of the day, all we have to do is get to 270 and the easiest path is certainly through the blue wall and that is obviously where there is a lot of core coalition of strength for the president and a lot of opportunity. But I am bullish on North Carolina and I don’t f*** around on saying that,” O’Malley Dillon said.
She continued to explain why she is “bullish,” pointing toward Biden’s slim loss of the state in 2020 and the effects of a restrictive abortion law passed in the wake of the Supreme Court Dobbs decision, which overturned Roe v. Wade.
“So here is why, because we lost it by 1.3 percentage points in 2020 and we did not play there, number one. Number two, obviously there is some element of demographics but I don’t believe that’s enough, but what’s happening in North Carolina, what we saw in 2022 with the extreme bills that are moving through the restrictive abortion law there is worse than most other places in the country. And we have seen a beyond-extreme candidate running for governor in [Mark] Robinson,” O’Malley Dillon said.
She added: “So you put all those pieces together and you put in the fact that this is a stronghold for a lot of opportunities for organizing for the electorships for the last few years, you have a strong young population. We really see that this is in play.”
In 2020, Biden won Michigan by 2.8 percent of the vote, Pennsylvania by 1.2 percent and Wisconsin by less than 1 percent. Trump carried North Carolina with 50.1 percent.
Republicans have a long history of success at the presidential level in North Carolina over the past 40 years, losing only once, when former President Barack Obama carried the state in 2008.
Core issues such as abortion have been consistent talking points for voters amid the election. In North Carolina, the procedure is banned after 12 weeks of pregnancy, with limited exceptions. There are exceptions through 20 weeks for rape and incest, and through 24 weeks for “life-limiting” fetal anomalies. There is also a medical emergency exception.
Biden was seen leading Trump in critical battleground states, according to a poll released earlier this month.
A CBS poll conducted by YouGov showed Biden leading Trump in battleground states, with 50 percent versus Trump’s 49 percent in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. The poll, with a sample of 2,063 adults in the U.S. and 1,615 registered voters, was conducted from June 5 to June 7 and had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.8 percentage points among registered voters.
Other polling of battleground states last month showed Biden trailing Trump or the two candidates neck-and-neck. Bloomberg/Morning Consult survey data released in May showed Trump beating Biden in Arizona, Georgia, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. The candidates were tied in Nevada, and Biden was narrowly ahead in Michigan.
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