By Ben Rappaport
Kamala Harris has opened a campaign office in Robeson County as part of a larger effort to woo rural North Carolina voters.
The campaign office, which opened in July, is in Pembroke, where the Republican National Committee opened an office in early 2022 to keep up the momentum of local voters’ support of GOP candidates. Democrats handily won Robeson County for decades, but voters picked Republican Donald Trump in 2016 and 2020.
Now, Democrats want to win back voters in Robeson County, including members of the Lumbee tribe.
“Robeson County is as important as anywhere else in this state,” state Senate Democratic Leader Dan Blue told a group of faith leaders in Lumberton on Saturday. The event supplemented a tour across eastern North Carolina by North Carolina Democrats in May to engage with Black and rural voters.
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Blue, who represents Wake County, was joined at the event by Democratic National Committee Chairman Jaime Harrison and former state Rep. James Gailliard of Nash County.
“I believe that if we increase the vote by 15% in the Sandhills area and in the east, we will win North Carolina,” Gailliard said. “And if we win North Carolina, Kamala Harris is going to the White House.”
Harrison told the crowd the Democratic Party was pouring resources into Robeson County so voters will understand the importance of the November election locally and nationally.
“It’s your voices, it’s your activism, it’s your work that really shapes the future of this community and the future of North Carolina,” he said. “What you do here won’t just be within the bounds of the state, but in the eyes of the world.”
Robeson is one of the most diverse counties in the nation: 39% of residents are Native American, 25% are white, and 23% are Black. Lumbee voters’ shift toward Republican candidates has garnered national attention, including a recent story published by USA Today. With 60,000 members, the Lumbee are the largest Native American tribe east of the Mississippi River.
There are more than 33,700 registered Democrats in Robeson County, more than double the number of Republicans. But some moderate Democrats, along with many of the roughly 26,300 unaffiliated voters, say the GOP better aligns with their views on abortion and other social issues.
Trump made a campaign stop in Robeson County in 2019, helping to secure a red wave in the region. Three years later, the RNC opened its Pembroke office, the first of its kind aimed at Native American voters.
A Trump campaign official told NBC News in August that its North Carolina operation includes 65 paid staff, more than 50 aligned campaign offices and more than 150 paid canvassers working for allied organizations.
The Harris campaign’s Pembroke office is one of 26 across the state, with six in rural communities. There are 230 statewide staff members, and more than 18,000 North Carolinians have volunteered for the campaign, according to a campaign spokesperson.
The Pembroke office has three full-time organizers — one of whom is a member of the Lumbee tribe — and several volunteers who will call voters, conduct canvasses, host debate watch parties and more.
Efforts to win voters in Robeson County are crucial because the statewide margin will likely be slim. Trump won North Carolina in 2020 by just 1.3 points, his narrowest margin of victory in that election.
An aggregate of recent polls by FiveThirtyEight shows Harris tied or leading Trump by as much as three points in the state. Cook Political Report recently moved North Carolina from “lean Republican” to a “toss-up,” citing Harris’s ability to energize moderate Democratic voters.
The Harris team doesn’t expect to flip many rural counties, according to reporting by Politico. But narrowing the gap could help carry Harris and down-ballot Democrats to victory.
“The key to decreasing margins in rural areas is to show up and compete everywhere — which is exactly what we’re doing across the country,” a Harris campaign memo obtained by Politico said.
Harris campaign officials say their rural North Carolina strategy includes touting her role as vice president in the Biden Administration’s work to increase broadband access and expand Medicaid.
The strategy also includes educating voters about the potential dangers of the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025, a conservative blueprint for American politics. Trump has attempted to distance himself from the initiative.
