ATLANTA – With the first debate over their 2024 presidential rematch over, President Biden and former President Trump will remain in the South, holding rallies in states they hope to take back in November.
After facing Biden onstage at CNN’s presidential debate in Atlanta on Thursday night – where Biden struggled with a raspy voice and delivered halting responses – the president is scheduled to head to Raleigh, North Carolina, for a rally on Friday in the state he narrowly lost to Trump in 2020.
Trump, who experts declared the debate winner, is scheduled to hold a rally on Friday in Virginia, a state he lost by 10 points four years ago.
Biden’s raspy voice and choppy debate performance
The Republican Party Carried Virginia In the race for the White House.
You have to go all the way back to then-President George W. Bush, who won reelection in 2004.
But recent polls suggest the race is close.
Check out the latest FOX News Poll for Virginia
A Fox News poll conducted June 1-4 found that in a head-to-head matchup, the Democratic president and his Republican predecessor each had an approval rating of 48%.
In the multi-candidate race, Biden has 42% of the vote, Trump has 41%, Democrat-turned-independent Robert K. Kennedy has 9%, and Green Party candidate Jill Stein and independent Cornel West have 2% each.
Republican presidential candidate and former president Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally in Richmond, Virginia, Saturday, March 2, 2024. (Photo by The Associated Press/Steve Helber) (AP Photo/Steve Helber)
“Politics here is in disarray and I think that’s reflected in the polls. There’s no clear front-runner,” Dave Richards, a political science professor at the University of Lynchburg, said when asked about the apparent deadlock in the race in the state.
Behind Closed Doors Republican National Committee At a retreat for big donors this spring at a resort in Palm Beach, Florida, Trump campaign senior advisers Suzie Wiles and Chris LaCivita, along with veteran pollster Tony Fabrizio, highlighted internal polling results that suggested “Minnesota and Virginia are both clear swing states.”
“In both states, Donald Trump is in a position to flip key electoral votes in his favor,” the poll provided to Fox News emphasized.
The former president’s campaign also aims to open eight offices in Minnesota and 11 in Virginia and hire staff to manage the new offices, according to a Trump campaign memo obtained by Fox News last week.
The Republican governor says his state is involved in the presidential election.
Virginia’s Republican governor, Glenn Youngkin, agrees, at least for his state.
“It’s June, so a lot of things are still unresolved, but it looks like Virginia is leading, and I’m excited about that,” the governor said in an interview with Fox News Digital a few days before the Fox News poll was released.
Former President Donald Trump and Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin will meet for the first time in June 2024. (Trump camp)
Youngkin is scheduled to join President Trump at a rally on Friday at the historic Greenbriar Farm in Chesapeake, Virginia.
The governor’s appearance is likely to fuel further speculation about Youngkin’s possible vice presidential run. The two politicians met in person for the first time two weeks ago to discuss flipping Virginia in the fall’s election.
Click here to get the FOX News app
Asked about Youngkin in a recent interview with Fox News reporter Aisha Husney, Trump said “he’s a great guy” and “I would consider it.”
Biden is scheduled to visit North Carolina’s capital of Raleigh on Friday. The Biden campaign said the president and first lady, Jill Biden, will be accompanied by “Grammy-nominated artist, entrepreneur and philanthropist Fat Joe and multi-platinum musician and entrepreneur E-40.”
The president lost the state by just 74,000 votes four years ago, and the latest polls in the state show Trump leading by a mid-single digit margin.
He has stepped up his campaign in North Carolina, running radio and television ads as he seeks to become the first Democrat to win the state since former President Barack Obama in 2008.
President Joe Biden gestures while speaking about his economic plan during a visit to the Abbots Creek Community Center in Raleigh, North Carolina, on January 18, 2024. REUTERS/Nathan Howard (Reuters/Nathan Howard)
Biden’s visit next week will be his fourth this year to North Carolina, a state that has seen a surge in new residents since the 2020 election that could benefit the incumbent Democratic president.
“Given that the margin between Trump and Biden was only 75,000 votes, and that registered Republicans are turning out at a higher rate than registered Democrats, I think the Biden campaign sees an opportunity,” said Michael Bitzer, chair of the political science department at Catawba College.
But Bitzer stressed that “we only have a chance to make this deployment successful if we invest in our ground operations.”
Get the latest 2024 campaign updates, exclusive interviews and more on Fox News Digital’s Election Hub.
