(The Center Square) – Inextricably linked forever, Republican U.S. Senate candidate Michael Whatley welcomes second-term President Donald Trump to his campaign trail on Wednesday.
The stop is mostly a dash and go for the Floridian that picked Whatley as his chairman of the Republican National Committee on the way back to the White House in 2024. Remarks are expected about 7 p.m. at Gastonia Municipal Airport.
The president’s wife, Melania, made a stop at Mountain View Elementary School in the Ashe County community of Jefferson on Tuesday to focus on community resiliency and technology in education. The noon visit couples recovery from Hurricane Helene and Mountain View’s curriculum focus on artificial intelligence, robotics and engineering.
While Melania Trump’s visit is not campaign style as typically stereotyped, the politics ongoing with artificial intelligence and the recovery from the state’s worst major disaster are relevant to this year's midterm election.
Wednesday at 10 a.m. in Gastonia, state Sen. Woodson Bradley, D-Mecklenburg, stands with a mother, Alexis Stadler, and others including Chairwoman Anderson Clayton of the North Carolina Democratic Party in support of Democratic candidate Roy Cooper.
In published reports, the campaign of Whatley says, “President Trump’s visit is helpful, and Michael Whatley looks forward to welcoming him to Gaston County. We need Republicans energized and there’s no one who energizes Republican voters to turn out and voter better than President Trump.
Clayton, in published reports, says, “I think it just goes to show you right now how scared Republicans are in this state, and how they’re treating every single county like it matters, and so are we in North Carolina. Democrats are not ceding any ground to Republicans this year.”
Trump has won the state three consecutive presidential cycles dating back 10 years to when he emerged from a 17-candidate primary to secure 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. He’s no different than many if not all of the other 44 men that have been presidents, save for Republican George W. Bush in 2002 and Democrat Bill Clinton in 1998, hitting poor approval marks at the midterms.
This U.S. Senate seat is viewed as a major player nationally in the quest for a majority in the chamber. Republicans have 53 seats today. In no particular order, Ohio, Michigan, Georgia, Maine, Iowa, New Hampshire, Alaska, Texas and Montana are the other top battlegrounds among 35 races. Two of those are special elections, the other 33 are in regular rotation.
The guest lists are backing it up, plus the more than $100 million combined advertising spend in the final 57 days.
Cooper earlier welcomed to his “Make Stuff Cost Less” campaign tour California Gov. Gavin Newsom. He favored the state’s Proposition 12 involving how meat sold can be raised that added costs for hog farmers in North Carolina, the No. 3 state in the nation for production compared to his state’s one-tenth of 1%.
No state in the nation had more people (9,600) than California to move to North Carolina, according to the latest U.S. Census Bureau state-to-state migration data.
Residential electricity rates, because of renewable energy mandates, is second only to Hawaii; the $6.01 per gallon of unleaded gasoline and $8.21 per gallon of diesel, amid excise taxes, regulatory fees and specialized fuel-blending, puts both averages at highest in the nation; and accelerated wage increases for fast food ($20 per hour) and healthcare workers has increased operational overhead for local businesses.
Newsom’s California also has inflated costs of home construction and rent tied to impact fees, wage rules on subsidized projects and strict environmental reviews. And to balance the Medi-Cal budget, critics say the price for private insurance premium costs for families is driven up by state-level fees and assessments on managed care organizations.
The intrigue of a visit by a governor tugging along such economic woes for a "Make Stuff Cost Less" boost is arguably topped by U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren, the Massachusetts Democrat supporting the civil war uprising in the party. She was the featured speaker for the state’s Democrats the first Saturday in August.
She told the Raleigh audience, “Cost of groceries is up, cost of gasoline is up, cost of rent is up, cost of utilities is up, cost of healthcare is up.”
And it’s because of Republicans and Trump, she said. While not affiliated with the Democratic Socialists of America, she has endorsed many of their party platforms including saying New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s view of the future of the Democratic Party is where all should be going.
On its website “about us” section, the Democratic Socialists of America say, “Capitalism is a system designed by the owning class to exploit the rest of us for their own profit. We must replace it with a democratic socialism, a system where ordinary people have a real voice in our workplaces, neighborhoods, and society.
“We want to win ‘radical’ reforms like single-payer Medicare for All, defunding the police/refunding communities, the Green New Deal, and more as a transition to a freer, more just life.”
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