MONROE, N.C. — Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance appeared in Monroe just over a week before the November election.
Vance hosted a town hall at the Charlotte-Monroe Executive Airport early Friday evening inside the Boggs Hangar. The visit happened days after former president Donald Trump visited three North Carolina cities. Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, was in Greenville and Concord on Monday before visiting Greensboro on Tuesday.
The Tar Heel State has been at the forefront of the 2024 presidential election, with both Vice President Kamala Harris and Trump making multiple trips to North Carolina for rallies. Their running mates, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Vance, have also made numerous stops in North Carolina to rally supporters before Election Day on Nov. 5.
The town hall saw some citizens get to ask questions of the Ohio senator. One came up about immigration and housing.
“We’ve got a lot of illegal aliens who are put in front of the line in front of American citizens," he said, "we talk about the price of housing that has gone up 40%. That’s what happens when you have 25 million people and you put them in -- that should go to American citizens.”
On the same day as Vance's visit, former president Barack Obama was be in Charlotte to campaign for Harris.
North Carolina voters are the second-most powerful voters, a new WalletHub study found. Nevada came in No. 1 overall, with the rest of the top five being Georgia, Arizona, and Wisconsin. South Carolina came in at No. 18, but the "vote power score" for Palmetto State voters is significantly lower than North Carolina.
"If you live in one of these states, you could quite literally have the fate of the election in your hands," WalletHub analyst Chip Lupo said.
The winner of North Carolina will earn 16 electoral votes. Trump won the state in 2020 and 2016. Barack Obama was the last Democrat to win the Tar Heel State, defeating John McCain in 2008. You have to go all the way back to Jimmy Carter in 1976 to find the last time a Democrat won before Obama.
Tickets to the Vance event on Friday can be found here.