Trump heads to Greenville as NC Republicans struggle with early voter turnout

President Donald Trump will hold a campaign rally Tuesday in Greenville, following an appearance Monday by Vice President JD Vance at the other end of the state in Hendersonville. They’re aiming to increase Republican voter turnout in two key Congressional races and North Carolina’s Senate contest.

The high-profile visits come at a challenging time for North Carolina Republicans. Democrats are out to a stronger-than-usual lead in early voting, while Republicans are trailing their 2022 numbers.

Trump and the party are also facing underwater approval ratings in North Carolina and nationally amid higher costs for fuel and groceries and an unpopular war.

A recent Washington Post poll of 2,500 U.S. adults found that 33% approve of Trump’s job performance, while 66% disapprove. The president’s approval rating was the lowest recorded in the poll across his two terms.

The same poll found Democrats leading Republicans by eight percentage points among likely voters in the national generic ballot, a measure of which party voters would like to see control Congress.

The Trump rally will take place at Pitt-Greenville Airport at 7 p.m., two weeks before Election Day. His visit comes as Democrats work to flip the open U.S. Senate seat held by retiring Republican Sen. Thom Tillis.

Through Oct. 18, North Carolina voters had cast more than 525,000 ballots, about 36% more than at the same point in the 2022 midterm election, according to the state board of elections.

Registered Democrats accounted for 45% of those ballots, compared with about 19% from registered Republicans. Unaffiliated voters, who make the largest share of North Carolina’s registered voters, cast 34% of the early votes.

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Democrats and unaffiliated voters have driven the increase. Democratic ballots were up about 52% from the same point in 2022, while unaffiliated voters’ ballots were up about 60%. Republican ballots were down nearly 9%.

Michael Bitzer, a political scientist at Catawba College who studies North Carolina elections, says the early voting data so far is a strong indicator of voter enthusiasm, although there are many days of early voting still to come.

“The first day of in-person early voting has given us the first clear evidence that the energy surrounding North Carolina’s 2026 midterm election is translating into ballots,” he said.

Democratic former Gov. Roy Cooper leads Michael Whatley by 14 percentage points in the U.S. Senate race, according to a recent WRAL/WSOC poll. The poll found 54% of likely voters supporting Cooper and 40% supporting Whatley.

The same poll found that just 37% of likely voters in North Carolina approved of Trump’s job performance, while 60% disapproved.

Whatley, a former chair of the Republican National Committee, has closely aligned his campaign with Trump and his agenda.