(The Center Square) – With one congressional race a toss-up, and the election of governor and attorney general razor close as well, a North Carolina delegate to the Republican National Convention says there is room on the coattails of Donald Trump on Nov. 5.
That’s encouraging for Mark Robinson and Dan Bishop, respectively, in their challenges against Josh Stein and Jeff Jackson. The Robinson-Stein governor’s race may be the nation’s most expensive, and each is close.
“The president has done a great job of bringing more people in with his campaign message,” Jill Homan said inside Fiserv Forum Arena in Milwaukee, Wis., during a Thursday afternoon interview with The Center Square’s Greg Bishop. “I think Trump is ahead in North Carolina, but we need to work as if we’re 10 points behind. I think Trump has an opportunity to have coattails and help other candidates. It’s so important that we continue to work hard.”
The convention opened Monday and wraps Thursday night, when Trump gives his acceptance speech of the Republican nomination. At publication, he was set to face incumbent President Joe Biden as speculation swirls that there’s change for the Democrats on the horizon, possibly as soon as this weekend.
“You have folks in North Carolina that have been hurt by inflation,” Homan said. “You have counties where wages have not increased over the last year. If wages aren’t increasing – prices sure have increased. People have fallen further behind. They think about where they were under President Trump.
“It really is the simply proverbial question, ‘Are you better off now than you were four years ago?’ We’re going to continue to have these conversations and listen to voters, and hear their concerns, and share with them Trump’s policies.”
Homan, from Archer Lodge in Johnston County, told The Center Square she and the delegation have been briefed consistently since last weekend’s assassination attempt on Trump in Butler, Pa. She said the “divine intervention” of the nation’s 45th president opting to show a slide earlier in his speech, thus causing the turn of his head, is “nothing short of miraculous.”
“We think Trump is meant to be here,” she said.
The speech earlier in the week on Tuesday from Nikki Haley, a previous member of Trump’s team at the United Nations and former governor in South Carolina, was pivotal, Homan said. She was impressed with Haley’s genuine invite to independents, Republicans and Democrats.
“From all different segments of the party, but also, in the political spectrum, I think you’re going to find a very unified party,” Homan said. “It’s a party that wants folks to come in, unaffiliated and independent.”
While the economy has topped North Carolina-specific polls on the top issue, and nationwide polls, Homan assured “border security is a very big issue.” She shared statistics, noted Vice President Kamala Harris as “the border czar,” and said it comes down to one party offering security, the other an open border.
“That was her one job, and she has not done it,” Homan said. “So the blame is right there at her feet. We need to hold her accountable. Whether it’s a ticket of Biden-Harris, or whether it’s a ticket of Harris or somebody else, or a ticket of another Democrat. The fact of the matter is, it’s the same policies.”
