Delegate says North Carolina ‘back in play’ ahead of Democratic National Convention

RALEIGH, N.C. (WNCN) — Ahead of Vice President Kamala Harris’s visit to Raleigh on Friday, Democratic delegates from North Carolina are also preparing to head to Chicago for the party’s convention next week.

Brenda Pollard is among 168 delegates from North Carolina who unanimously backed Harris within hours of President Joe Biden exiting the race in late July.

“We came to the conclusion if he endorsed her, we’re behind her,” Pollard said. “And we endorsed her unanimously. We’re excited about it. I think we were on a short runway. We had an excellent candidate and we were prepared to move forward.”

Pollard, who lives in Durham, will take part in her fifth convention next week. It’ll be the first in-person DNC since 2016, as the 2020 convention was conducted remotely due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It will feature speeches by former presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, as well as Biden, CBS reports.

The Harris campaign says this week’s event in Raleigh before the convention will include a policy-focused speech on tackling price gouging and lowering costs.

“Leaders are visionary,” Pollard said. “Not what you have done, but what are you going to do? What are you going to do for us? That’s what we hope to hear from her. I think it’s history in the making. I think America is ready for this candidate and ready for this leadership.”

A new poll released Wednesday by the Cook Political Report showed significant movement in the race in North Carolina since the spring. It shows 46 percent of voters backing Harris compared to 44 percent for Trump. In the last poll in May, Trump had an 8-point lead over Biden.

“Our younger Democrats, who’ve never participated in the process, are coming forward,” Pollard said. “We have Republicans who have taken the courage to step forward and they’re going to be with us too. We’re seeing a momentum that we’ve never had before.”

Former president Donald Trump planned to address economic issues during a campaign event in Asheville on Wednesday.

Caroline Sunshine, a spokesperson for Trump’s campaign, said, “The record stands that on every given objective measure when it comes to the economy, inflation and immigration, the American people are not better off than they were four years ago.”

Sunshine described Harris’s ascension to being the Democratic Party’s nominee as “selection versus election”.

On the DNC, Sunshine said, “I expect to see a lot of whitewashing, a lot of rhetoric, a lot of Hollywood celebrities being brought in to distract from the reality of the Democrat Party. What Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have created the last four years is a lot of suffering for the American people.”

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