Democrats put up billboards, focus on Project 2025 as Donald Trump visits Charlotte

Democrats preempted former President Donald Trump’s visit to Charlotte Wednesday with a news conference featuring local leaders and billboards encouraging people to look up Project 2025 , the infamous playbook outlining a potential conservative administration should he win the presidency in November.

Bojangles Coliseum visitors and Charlotte residents alike can see the Democratic National Committee billboards at two interstate interchanges that urge people to search Trumpsproject2025.com , a website created by the Democratic Party. Democrats frequently have pointed voters to the project because of Trump’s ties to the effort, and they highlighted it again during Wednesday’s news conference with Mecklenburg Democratic leaders and residents.

North Carolina Republicans call the focus on Project 2025 “grasping at straws.”

The billboards can be seen by north and southbound traffic on the east side of Interstate 485 at Wilkinson Boulevard. There are also billboards facing north and south on the east side of the interchange for Interstate 77 and Interstate 85.

“We’re empowering voters with the truth about Donald Trump so voters can get to the polls and reject Team Trump-Vance’s attacks on their rights, wallets, and democracy,” DNC spokesperson Abhi Rahman told The Charlotte Observer in an email.

What is Project 2025?

Project 2025 was spearheaded by conservative think tank Heritage Foundation and includes four policy objectives: restoring the family as the centerpiece of American life and protecting children, dismantling the administrative state, defending the country’s borders and securing God-given rights to live freely.

Although Trump has distanced himself from the project, saying he doesn’t know who is behind it, more than 100 of his former employees were involved in writing it, according to a CNN study. The over 900-page document calls to eliminate the U.S. Department of Education, place the federal bureaucracy under presidential control, add more political appointees who are aligned ideologically with the president and restrict abortion pill access.

“This toxic agenda gives voters all of the proof they need that Trump and Vance aren’t looking out for North Carolinians, they’re looking out for themselves and the billionaires bankrolling their campaign,” Rahman said.

Mecklenburg leaders speak out

Project 2025 would do “irreparable damage” to the country, Mecklenburg commissioners Vice Chair Mark Jerrell said during Tuesday’s conference. Jerrell warned about the project restructuring the government by making changes to the Department of Education and the Department of Justice.

“When we talk about making America great again … where are they trying to take us back to?” Jerrell said. “We are clear where we’re going, and we’re clear where they’re trying to take us.”

Braxton Winston, former Charlotte mayor pro tem and current labor commissioner candidate, told voters to focus on how Project 2025 would “throw working families directly under the bus.” It outlines changes to overtime pay that could have a “detrimental effect” on North Carolina workers, he said.

Some of its overtime rule changes include: suggesting different overtime thresholds depending on the region, allowing employers to calculate overtime over two or four weeks instead of one, 40-hour week and that time to set up a home office does not qualify as overtime pay.

“This is just part of Donald Trump’s pattern of cozying up to large corporations and billionaires at the expense of working American families,” Winston said. “American workers and their families deserve much better. We have a choice this November, and honestly, it couldn’t be much more clear.”

Jerrell, Winston and other speakers encouraged voters to look toward Vice President Kamala Harris for the 2024 election.

Harris announced she would be running for president in November after President Joe Biden dropped out of the race on Sunday. Since then, Harris has been endorsed by enough Democrats to secure the party nomination.

Both Jerrell and Winston said Democrats across North Carolina communities are united behind Vice President Kamala Harris’s bid for president.

“The enthusiasm we’ve seen so far for Vice President Harris is undeniable,” Jerrell said “And North Carolina Democrats are strongly united behind her. We all know that the road to the White House runs through North Carolina, and we are ready to deliver a win for Kamala Harris this fall.

Republican response to Project 2025

Asked generally about the Democrats’ focus on Project 2025, NCGOP Communications Director Matt Mercer told The Observer in an email that Democrats are “fear mongering” because they don’t have anything else to offer voters.

The Trump-Vance Administration’s policies are laid out in Agenda 47 , the collection of Trump’s policy plans laid out on his campaign website, and the 2024 Republican party platform, Mercer said.

“The radical Democrats are grasping at straws and attempting to cover up how they misled the American people about Joe Biden’s mental decline and are now handing their presidential nomination to Kamala Harris, who did not earn a single vote throughout the 2024 primaries,” he said in a statement. “We are confident North Carolina will deliver for President Trump a third time in November.”