Trump heading to Greenville for rally at same venue Harris visited the week before

Former President Donald Trump will return to Eastern North Carolina on Monday, with just over two weeks to go until Election Day.

Trump will travel to Greenville to hold a campaign rally at the Williams Arena at Minges Coliseum, on the campus of Eastern Carolina University — the same venue where Vice President Kamala Harris held a packed rally Sunday.

During her rally, the Democratic candidate for president attacked Trump in ways that echoed criticisms the Republican has leveled against her and President Joe Biden.

Both the Trump and Harris campaigns have maintained a regular presence in North Carolina this week, with early voting beginning on Thursday.

Trump running mate and U.S. Sen. JD Vance of Ohio campaigned and took questions from reporters in Wilmington on Wednesday.

Harris running mate and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, meanwhile, is being joined by former President Bill Clinton in Durham on Thursday, before heading to a campaign event in Winston-Salem later in the day.

From there, Clinton is embarking on a bus tour of Eastern North Carolina that includes stops on Friday and Saturday in Wilmington, Fayetteville, Wilson and Greenville before concluding on Sunday with a get-out-the-vote event in Rocky Mount and a block party with local Democratic leaders in Raleigh.

He held a similar bus tour of the region while campaigning for his wife Hillary in October 2016.

The Trump campaign tapped several out-of-state surrogates and local candidates for its own bus tour of the state, including South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, U.S. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith of Mississippi, RNC Chairman Michael Whatley and U.S. Rep. Dan Bishop, the GOP candidate for North Carolina attorney general.

That tour, which runs from Wednesday through Friday, includes stops in Burlington, Winston-Salem, Gastonia, Raleigh, Jacksonville, and Goldsboro, in addition to other locations.

Also on Friday, Trump’s son Donald Trump Jr. will campaign with U.S. Sen. Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma and Tulsi Gabbard, a former Democratic congresswoman from Hawaii who has become a prominent surrogate for Trump, in Red Springs in Robeson County.

The frequent visits by Harris and Trump to North Carolina in the final weeks of the campaign come as polls show an exceedingly close race both here and in many other battleground states as well.

Polling averages maintained by 538 and RealClearPolitics showed that as of Thursday, Trump held a 0.5 and 1.2 percentage point lead over Harris in the state, respectively.

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