Carolina. Tomorrow, we will wrap up with arizona. Tim boyum is the host of capital tonight and the host of tying it together, a podcast. He joins us now to talk about the tar heel state. Why is North Carolina important this year compared to 2016 . Guest it is continuing to become a microcosm of the nation. We are a split nation. We have urban centers that continue to grow and become more democratic. We have our rural areas that are more conservative. Those are shrinking. The state is changing. The economy is changing. Athink it represents microcosm of the entire country. Host where do the polls stand right now . Guest it is razor thin. Most of the polls show joe biden up one to three points the hallway. The real clear politics average is 0. 7 in favor of joe biden. Hase 1976, North Carolina only voted twice for a democratic president. Im in the camp of i will see it when i believe in. I dont think it could not happen, there is a strong chance it could. Host when you take a look at 2016 and the president s victory ere, three Percentage Points, votes. By 173,000 why is this race tight now . Host before that in 2012, mitt romney won 192,000 votes. Before that, barack obama won in 2008. After the historic win in 2008, the africanamerican vote, which is hugely important for democrats in North Carolina, dropped off a cliff. After four years of donald trump, from the democratic perspective, the believe is they are going to come back. We are over 55 of africanamerican turnout in North Carolina. The numbers are incredible. Because of that, that is why we are still this battleground state. Donald trump sees it as a must win state. Host what are the early voting numbers . Which candidate benefits . Who benefits on election day . Since we have been voting september 4. Absentee ballots went out. As of this morning, we have almost 4. 1 Million People have voted in North Carolina, almost 56 total turnoff. Turnout. 2016 80 over total turnout. Mecklenburg county, which is where charlotte is, that is at a very high percentage, over 90 of the 2016 turnout. In North Carolina, we have had a huge surge of unaffiliated voters. Unaffiliated voters outnumber republican voters. They are gaining quickly on democratic voters. We do not know. Most of them mean in one way. I have heard from people on both sides that they believe it is going to help them. Veryesday, we could see small lines in North Carolina. Traditionally, that is a republican stronghold. Host what are you watching for on Election Night . Guest we are waiting to see the final results. Tomorrow is the final day of early voting in North Carolina. As we sort through the demographics, we will have a good idea. We are waiting for 7 30 tuesday night. There is this talk about we will not hear results for days or maybe weeks. North carolina is going to until ballots always november 12 that are postmarked on november 3. We could have 75 of the vote drop at 7 30 tuesday night. If there is not a razor thin margin, we could know early who wins. 7 30 is when i am watching. Carolina start counting early votes before november 3 . Guest we will have those results as soon as they start running them through. They do not tabulate and release them. As soon as 7 30 has, we will no results. Mean fort does this down ballot races for the senate and the governors race . Typically we thought the senate race would follow the president ial race. Historically, that is what happens in North Carolina. We have had some drama in the u. S. Senate race. Thom tillis is the incumbent. He came down with covid. There was a report that came out that Cal Cunningham, the democrat in the race, had an affair with a woman. He has not spoken since. Cal cunningham was ahead. That has narrowed to where the president ial race is. Race, ray cooper, the current governor, a democrat, this is a close race. I think it is going to be closer to 6 when it is down to it. It is not affecting the governors race. The governor has been doing news conferences since march almost weekly. He has a clear advantage. Host why is it that the governor is running against his Lieutenant Governor . Guest they do not run together. They are separate elected positions. The Lieutenant Governor is a stepping stone to running for governor. We knew all along he wanted to run for governor. He does not believe in wearing masks. He has been critical of what the governor has done on covid19 on the shutdowns. It is sort of the classic republican versus democrat in North Carolina. Host we are talking with tim boyum. He will take your questions on campaign 2020 in North Carolina. If you support the president and Vice President , 202 7488001. If you are supporting joe biden and senator harris, 202 7488000. If you have another candidate in mind or undecided, 202 7488002. North carolina residents, please dial in at 202 7488003. Robert is first in greenville, North Carolina. Supporting the biden ticket. Caller good morning. Host go ahead. Caller anything to get away from donald trump to be honest with you. Country. Olina is trump what trump has done to the ,conomy with the pandemic actually what he is doing now, he is doing super spreader events. It is basically for herd immunity, and he wants to do that until the end because if he wins it, that is what he wants. If he loses, he is going to leave us in a bigger mess with the virus. He is despicable. Everybody needs to pull together and get this mental paraplegic out of office. Host two issues from that trump, the anybody but sentiment he talked about, and then the pandemic. Guest one thing he mentioned was these superspreader fears. The president has been in North Carolina almost a dozen times since august. Most of them were campaign events. He was supposed to be in gainesville last night. He had to cancel an event because of wins from the storm. He held an event in gastonia last week, which is outside of charlotte, 10,000 plus people. The Health Department confirmed to people at that event did test positive for covid19. They will not say, they do not know they got it at that event. That is a concern that has been talked about in the state. Danforth running for governor, he has held a lot of in person events. Many people were not wearing masks. Videoclear through the that they are not wearing masks. Carolina is a lot like what you are hearing with that. Youre either with trump, or you are not. Is, and this is cliche in some ways, where these voters in the suburbs and excerpts feel about this. Suburban within, you keep women, you keep hearing about that. What do they feel about the president right now . Do they care about his persona, or do they like that he cut taxes . Those are the questions that remain. Host joe biden is going to be in North Carolina on saturday. She is traveling to charlotte in North Carolina. Done in wilmington, North Carolina. You are for the bidenharris ticket. Good morning. Caller how are you doing . Host we are fine. Caller i did it happen to ballot because i travel that did an absentee ballot because i didnt absentee ballot because i travel quite a bit. Im not going to say i am the smartest guy in the world. When i travel, i primarily listen to rightleaning because it is kind of funny they all get the same script and then want to hear people supporting trump against biden. It is the same talking points. It just kind of blows my mind. Do you have an original thought or original opinion based on your own experience . You keep saying biden is divisive. Biden is going to turn us into socialist, communist, marxist. Can you make up your mind . Socialism and communism are different forms of government. I find it curious people repeating the same things. Look at me, im smart repeating something sean hannity said. Host what is it like where you live . What are you seeing on the ground . Trump i see more signs. My neighbor has the trump signs out. We dont really get into talking politics. Go out and vote. That is the american way. Host i want to leave it there. Wilmington, North Carolina, where it is in the state and who lives there and who votes the re. Guest it is in hanover county. It is a great place to visit. It is interesting because it is becoming one of the important districts that represents a shift from more rural to urban North Carolina. They are experiencing all of that. One of the dynamics that is interesting that he mentioned is these trump science. Signs. At these rallies, we have seen 10,000 to 20,000 people at these airport stops. We do not see that with joe biden. He is doing smaller pooled e vents where only certain media go in and observe it. They are doing it because of the pandemic. Do these events show true enthusiasm for donald trump and joe biden does not have that . Democratsa show, and are going to go to the polls and vote . That is one of the Big Questions as we watch this moving forward. Birmingham asks us, what is happening with the North Carolina legislature . Are democrats going to gain control of the senate or the house . Guest great question. We have a legislature that is controlled by the republicans, and our governor is a democrat. Since 2010, republicans have dominated the legislature. They have super majorities. They had a republican governor. They could do anything they wanted. The last cycle, they broke that super majority. The governors veto could come in question. The democrats believe they have enough to potentially take one of the chambers. Democraticwith operatives, they believe they have a good shot of taking the North Carolina senate. They hope they have a shot of winning the North Carolina house. It is more challenging. Republicans believe they can hold onto both chambers. It is going to be razor thin. That is something we are watching closely. Why is that important . For our governor, secretary of health and human services, many of his cabinet, they want to expand medicaid in North Carolina. Roughly three quarters of a Million People could benefit from that. Republicans do not want to. That is a key item that could make a difference. You have probably heard about some of the voting laws we have passed that have been controversial. All of that stuff could hang in the balance depending on who wins in the legislature and assuming Governor Cooper remains in the executive mansion. Host breakdowns of voters in North Carolina statewide, demographic, collegeeducated, white and black, etc. They are incredibly important to the democratic party. White voters, rural voters are incredibly important to republicans in North Carolina. That is what donald trump picked up on, uneducated white males in North Carolina in 2016. The question is does that drop off from 2016 much like the africanamerican vote dropped off 2016 for democrats . Are living in our growing urban hubs of raleigh. Nd charlotte and asheville republicans are dominant in the rural areas. Those suburban areas and the areas growing out from there are the battlegrounds for white women and white men and the growing population of latino vote in North Carolina and the youth vote. It looks like it is going to surpass early voting in 2016. We are becoming a diverse state in terms of the voting population. Both sides are going to have to work on it. Like virginia, we are trending blue. Host the l. A. Times did a series about the youth vote across the country. 0 young north4,00 carolinians have already voted, a 66 jump. We have done a lot of this on our show. This social Justice Movement led by young africanamericans. They are working with a lot of Justice Programs and organizations to make changes. Young folks are stepping up. I think some of these protests have spurred that to voting in the fall. We have talked to experts. They believe these younger generations are much more active, not afraid to speak their mind. It appears they are doing that at the polls. Host we are talking the battleground state of North Carolina, where tim boyum says it is razor thin leading into tuesday. At stake 15 electoral votes. Jeannie, you are supporting the president. Democrats, they can only tell you what trump has done wrong. They dont tell you nothing about what biden has done and is doing. They will vote for a dog if it is a democrat. Democratok at the states and cities, it is burned, luke, murder. They do not care about black lives. Check the pages. As far as your uneducated rural areas, by the way, where do you buy your groceries from . They come off the farm, off the back of the farmer. Has supportedp the farmers of this nation. Uneducated i say voters, i do not mean people are not smart. Traditionally, we are talking about whether it is a College Degree and beyond. Those are the categories people consider. This is a common complaint with a lot of elections. You are against something rather than for, show us what you are going to do. That is why we do debates. Joe biden has a lot of plans on his website. He has his tax plan, his climate plan. The truth is the discussion is largely about donald trump and the response to covid19. The caller is right about these democratic cities in North Carolina that has been part of the fight. Republicans have been upset that democratic run cities let protesters i should not say protesters, rioters. Windows boarded up in downtown raleigh. There is concern with that. The president has gone after our democratic governor for shutting down North Carolina for so long. Those are all legitimate concerns. I think social media and talking points from both sides has put people in this camp or that camp. Both sides go into those camps, and they do not want to hear from the other side. Host how many people do you estimate are undecided in the state of North Carolina . Guest [laughter] i cannot imagine there are very many. The polls show there are enough Percentage Points that it will sway this election. Interesting is not those that are truly undecided between joe biden, perhaps those that are deciding do i skip that race . Do i go to a third party or not vote at all . We are atrue that 0. 7, those voters could make a huge difference if they choose not to vote for one candidate or the other. It is hard to imagine that there are true undecided voters. At davidson,te North Carolina, they have a handful that are out there. Host welcome to the conversation. You are supporting the bidenharris ticket. Caller i am. I live in a rural area. There are not enough jobs. People here need medicaid. They do not need to lose their medicaid. I feel like joe biden understands the common man. These people are hurting in my area. There are people here who are homeless. Someone has got to help these people. Has notour president reached out to help enough people to make people comfortable voting for him in North Carolina. Thank you. Interesting talking about the rural democrats. Historically, back in the 1800s and first part of the 20th century, rural North Carolina was democrat. The most important voters in North Carolina were down east in North Carolina, rural voters, conservative democrats. I think there are a number of conservative democrats, some who did flip to donald trump in 2016. Someone like them, who did not speak talking points and political jargon. There are still democrats out there in the rural area just like the last caller. They will be important in this election. Do not make any mistake. When we say republicans are in the rural areas and democrats are in the urban areas, that is stereotyping in a lot of ways. There are folks out there like the last caller that could make a big difference. Host we will go to marcia supporting the president. Caller yes, maam. I am wanting to ask him where everybody gets the masks at the trump rallies that are saying maga and trump . I know that they are not on sale. Them people have received the mask from the trump rallies. The gentleman to call to talk about that he was homeless, that is cooper. That has nothing to do with trump. Cooper runs the state, not trump. Trump runs the country. You all degrading trump for being homeless, that is cooper. If the media would tell the truth, they would know what biden has been up to and how he sold out the american people. He has received money from other countries. Why in the world would anybody vote for him . The media needs to tell the truth. Host i want to pick up on this, the hunter biden emails story and if that is changing any minds that you know of with a few days to go before this election. Guest i dont think it is. Uphink it is firming support with his own party. Outside of conservative news outlets like fox, it has not been in the media. Some would blame the Mainstream Media for that. Voters, it is something that has not been discussed extensively and explained in a lot of ways. It was important for the president. I was in nashville at the debate last week. Our stand up position was near three or four fox cameras and oan, that is all they talk about all day long. Lot generallyit a in North Carolina. Im not sure it is going to have a huge impact