Building on his campaign's assertion that Virginia is in play this election cycle, former President Donald Trump plans to hold a post-debate rally in the commonwealth, where Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin is expected to join him.
According to The Hill, the Trump event will likely take place Friday, June 28, near Virginia Beach, though the location has not yet been finalized.
Trump and Youngkin reportedly met for the first time earlier this month at the former president's Sterling, Virginia, golf club and the rally will mark the first time the two men have made a public appearance together in the 2024 election cycle.
While there was talk about Youngkin as a potential alternative to Trump in this year's presidential contest, he ultimately decided against launching a presidential campaign in favor of serving out the remainder of his term as Virginia's governor.
Polling suggests that Virginia could be a much tighter race than it was the last time Trump and Biden squared off; in 2020, Biden won the Old Dominion State by 10 points.
A co/efficient poll of likely Virginia general election voters conducted June 11-12 found Trump and Biden tied at 41% each — a drop of 13 percentage points for the Democrat incumbent. A Roanoke College survey from mid-May showed the two candidates tied in a head-to-head match-up and found Biden leading the former president by 2 percentage points when third-party candidates were factored in.
On Thursday, Trump and Biden are set to meet in Atlanta for the first of two scheduled debates, which will be hosted by CNN.
Trump will travel to Virginia the next day, while Biden will head for Raleigh, North Carolina, where he will be joined by first lady Jill Biden for a campaign event of his own.
Both Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris have made several trips to North Carolina this year in an effort to court Tar Heel State voters and flip the battleground from red to blue on Nov. 5.
Four years ago, Trump carried North Carolina by less than 2 percentage points and recent polling has found the former president continuing the trend and leading Biden.
An East Carolina University poll conducted in early June showed Trump up by 5 percentage points, which was outside of the survey's margin of error.
"Republicans have won the presidential vote in North Carolina in every election except one (in 2008) since 1980," Dr. Peter Francia, Director of the ECU Center for Survey Research, said in a statement.
"In light of that history and Donald Trump's current five-point lead in North Carolina, it seems fair to conclude that Trump is the current favorite to win in North Carolina in 2024."
Nicole Weatherholtz ✉
Nicole Weatherholtz, a Newsmax general assignment reporter covers news, politics, and culture. She is a National Newspaper Association award-winning journalist.
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