Normal political observers think of North Carolina, and they think of this:
Look for yourself here at The Economist’s poll tracker, Joe Biden has led the vast majority of presidential matchup polls in North Carolina all year, with only a handful of exceptions from right-wing pollsters like Trafalgar and Harris. The lead isn’t big, as you can see above. That 51.1-48.9 Biden lead is only 2.2 points, so while it leans Democratic, it remains very competitive.
Donate now to turn the North Carolina legislature blue!
Now enter the Trump campaign.
“Super safe”? What kind of two-bit incompetent asshats looked at the North Carolina polling and the travails of its incumbent Republican senator, and decided that Trump was “super safe.” It is downright farcical!
Here’s the thing, though: they’re not panicking because Trump might lose the state, something that would immediately signal his defeat. They’re panicking because:
Advisers now fear that, because the state counts and reports both day-of and mail-in votes together on election night, losing North Carolina could be a clear white flag.
You got that?
Remember, Trump isn’t trying to win reelection. Trump is trying to retain power. North Carolina will have a declared winner election night. If it falls for Trump, it’ll immediately signal the end of any drama that night. It won’t matter if they can try and stop the counting of mail-in ballots in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania. Those states will become incidental at that point. So yeah, losing North Carolina is catastrophic not just to their reelection chances, but more importantly to their chances to create post-election chaos.
Only question is, now that the Trump campaign has found out about North Carolina, how long before they find out about Florida?