GASTONIA, N.C. — Former president Donald Trump made another trip to North Carolina. He visited Gastonia on Saturday, Nov. 2, for a rally as part of his 2024 presidential campaign to return to the White House.
The rally kicked off at the Gastonia Municipal Airport, located along Gaston Day School Road. Remarks were slated to start at noon and Trump arrived on stage about an hour later.
"We're just three days away from the greatest political victory in world history," he told the crowd, urging his supporters to vote.
Most of his speech was the regular stump, with talking points focused on immigration and crime, and bashing his rival. He also repeated misinformation about FEMA's response to areas impacted by Hurricane Helene.
The rally in Gastonia happaned hours before Vice President Kamala Harris hosts her own get-out-the-vote rally in Charlotte. Harris' event is set to run from 5 p.m. until 9 p.m.
Both rallies fell on the last day of early voting in North Carolina.
North Carolina set a new record for early voting during the 2024 election, with over half of registered voters statewide casting a ballot so far, according to the State Board of Elections on Friday.
As of 2 p.m. on Friday, more than 3.7 million voters cast ballots in person during the early voting period that began on Oct. 17. The number beats the previous record of 3,629,000 ballots cast early in 2020.
However, experts emphasize it's hard to compare these years, given the amount of mail-in ballots due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Both are far ahead of 2016's 1.8 million ballots cast by this point.
Nationwide, over 59 million people have voted in the 2024 election already.
North Carolina is a key battleground state for both parties, both at the presidential level and for key down-ballot races.
The Tar Heel State has seen both campaigns host rallies and other events in the final days of the 2024 election cycle. Tim Walz, current Minnesota governor and Harris' vice presidential running mate, was in Charlotte and Asheville on Wednesday for campaign rallies. A week ago, Trump's running mate and current Ohio senator JD Vance hosted a town hall rally in Monroe.
On Wednesday, both Harris and Trump were in North Carolina as well. Harris was in Raleigh while Trump was in Rocky Mount.
Gastonia is located about 21 miles west of Charlotte.
Congressman Dan Bishop from North Carolina spoke to the crowd earlier in the rally.
Some Gastonia residents told WCNC Charlotte they were already feeling the traffic impacts of Trump's visit early on Saturday, noting they could not leave their neighborhood near Gaston Day School for several hours on Saturday morning.
WCNC Charlotte will have live election coverage of all the local and statewide elections starting at 7 p.m. on Election Day on Tuesday, Nov. 5 on streaming on WCNC+, and all election results can be found by texting the word ELECTION to 704-329-3600 or going to WCNC Charlotte's election page.