Former President Donald Trump will travel to Wilmington, North Carolina, for a campaign rally on Saturday. It will be the first major campaign since a criminal trial began in New York City this week.
North Carolina has emerged as a battleground state for this fall's presidential election. The winner of the election will depend on voters in a small number of battleground states, with North Carolina being seen as the favorite in 2024.
The rally will be held at AeroCenter Wilmington at Wilmington International Airport, the same location where the former president held a rally in 2022. Doors to the event will open at 3 p.m., and the rally is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m., according to the paper. Hanover County Republican Party.
President Trump has spent much of the week so far in a Manhattan courtroom, where jury selection has begun in a trial accusing him of concealing hush-money payments to a former adult film star. Prosecutors charged Trump with 34 counts of falsifying business records.
Related: Live Updates: Two Jurors Released in Trump Hush Money Trial
In the 2020 election, Trump won North Carolina by a 1.3 percentage point margin. However, that same year, Democratic Governor Roy Cooper won re-election by a margin of 4.5 percentage points, cementing North Carolina's status as a purple state.
President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris have begun regular visits to the Tar Heel State. The two were together in Raleigh on March 26, but Harris returned to the state on April 4 to give a speech in Charlotte.
The Biden-Harris campaign announced it would open 10 field offices in the state along with its headquarters in Raleigh in hopes of turning North Carolina blue in November.
North Carolina has not voted for a Democrat in a presidential election since 2008. Barack Obama won the state that year by about 0.5 percentage points. But both sides are treating North Carolina like a 2024 battleground state.
Trump's trial in New York is expected to last about six weeks. If jurors are seated this week, opening arguments could begin as early as Monday.