GREENSBORO, N.C. (AP) — Former President Donald Trump spoke to a crowd of Republicans from across North Carolina on Friday, with his son Eric Trump on stage and on speakerphone, blasting the Biden administration and vowing to win the state for a third time.
“I want to thank the people of North Carolina, your support has been incredible and it's never wavering,” Donald Trump said, to cheers from a crowd of several hundred.
The four-minute call kicked off keynote speeches by Republican National Committee co-chair Lara Trump and her husband Eric Trump at the Republican National Convention in Greensboro, North Carolina. The couple touted the significant changes they will bring to the national Republican Party under Lara Trump's leadership and made the case for returning Trump to the presidency.
“What's going on in this country right now isn't Republican versus Democrat or left versus right,” Lara Trump, a Wilmington, North Carolina, native, said during the couple's roughly 40-minute speech. “It's good versus evil.”
Lara and Eric Trump's speech came a year after Trump addressed North Carolina Republicans as the keynote speaker at their 2023 convention, one of Trump's first public appearances days after taking office. First criminal complaint He was convicted by a grand jury of improperly handling classified federal documents.
But a lot has changed in the state and within the party since President Trump visited the convention in June. Daughter-in-law's rapid growth Within the Republican National Committee.
Lara Trump became co-chair of the Republican National Committee and the party's chief fundraising officer in March and serves as No. 2 to Michael Whatley, the former chairman of the North Carolina Republican Party and the new Republican National Committee chairman, who is scheduled to speak at Saturday's NCGOP convention. Both Whatley and Lara Trump held leadership positions in which they Revitalizing the Party And ensure Trump's victory in November.
In the weeks since they took office, the RNC has undergone major personnel turnover and a much-needed boost in fundraising to cover mounting legal costs as Trump faces multiple civil and criminal trials.
While Lara Trump has only recently taken on the role of party chair, Nancy Murray, a Republican representative from Charlotte, said she has high hopes for what Trump's daughter-in-law will bring to the party's leadership.
Murray also said Lara Trump may be a significant improvement over longtime Republican National Committee chairwoman Ronna McDaniel, whom Murray considers a RINO, a derogatory term for conservatives who are Republican in name only.
Emily Bourgeois, another Charlotte delegate under McDaniel, said the party has struggled with financial problems and lost too many elections across the country.
“I'm hopeful that Lara Trump will bring this back,” Bourgeois said before the speech.
Lara Trump told the crowd that the Republican National Committee's policy shifts are necessary to win the 2024 election, including a focus on getting Republicans to vote in large numbers in November. She urged the crowd to vote as soon as possible, including by mail, something Republicans like Trump have previously warned against, and to get others to vote too so the election is “so big it can't be rigged.”
“Vote however you can as soon as you can and get your vote counted,” Lara Trump said.
The couple harshly criticized the Biden administration, including over the immigration crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border and inflation. As a way to return to the country's “guiding principles,” Eric Trump told the crowd that he and Lara Trump are determined to lead the Trump campaign to victory in November.
“We're going to make America great again, and we're going to do it together, and we're going to start in North Carolina,” Eric Trump said.
Other prominent conservatives scheduled to speak at the Greensboro rally this weekend include former Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum and North Carolina gubernatorial candidate Mark Robinson.
