OPINION:
If Vice President Kamala Harris loses North Carolina, she will lose the election.
This will not be because North Carolina’s 16 electoral votes will push her over the 270-vote threshold. Rather, a Harris loss in North Carolina will signal the abandonment of two key constituencies — Black men and blue-collar manufacturing workers — also critical to her victory in other battleground states.
In the early stage of Ms. Harris’ Democratic National Convention coup, where she ripped the nomination out of President Biden’s weakened hands, anxiety rippled through the Trump camp. Suddenly, Ms. Harris’ momentum erased a large Trump lead. Unexpectedly, Trump-red North Carolina morphed into Harris blue.
One big reason behind Ms. Harris’ North Carolina boost was the Black vote. Among battleground states, North Carolina has the second-highest percentage of Black voters, at just over 20%.
Ms. Harris’ Black vote boost would quickly disappear, however, as Black men in particular moved into the Trump column. This was for two reasons: First, as San Francisco district attorney and California attorney general, Ms. Harris had a well-deserved reputation for putting young Black men behind bars, often for nothing more than marijuana charges.
While Ms. Harris could have atoned for that sin by fulfilling her 2020 campaign promise of sentence reductions for nonviolent offenses, she instead left tens of thousands of Black men rotting in prison.
Second, inner-city Black men have borne much of the brunt of the inflation and increased illegal immigration under the Biden-Harris administration. As Black men’s real wages have plunged, illegals have also driven Black men from their jobs. Never mind the crime and chaos created in many Black neighborhoods.
Ironically, a condescending speech from former President Barack Obama has done Ms. Harris the most damage. Stumping for Ms. Harris, Mr. Obama would deliver a stern lecture to Black men about their support for Mr. Trump that was as welcome as a Mozart string quartet at a rap festival.
Memo to Mr. Obama: Many working-class Black men from tough neighborhoods in Detroit, Philadelphia, Milwaukee and, in North Carolina, West Charlotte, East Durham, Southeast Raleigh and East Greensboro see you as an effete metrosexual who would rather wine and dine White people and Hollywood stars at your Martha’s Vineyard mansion than do the real work of creating opportunities in our cities.
As for Ms. Harris’ loss of support among North Carolina’s blue-collar workers, an equally tone-deaf Bill Clinton unwittingly lent a helping hand there. Let me explain why by telling a tongue-in-cheek apocryphal story I’ve told this week as I traveled for the Trump campaign in North Carolina at the same time Mr. Clinton was stumping in the state for Ms. Harris:
So Bill Clinton’s motorcade drives by a rusted-out factory in Hickory. Mr. Clinton asks his driver, “What happened to that factory, sir?” The driver says: “You happened, sir. You destroyed that factory.”
Confused, Mr. Clinton says: “How can I possibly be responsible? I’ve never even been here before.”
The driver responds: “President Clinton, my daddy worked at that factory, and you brought it to its knees when you signed NAFTA in 1994 and turned Mexico into a staging area for the dumping of all sorts of furniture and textiles into America from the sweatshops of India and Asia.
“And then you drove a stake through that factory’s heart when you succeeded in shoehorning China into the World Trade Organization in 2001. And my daddy lost his job.
“After that, furniture factories like that one there and in places like High Point and Thomasville and Lexington and textile mills in communities like Kannapolis and Gastonia and Eden — well, sir, they didn’t stand a chance. And because of Bill Clinton, NAFTA and China, North Carolina went from the furniture capital of the world and a global textile manufacturing giant to casualties of globalism.”
Mr. Clinton, always looking for forgiveness for an egregious sin, tells the driver, “I’m so sorry, sir. I had forgotten about that. It was decades ago.”
“Well, the working people of North Carolina haven’t forgotten about it,” the driver says. “My father and I were surprised you dared to even show your face in this state.”
Mr. Clinton gets a little annoyed and says: “Well, sir, if you feel that way, I’m surprised you agreed to drive my car.”
The driver says: “Sir, I need the money. Kamala Harris and Joe Biden have just about broken me and my family with their inflation. And anyway, I figured that there would be no better way for me to help campaign for Donald Trump here in North Carolina than driving Bill Clinton around.”
“Why do you say that, sir?” Mr. Clinton asks.
“Well, Mr. Clinton,” the driver says, “every time folks see you or Hillary parading around here, they remember two things. They remember how Democrats like you and Obama, and now Biden and Harris always abandon the working class. And they remember it was Donald Trump that got rid of NAFTA and stood up to China with his tariffs.”
And for once in his life, Bill Clinton was speechless.
• Peter Navarro served in the Trump White House as manufacturing czar and chief China hawk. He is the author of “The New MAGA Deal: The Unofficial Deplorables Guide to Donald Trump’s 2024 Campaign Platform.” Follow him at www.peternavarro.substack.com.
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