At drive-in rally, Jill Biden says North Carolina could be 2020 election’s pivotal state

Drawing honking horns in place of applause, Jill Biden told a drive-in rally at Charlotte’s PNC Pavilion on Saturday that electing her husband president will not only return decency and character to the White House but also end “the chaos of Donald Trump’s America.”

With Democrat Joe Biden in charge, she told supporters who stayed in their cars because of COVID-19 restrictions, the daily news will be about good things such as new jobs, universal pre-K for children and lower prices for prescription drugs.

“Picture it. . . You’re sipping your coffee and you pick up the morning paper and the headline isn’t about some late-night Tweet-storm,” Biden said to beeps and toots. “And then you turn on the television and the anchors aren’t talking any more about the spikes in the COVID virus.”

But Jill Biden’s main reason for being in North Carolina on Saturday was to get out the vote in a battleground state where polls say the race between Republican President Trump and former Vice President Biden is among the closest in the country.

After leaving Charlotte, she headed for Greensboro for another drive-in rally.

Early voting in North Carolina ended at 3 p.m. Saturday, leaving just Election Day on Tuesday for the two campaigns to turn out all the voters they’re counting on.

The specter of 2016, when Trump won the state’s 15 electoral votes and defied polls by also winning nationally, hung over Saturday’s rally.

In fact, comedian Amy Schumer, who was the warm-up act for Jill Biden, conjured up a “Halloween horror story” about more than 800,000 registered North Carolina Democrats staying home instead of voting four years ago, “and Donald Trump won this state by fewer than 200,000 votes.”

That spooked many in the 120-car crowd, including Liz Voss, 80, of Charlotte, who’s been volunteering for Democrats for 60 years.

“I have PTSD from 2016,” said Voss. “I’m ready to throw up, I’m so nervous” about how the 2020 election will go.

U.S. Rep. Alma Adams, a Democrat from Charlotte who also spoke from the stage adorned with an American flag, pumpkins and bales of hay, told the Observer that more voters that Democrats are counting on — including African-Americans — need to get to the polls Tuesday.

“I’m feeling good about the overall turnout. The numbers are high,” Adams said about the nearly 4.5 million North Carolinians who voted early, in person or by mail, as of 3 p.m. Saturday. “We are still far off from where we need to be. . . . We have an opportunity to go to the polls on Election Day.”

Jill Biden caught the urgency of that concern. She arrived on stage wearing a black mask with the word VOTE spelled out in white on it. And near the end of her 12-minute speech, the longtime teacher — she taught writing and English at a community college even while her husband was vice president — told those listening that if they wanted to get to a rosier future in America, “this is it, North Carolina. There are no do-overs . . . One state, this state, could decide our future for generations.”

Also Saturday, Vice President Mike Pence, Trump’s running mate, was in the state for two rallies, in Elm City and Elizabeth City. Pence is scheduled to visit Boone on Sunday, when he’ll attend a worship service at Alliance Bible Fellowship with Rev. Franklin Graham.

A spokesman for the Trump campaign, Gates McGavick, released a statement calling Jill Biden rallies a “last-minute, low-energy appearance in North Carolina” and noting that Pence’s Saturday events were his fourth and fifth in the state this week.

But the Biden campaign’s insistence on social distancing and limited numbers at its events didn’t seem to be bother those who showed up and watched — and honked — from their cars Saturday. In interviews, they called Tuesday’s election crucial for the country.

Lorayn DeLuca, a Charlotte actress who stood through her car’s sun-roof during the rally, said she’s volunteering for Joe Biden because “we’ve got to save this country. It’s torn apart because of this election, and only Joe can heal it.”

And Dr. Seanta Danica Clark, a physician who drove up from Tega Cay, South Carolina, to represent “Doctors for Biden,” said she feels it is critical to replace Trump during this COVID-19 pandemic with a leader who believes in science and statistics.

“The soul and health of America,” she said, “is depleting.”

This story was originally published October 31, 2020 at 5:31 PM with the headline "At drive-in rally, Jill Biden says North Carolina could be 2020 election’s pivotal state."