Ivanka Trump calls on Charlotte supporters to turn out as election enters final week

Ivanka Trump on Wednesday called on supporters of her father, President Donald Trump, to turn out to vote as the presidential campaign enters its final week. Both Trump and his Democratic rival, former Vice President Joe Biden, see North Carolina’s 15 electoral votes as crucial to their election chances.

In her eighth public visit to the state since her father’s 2016 election, Trump, who serves in the White House as an adviser to her father, painted a rosy picture of the administration’s past four years to a crowd of supporters gathered at the Alexander Homestead in east Charlotte.

“Whether you agree with the president on every issue or not, you always know where he stands,” she said at the event, which was moderated by Sarah Huckabee Sanders, former White House press secretary and daughter of former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee.

She praised the president’s revision of trade deals, peace deals between Gulf states and Israel, and tax cuts. She also defended the administration’s troubled response to the COVID-19 pandemic, which has killed more than 220,000 Americans, adding that she expects, “we will have a vaccine by the end of this year, if not before.”

The visit came one day after Tiffany Trump, the president’s youngest daughter, made a rare campaign stop in Charlotte Tuesday. The president’s family members often serve as surrogates for his re-election campaign. In October alone, all four of Trump’s adult children have campaigned for his re-election in North Carolina.

The deluge of visits by the presidential family comes as the race for president in North Carolina is poised to be one of the closest in the country. The elections website FiveThirtyEight’s adjusted average of polls in the state has Biden up, 49.1%-47.1%. The former vice president is campaigning in Greensboro Wednesday with the rapper Common.

With the debates between the candidates over and each party’s case for election made, the campaigns are now trying to make sure their voters turn out to the polls.

“Vote. Vote early, and then spend the rest of your time recruiting everyone you know to vote. Drive them to vote,” Ivanka Trump said at the event.

The location, in heavily Democratic and diverse east Charlotte, was an unusual choice, as the Trump campaign has tended to hold events in safely red areas, with some exceptions. The crowd was mostly composed of white women. The area around the event voted for former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton by about 9 to 1 in 2016.

Earlier this month, after an outbreak of COVID-19 in the White House, a cafe in Belmont, west of Charlotte, closed a day after Ivanka Trump visited it. The cafe was cleaned and reopened shortly after. The president’s daughter has not disclosed a positive test for the virus, but staff close to her have tested positive.

This story was originally published October 28, 2020 at 12:19 PM.