First lady in NC: ‘We had 3 and a half years of winning. Let’s have another 4.’

First Lady Melania Trump offered a rosy picture of the political accomplishments of her husband, President Donald Trump, in a closing pitch to supporters in Huntersville on Monday.

“We had three and a half years of winning, let’s have another four,” Melania Trump said. The speech, one day before the election, was her first solo event in North Carolina for her husband’s re-election effort. Earlier Monday, the president held a rally in Fayetteville.

“We have a chance to vote for a leader who sees our future as bright, or someone who only sees a dark winter,” she said in a speech that often conflated the policy demands of the American left with those of Democratic nominee Joe Biden.

Like Trump’s daughter and adviser, Ivanka, did last week in Charlotte, Melania praised her husband’s foreign policy. The killing of terrorist leaders drew cheers from the crowd of about 100, mostly composed of middle-aged white women.

The First Lady also praised her husband’s response to COVID-19, which has killed more than 230,000 Americans, more than in any other country.

“My husband will not stop until there is a vaccine available to everyone,” Trump said at the event, held at the Magnolia Woods event venue along Interstate 77 in south Huntersville. “The American spirit is stronger than COVID-19.”

Trump’s speech comes at the denouement of the Trump family’s barnstorming of North Carolina. Ivanka and Tiffany Trump, the president’s two adult daughters, campaigned in Charlotte last week. Eric Trump stumped in Guilford County, Monroe, Elizabethtown and Ellerbe. Donald Trump Jr., possibly the most popular Trump surrogate of his children, spoke in Kernersville, Arden and Fayetteville.

In the eyes of the president’s campaign, the Trump family tour of North Carolina makes sense. North Carolina’s 15 electoral votes will likely be essential for Trump to have a shot at the 270 he needs to earn a second term Tuesday. The events, which have been a mix of large and small, have mostly served to try to energize his base in the state.

Events like Melania’s are part of Republicans’ effort to turn out enough voters on Election Day to counteract high early turnout in some of the most Democratic-leaning counties in the state. More than 4.5 million North Carolina residents have voted as of Saturday, more than 95% of those who voted in 2016.

This story was originally published November 2, 2020 at 5:35 PM.