President Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton will campaign on Tuesday in Charlotte, the Clinton campaign announced Tuesday.
The announcement said Obama and the Democratic presidential candidate “will discuss building on the progress we've made and their vision for an America that is stronger together.”
The campaign did not immediately provide details of the appearance.
In endorsing Clinton earlier this month, Obama said: “I’ve seen her determination to give every American a fair shot at opportunity, no matter how tough the fight – that’s what's always driven her, and still does.”
N.C. Attorney General Roy Cooper, the Democratic candidate for governor, will join Obama and Clinton.
The Republican National Committee weighed in after news of the upcoming campaign trip broke, pointing out that Obama lost North Carolina in 2012 and, two years later, Republican Thom Tillis unseated then-U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan, a Democrat.
“This event (in Charlotte on Tuesday) will be another reminder that all Hillary Clinton is offering are four more years of the same failed Obama policies that have made America less prosperous and less safe,” RNC spokeswoman Kara Carter said in an emailed statement.
But those N.C. votes in 2012 and 2014 were both very close, confirming North Carolina’s identity as a purple state – one where the margin of victory in statewide elections tends to be just 1 percent to 2 percent.
In 2008, Obama became the first Democratic presidential candidate to win North Carolina since Jimmy Carter in 1976. It was Obama’s narrowest victory in the country. Four years later, Mitt Romney returned the state to the GOP column, but his win was also close. North Carolina is a must-win for Republicans: None have won the White House without carrying it since Dwight Eisenhower in 1956.
Charlotte was the site of the 2012 Democratic National Convention, where Obama was nominated for a second term. His campaign insisted he would compete hard for the state, but the president never returned to campaign here after giving his nominating speech.
In 2008, Obama’s defeat of Clinton in North Carolina’s Democratic primary was seen as pivotal in his march to the party’s nomination that year.
The joint appearance Tuesday by Obama and Clinton is clear proof that North Carolina will again be a major battleground state in the 2016 presidential race. Clinton campaigned in Raleigh just last week. Her campaign has also blanketed the N.C. airwaves with TV ads touring here and criticizing presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump.
Trump has no TV ads up in N.C. yet, but he did headline a rally in Greensboro earlier this month.
A CBS News poll of battleground states released last weekend found Clinton slightly ahead of Trump in North Carolina, 44 percent to 42 percent.