GREENSBORO, N.C. – If Republicans in North Carolina are any guide, most of the faithful will stick with former President Donald Trump no matter how many times he gets indicted.
How more moderate voters will react is a mystery, Tar Heel State Republicans said: There has never been a candidate like the under-indictment former president who is still seeking another term in the White House in 2024.
“If he gets the nomination, we’ll have a candidate who is on the campaign trail at night and in court during the day,” said Linda Petrou, 76, a retired college professor who mingled with fellow Republicans at their state party convention in Greensboro over the weekend.
As delegates met in the food court of a hotel-and-convention complex off I-40, Petrou said, “I don’t know” how Trump’s legal problems will play out in a general election. “It could really hurt him with the independents,” she said, though she remained optimistic about Trump’s chances overall.
“This is more of a movement than a person,” Petrou said.
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‘A level of anger’
Trump, long since indicted in New York state on a hush-money case and still facing two other investigations, made a personal plea in his North Carolina convention speech Saturday night. Employing a frequent argument, Trump told the delegates that the many investigations of him are also targeting his political movement.
“This vicious persecution is a travesty of justice,” Trump said.
The twice-indicted president found a receptive audience, with many saying they are even more committed to him.
“I think it’s solidified his support in the Republican Party,” said Ed Broyhill, 69, an entrepreneur and Republican National Committeman for the state of North Carolina. “It’s created a level of anger that I have not seen before.”
Independent and nonparty voters, meanwhile, should watch and see how things develop, Broyhill said: “It’s going to define politics for the next year.”
Let it play out
Kathy Benson, 65, a substitute teacher from Wilmington, North Carolina, praised Trump’s speech and said “he just wants to pick up where he left off.”
But how will independents and moderates view his legal problems?
“We’ll just have to let that play out,” Benson said. “Every man and woman will have to decide for themselves.”
Trump backers said they identify with him because they believe he is being hounded by the “deep state” and the administration of President Joe Biden, his prospective Democratic opponent in 2024. They said voters will shake off prosecutions of Trump if they are seen as unfair.
“It’ll hurt him with some voters, but I don’t think it will hurt him with those that matter,” said Nicholas Jaroszynski, 37, a business owner from Troutman, North Carolina, wearing a T-shirt that read: “We do not co-parent with the government.”
‘Between us and them’
The North Carolina Republican Party convention was pretty much Trump Country.
Delegates and other party members schmoozed in the convention center’s marble hallways and argued over their own contentious election for state party chairman.
In the exhibition space, Republicans stopped at tables staffed with employees of local campaigns and political organizations that ranged from Americans For Prosperity to Moms For Liberty.
They also browsed souvenir stands with Trump-themed buttons, hats, jewelry, and T-shirts. The “MAGA Mall” offered a t-shirt with a screen shot of Trump entering a courthouse in New York City after his first indictment.
“He stands between us and them,” the shirt said.
Many North Carolina Republicans echoed that theme, saying they see the indictments as hit jobs from a legal system that has targeted Trump for years while shielding Democrats like Biden and Hillary Clinton.
“Republicans see that he’s really the man for the job and the hour,” said Leah Carson, 47, a wedding photographer from Raleigh, the state capital.
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North Carolina Republicans had nice things to say about other 2024 candidates like Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former Vice President Mike Pence, both of whom spoke at the state convention. But many said they are staying with Trump while he is under legal attack.
The latest indictment accuses Trump of improperly taking classified documents from the White House and illegally obstructing the government’s attempts to retrieve the papers that had sensitive national security information.
It is the first federal indictment of a former president. In late March, Trump was indicted in New York state court over allegations that he falsified business records to cover up hush payments to Stormy Daniels right before the 2016 election.
Trump remains under investigation over the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection and efforts to overturn his 2020 loss in Georgia. Both could lead to more indictments that could further change the shape of the 2024 election.
Michele Morrow, 52, a nurse from Cary, North Carolina, said the indictment is “only going to make me fight harder” for Trump in 2024. She did not know how voters in a general election might react.
“Anything can hurt him,” she said. “They’ve been trying to hurt him since 2015 when he first ran.”
‘Weaponization?’
Like many of the Republicans who gathered at the Koury Convention Center in Greensboro, national party leaders are also rallying around Trump.
House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., said the GOP congressional majority will scrutinize the conduct of the Trump investigations because “Biden’s weaponization of the federal government is going to disrupt our nation.”
In their remarks to the North Carolina convention, DeSantis and Pence also used the weaponization argument, and generally defended Trump on the indictment.
Other Republicans across the country say they are troubled by Trump’s behavior and the party should think twice before renominating him.
“Is this the type of conduct we want from someone who wants to be President of the United States?” tweeted Chris Christie, the former New Jersey governor who recently entered the 2024 race. “We have to focus on the conduct, and the conduct is bad.”
Bill Barr, Trump’s former attorney general, told Fox News Sunday that the government had a legitimate concern about getting back “very sensitive” national security documents that the former president had no right to keep.
“If even half of it is true, then he’s toast,” Barr said. “I mean, it’s a very detailed indictment, and it’s very, very damning.” He added that “this idea of presenting Trump as a victim here – a victim of a ‘witch hunt’ – is ridiculous.”
Some of the Republicans in North Carolina wondered if Trump’s legal problems will change very many minds.
“If you don’t like Trump, nothing will win you over,” said Ginny Forestieri, 72, a retired real estate broker from Dobson, North Carolina, “If you do like Trump, nothing is going to discourage you.”
The ultimate answers will come from voters who are neither pro-Trump nor anti-Trump, but are somewhere in between.
This especially would be true in a general election in North Carolina, a closely divided state that Trump carried in both 2016 and 2020. Biden and the Democrats are making it a top target for flipping in 2024.
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Unaffiliated voters
It’s hard to see how any Republican can win the presidency without winning North Carolina, and Trump’s legal problems are already weighing him down in the Tar Heel State.
Paul Shumaker, a Republican political consultant based in North Carolina, said Trump’s legal issues have been a problem with independent voters since the insurrection of Jan. 6, 2021.
“After Jan. 6, unaffiliated voters consistently soured on him,” Shumaker said. “The indictments certainly are not going to help him improve his standing with unaffiliated voters.”
There are also many distractions on the horizon. Preparing for trials will likely cut into Trump’s campaign time. It may also affect how he campaigns because some of his more acerbic comments about the charges against him could become issues in trials.
“It’s going to limit his ability to be himself,” Shumaker said. “Anything he says on the campaign trail can and will be used against him in a court of law.”
