Former President Donald Trump will be in Wilmington, North Carolina, for a campaign rally Saturday evening. It will be his first big campaign event since the start of his criminal trial this week in New York City.

What You Need To Know

  •  Former President Donald Trump plans to hold a campaign rally in Wilmington, North Carolina, on Saturday evening

  •  This will be Trump's first big campaign rally since the start of his criminal trial in New York

  •  The Biden-Harris campaign has been holding regular events in North Carolina and is opening 10 field offices across the state

  •  Both camps are looking at North Carolina as a swing state in the 2024 presidential race

North Carolina has emerged as a battleground state ahead of the presidential election this fall. The winner of the election will depend on the voters in a handful of swing states, and North Carolina looks to be in play for 2024.

The rally will be at Aero Center Wilmington at the Wilmington International Airport, the same spot the former president held a rally in 2022. Doors will open at 3 p.m. and the rally is expected to begin at 7 p.m., according to the New Hanover County Republican Party. 

Trump spent most of the week in a Manhattan courtroom, where a jury was selected in the trial accusing him of covering up hush money payments to a former adult film star. Prosecutors charged Trump with 34 counts of falsifying business records.

North Carolina Republican gubernatorial nominee Mark Robinson, whom Trump has endorsed and called “Martin Luther King on steroids," will join Trump at the Wilmington rally. Robinson is the first Black lieutenant governor of the state.

In the 2020 election, Trump won North Carolina by 1.3 percentage points. But the same year, Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat, won reelection by 4.5 percentage points, cementing North Carolina's purple state status.

President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris have started making regular trips to the Tar Heel State. They were in Raleigh together on March 26. Harris was back in the state April 4 for a speech in Charlotte.

The Biden-Harris campaign says it is opening 10 field offices across the state, along with its headquarters in Raleigh, in hopes of turning North Carolina blue in November. 

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North Carolina has not voted for a Democrat for president since 2008. That year, Barack Obama won the state by about half a percentage point. But both campaigns are treating North Carolina like a swing state for 2024.

Opening arguments are expected Monday in Trump's trial in New York, and his presence in the courtroom will limit his ability to campaign.