Under the Dome podcast: Trump and Biden target NC for 2024 wins, new GOP leader elected

Start your week in North Carolina politics with our latest Under the Dome podcast, for the week of April 1, 2024. Kyle Ingram here, this week’s host, filling in for Capitol bureau chief Dawn Vaughan. I’m joined by my colleagues on the politics team, DC correspondent Danielle Battaglia and politics reporter Avi Bajpai.

President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump are both focusing heavily on North Carolina as they race toward the November election.

A shakeup at the Republican National Committee resulted in NC GOP Chair Michael Whatley taking the reins with Trump’s support. Now, a Trump-backed replacement has won the state party’s top leadership position.

And Biden came to Raleigh with Vice President Kamala Harris to talk health care as his campaign aims to secure victory in a state that hasn’t voted for a Democratic president since 2008.

On this week’s podcast, we talk about North Carolina’s perennial status as a ‘purple state’ and what each campaign’s strategies may be to sway the vote.

Headliner of the week

After the break, we talk about what issues Trump and Biden will focus on as they campaign in North Carolina before discussing the prolonged primary battle of Rep. Michael Wray, a Democrat who voted with Republicans several times and lost his primary to a progressive challenger.

Stay tuned to the end for our picks for Headliner of the Week. Mine is the unfortunate departure of Happy + Hale, the rice bowl and salad restaurant on Fayetteville Street. Battaglia’s headliner is about a ‘moonshine cave’ discovered in North Wilkesboro, and Bajpai’s is the resignation of six-term NC House Republican Jon Hardister.

Listen to our latest episode below and catch up on previous episodes. You can also listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Audible, iHeart, Pandora, Amazon Music and Stitcher.