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Christine Zhu, NC Newsline
Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff and Minnesota First Lady Gwen Walz visited Raleigh to voice their support for reproductive rights at a campaign event on Monday.
It was the second stop of their “Fighting for Reproductive Freedom” bus tour in North Carolina, which also featured an event in Asheville on Sunday. The pair are campaigning on behalf of their spouses on the Democratic ticket: Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.
The bus tour is making at least 50 stops in key states to highlight the difference in the stances of Harris and former President Donald Trump on reproductive rights, according to the Harris-Walz campaign.
“A minority of extremists are making decisions for the majority of us that they know none of us want, and it’s causing actual damage,” Emhoff said. “I want everyone to stay mad about these issues and channel that anger at the ballot box.”
The Republican presidential ticket of Trump and U.S. Sen. JD Vance of Ohio is expected to further restrict reproductive rights via abortion bans and restrictions on access to birth control, IVF, and fertility treatments.
Harris’ campaign has frequently criticized Trump’s role in appointing three Supreme Court justices who helped dismantle the constitutional right to abortion by overturning Roe v. Wade in 2022.
Speakers addressed a crowd of a few hundred attendees at Market Hall in downtown Raleigh.
“Everyone, every single person should have the freedom to build their own family, your own family, as you dream and as you choose,” Gwen Walz said. “And this is just as important: you should also have the freedom to decide not to have children at all.”
In North Carolina, abortion is banned after 12 weeks as the result of a bill passed in 2023 in which the Republican-controlled legislature overrode Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper’s veto.
Democrats are aiming to break the Republican supermajorities this year in both the state House and Senate in hopes of preventing more restrictive measures. Republicans currently enjoy the precise three-fifths advantages they need to override a gubernatorial veto — 72-48 in the House and 30-20 in the Senate. If Democrats gain even one seat in either body, they would be positioned to sustain the vetoes of a Democratic governor.
“It’s all going to change based on the makeup of the legislature,” Rep. Julie von Haefen, a Democrat representing portions of Wake County, said. “If the Republicans control the supermajority and the governor’s office, I definitely anticipate seeing further rollback of rights.”
North Carolina’s gubernatorial race, a contest between Democratic Attorney General Josh Stein and Republican Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson, is among the most watched in the country.
Robinson, who has long been a vocal and provocative opponent of abortion rights, seemed to try and moderate his stance last month in a television ad in which he said he backs the 12-week ban and alluded to an abortion that his wife obtained prior to their marriage. NBC News reported last Friday, however, that Robinson said he wants to get abortion restrictions down to “zero” weeks during a September 3 campaign appearance in Troy.
“Elections in North Carolina are always close,” Stein said. “We have the power to defend our freedoms and determine our future.”
With 16 electoral votes, North Carolina could be crucial to the path to the White House. Although the state hasn’t voted for a Democratic presidential candidate since Barack Obama in 2008, Trump narrowly won the state by only 1.3 percent in 2020.
Both presidential tickets have been focusing on the state in recent weeks.
Trump spoke at an event in Charlotte last Friday. Harris is set to host rallies in Charlotte and Greensboro on Thursday — marking her ninth trip to the Tar Heel State this year and 19th since taking office.
If elected, Harris would be the first woman, Black woman, and Asian American to serve as president.
“The reality is that sometimes being the first means you get asked a lot about not what your qualifications are to be at the table, but whether you deserve to be at the table at all,” North Carolina State Auditor Jessica Holmes, a Black woman, said. “My message to those people: women belong in the House, as your lieutenant governor candidate would say, but the house that I’m referring to is the White House.”
NC Newsline is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. NC Newsline maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Rob Schofield for questions: info@ncnewsline.com. Follow NC Newsline on Facebook and X.
