While Republican presidential candidates won close victories in 2012, 2016, and 2020, even as polls indicated a narrow win by Democrat Joe Biden in 2020, at the state level, Democrat Roy Cooper won the 2016 and 2020 gubernatorial elections. Because of these results, the presidential election was expected to be competitive. Today a purple to slightly red state, North Carolina was targeted by both parties in 2024, with major news organizations marking the state as a tossup or slightly leaning towards the Republican candidate Donald Trump, who would go on to carry the state by a similar margin to his 2016 result.[3] Incumbent president Biden was initially poised to run for re-election, but withdrew on July 21 and endorsed his vice president Kamala Harris.
Despite North Carolina Republicans struggling down ballot, especially due to controversial Republican gubernatorial nominee Mark Robinson, Trump won the state by 3.2%. Trump's win kept it in the Republican column for the fourth election cycle in a row and Trump won the state himself for the third straight election.