ROCKY MOUNT, N.C.—The 2024 presidential election is only the second election in which 38-year-old Cody Morris has voted. He says he chose to vote this time because he remembers a “way of life” he’d like to see again.
Despite having “the best job I’ve ever had and [making] the most money I’ve ever had,” Morris told The Daily Signal, “it feels like I’m worse off than when I made the least in my life.”
“I can’t even afford basic stuff,” Morris said.
Morris and his girlfriend, Aysha Maryland, cast their ballots Monday afternoon for former President Donald Trump at Braswell Memorial Library here in Rocky Mount in North Carolina’s Nash County.
Both are longtime residents of the county, which Democrat Joe Biden won over Republican Trump by 120 votes out of over 50,000 cast in 2020. Democrat Hillary Clinton lost the county to Trump in 2016 by only 118 votes.
Nash County, about 45 miles east of Raleigh, North Carolina, has a population of about 95,000.
The state, with 16 votes in the Electoral College, is one of seven swing states in the Nov. 5 election. The winner of the 1st Congressional District, which includes Nash County, is likely to win the entirety of North Carolina.
Trump comfortably defeated Clinton in North Carolina in 2016, but enjoyed a much narrower margin of victory, 1.4%, over Biden in 2020.
Standing beside her boyfriend in a pink hat with Starbucks drink in hand, Maryland said she works a flexible seasonal job but also has her own small business selling organic skin and hair care products.
“When he was in office,” Maryland said of Trump, “I was able to … make a business for myself.”
After Trump left office in January 2021, Maryland said, she had to pick up her seasonal job again because her small business no longer provided enough income.
Early voting runs through Nov. 2 in North Carolina ahead of Election Day on Nov. 5.
If the voters casting ballots Monday at Braswell Memorial Library—one of four early-voting sites in Nash County—are any indication of state politics, there will be no red or blue waves out of Tar Heel State come the Nov. 5 election.
Husband and wife Tony and Sherry Davis, both of whom work for Walmart, have lived in Nash County for only a little over a year and a half. The couple said they believe it’s time for a change and that Harris is the right woman to bring it about.
“Her mother raised her and her sister as a single parent, and so she had those qualities [instilled] in her to keep pushing and to keep thriving,” Sherry Davis said of Harris.
After “women have been suppressed for a lot of years,” Tony Davis said, he is hopeful that electing the first female president “will change things for the ladies.”
“She can get the job done, she really can,” his wife added.
“I believe she will do great,” retiree Joann Harold told The Daily Signal after casting her ballot for Harris. “She more like came from where I came from, and I feel like she might do what she says she will do,” Harold, who has lived in Nash County for 15 years, said.
Abortion is the main issue for Harold, along with help for the lower class and a higher minimum wage.
“I’ll catch up,” Brian Stevenson told two friends as they walked ahead while he stopped to talk to The Daily Signal in the polling center’s parking lot.
“I actually elected for President Trump,” Stevenson said, “only for the simple fact that Kamala Harris, it has been shown that she jailed three or four rapists and murderers, and she let them out, just to have them do the same thing back over again.”
Harris was a vocal supporter of the Minnesota Freedom Fund during the June 2020 riots in the state, and Biden’s future vice president called on Americans to donate to the fund to “help post bail for those protesting on the ground in Minnesota.”
“Of the $3.5 million the Minnesota Freedom Fund subsequently spent during those following months bailing people out of jail, only $210,000 was spent to bail those out who participated in the riots,” according to a report by Zack Smith, a senior legal fellow at The Heritage Foundation. “Instead, much of the money was used to free violent criminals … like Timothy Wayne Columbus, who allegedly raped an 8-year-old girl.
Tasha Bulluck, 41, said she doesn’t “care too much for Trump” when asked why she chose to support Harris.
“I feel like she is for the people,” Bulluck said, adding, “I feel like there’s going to be some changes” under her leadership.
Edwiena Christian, 42, says she is neither Democratic nor Republican but chose to support Trump, who will hold a rally Wednesday on the far east border of Nash County in Rocky Mount.
“Mainly, I don’t believe in abortion, so that was a deal-breaker for me,” she said. “And most definitely keeping our country safe and keeping funds in our county as well.”
Abortion was also an important issue for Gertie Phillips.
“I prayed about it,” Phillips, 76, said when asked why she chose to support Trump, but also noted that she doesn’t like Trump’s “personal life.”
Phillips said the economy and the “immigration situation” also influenced her choice.
“We don’t know who’s here,” she said. “I don’t mind immigrants coming in as long as its legally and they’ve done a background check, but with the thousands upon thousands of people that cross the border illegally, we can’t afford [it].”
As voters like Phillips streamed in and out of the early-voting site, Republican and Democrat volunteers offered voters sample ballots and other information about the candidates.
A voter who would identify herself only as “Miss Townsend” said she has volunteered previously to work at the polls in Nash County, but says she chose not to do so this time because voters can be rude.
Townsend, a 60-year-old Democrat, is backing Harris but repeatedly expressed frustration over the lack of resources the Democratic Party’s local office offers poll volunteers.
“Obama was [a] good time, they treated you nice in Obama time,” Townsend said.
She said that when she volunteered at the polls when Barack Obama ran for president, workers received a hot meal each day.
“Now, the money is, where is the money?” Townsend asked. “You got your workers out here working and you won’t feed them, but you gonna get them snacks like they’re kids in school. Really? Where’s the dadgum money at?”