Fears are allegedly mounting within the Democratic Party that Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign is failing to effectively connect with voters in Pennsylvania – the battleground state that will likely determine the outcome of the election – a report claimed. 

Alleged poor campaign management and staffers lacking relationships with Democratic political leaders in the Keystone State are allegedly rocking the campaign, according to Politico. The outlet reported that Democrats are worried that the campaign’s state manager lacks an understanding of Philadelphia, the state’s largest city, while campaign staffers have allegedly not invited local Democratic politicians to events in the state, and have not effectively deployed surrogates across the state. 

Politico reported that it spoke with 20 Democratic politicians, allies, and party leaders for the story, who reported they are restless over Harris’ campaigning efforts. 

POPULAR PA DEMOCRATIC MAYOR WARNS TRUMP IS ‘OUT-MESSAGING’ HARRIS: ‘I GET MORE FROM COLBERT’

Fox News Digital reached out to the Harris campaign for comment on Politico’s report, but did not receive a reply. 

One union leader in the state, Ryan Boyer, pointed to the Harris campaign’s Pennsylvania manager, Nikki Lu, as part of the issue allegedly affecting the campaign in the battleground state. 

“I have concerns about Nikki Lu,” Boyer, who serves as business manager for the Philadelphia Building and Construction Trades Council, told the outlet. “I don’t think she understands Philadelphia.”

“We need young African American men to come home. We need African American women… to come out in record numbers, and disaffected African Americans,” he added. “We have surrogates in this area that have tremendous credibility in our communities. And Nikki Lu was slow to get to them.”

HARRIS PLAYS MASHUP OF TRUMP’S ‘ENEMY WITHIN’ COMMENTS AT ERIE RALLY, AFTER CROWD CHANTS ‘LOCK HIM UP’

Lu is a native of Pittsburgh, which sits on the western side of the massive state, and about 300 miles away from Philadelphia. The campaign is focused on amplifying voter turnout in both the Philadelphia and Pittsburgh areas, the outlet reported. 

During separate closed door meetings last month in Philadelphia, Latino and Black Democratic leaders sounded the alarm about their concerns, including requesting they have a greater presence at events and that the campaign acquire a “more sophisticated understanding” of how to engage with diverse voting demographics, according to five people who attended the meetings. 

“I feel like we’re going to win here, but we’re going to win it in spite of the Harris state campaign,” a Democratic elected official in Pennsylvania who spoke to Politico under the condition of anonymity. “Pennsylvania is such a mess, and it’s incredibly frustrating.”

PA TOWN ROILED BY TALK OF MIGRANT HOUSING IN CIVIL-WAR-ERA ORPHANAGE BUILDING

The Harris campaign told Politico that they have stronger outreach to minority voters in the state compared to Trump’s camp, but did not address the outlet’s question regarding alleged concerns that Lu lacks an understanding of Philadelphia.  

“Our campaign is running the largest and most sophisticated operation in Pennsylvania history,” Harris’ national campaign manager Julie Chávez Rodriguez told Politico. “We have 50 coordinated offices and nearly 400 staff on the ground,” she said. “We invested in targeted advertising to Black and Latino voters starting in August of 2023, and we have now spent more than any previous presidential campaign on outreach to these communities.”

“We are leaving no stone unturned.”

Fox News Digital spoke with Salvatore J. Panto Jr., the longtime Democratic mayor of Easton, which is located near Allentown and about 75 miles north of Philadelphia, who said, “Democrats are being out-messaged by the Republicans.”

“In the one commercial where Kamala Harris is saying, ‘Well, that’s Bidenomics,’ I think that is hurting this because I think the Trump campaign has done a much better job of saying, ‘Things are really bad,’” Panto said during a Monday interview with Fox News Digital.

BIDEN’S OLD BACKYARD NOW A KEY PENNSYLVANIA BATTLEGROUND FILLED WITH ‘PURPLE’ VOTES

“I get more of that on the Stephen Colbert show at night than I do from the Kamala Harris campaign. I think she should be pointing out that his 2025 plan is much different than her plan. And she’s not afraid to talk about her plan. He hasn’t said ‘boo’ about his.”

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Political eyes are locked on Pennsylvania yet again this election cycle, as Keystone State voters are championed as the ones who will likely determine the outcome of the federal election. Trump narrowly won the state in 2016 when he successfully campaigned against former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, but lost the state in 2020 against President Biden. 

Fox News Digital’s Charles Creitz contributed to this report. 

With less than three weeks to go until Election Day, a new poll in battleground Georgia indicates former President Trump holding on to his single-digit lead over Vice President Harris in the fight for the state’s 16 crucial electoral votes.

But a survey in neighboring North Carolina, another key swing state that also has 16 electoral votes up for grabs, shows Harris with a slight edge over Trump.

According to a pair of Quinnipiac University polls released on Wednesday, the GOP presidential nominee tops the Democratic Party standard-bearer 52%-45% among likely Georgia voters, with Green Party candidate Jill Stein and Libertarian Party candidate Chase Oliver each receiving 1% support.

Trump’s seven-point lead edged up a point from his 50%-44% margin over Harris in Quinnipiac’s September survey in Georgia.

WHAT THE LATEST FOX NEWS POLLS IN THE 2024 ELECTION SHOW 

Most other public opinion surveys in Georgia indicate a much tighter margin-of-error race between the vice president and the former president.

President Biden narrowly edged Trump in Georgia in 2020 to become the first Democrat to carry the state in a White House race in nearly 30 years, since former President Bill Clinton in 1992.

CHECK OUT THE LATEST FOX NEWS POWER RANKINGS 

In Quinnipiac’s North Carolina poll, Harris edges Trump 49%-47%, with Oliver at 1%.

That’s a switch from last month, when Trump held a two-point advantage over Harris.

Most other recent polling indicates Trump with a slight edge over Harris in a state he narrowly carried over Biden four years ago.

“Between them, there’s a mother lode of electoral votes ready to be mined. One state favors Trump. The other is up for grabs,” Quinnipiac University polling analyst Tim Malloy said.

Pointing specifically to North Carolina, Malloy noted that “in a tight race, there is an enormous gender gap, women for Harris and men for Trump, going down to the final stretch.”

The release of the polls comes as both states this week kick off early in-person voting.

Georgia began ballot box voting on Tuesday and set a new record on day one. North Carolina begins early voting on Thursday.

In Georgia, the new poll indicates independent voters supporting Trump 49%-42% over Harris. In North Carolina, Trump edges Harris 49%-45% among independent voters.

The new survey also indicates Democrat state Attorney General Josh Stein of North Carolina leading scandal-plagued Republican Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson 52%-40% among likely voters in the race to succeed term-limited Democrat Gov. Roy Cooper.

The polls were conducted Oct. 10-14 with 1,328 likely voters in Georgia and 1,031 likely voters in North Carolina questioned.

The sampling error was plus or minus 2.7 percentage points in Georgia and plus or minus 3.1 percentage points in North Carolina.

Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation quietly updated its 2022 crime data to show an increase in violent crimes, despite previous data showing violent crimes had fallen that year, which was touted as a victory for the Biden-Harris administration. 

“For some reason, the media, they did pick the crime data that they think goes and makes the Democrats look as good as possible. And then even when the crime data that they’ve relied on turns out by the very source of that data to be wrong, none of them fix it,” Lott, the founder and president of the Crime Prevention Research Center, told Fox News Digital in a Zoom interview this week. 

The FBI released its annual crime in the nation data for 2022 last year, which found a 2.1% decrease in violent crimes compared to 2021, Lott explained. The data was lauded by Democrats and the media as part of a turning point for crime woes in the U.S., following the crime wave of 2020, when defund-the-police protests and riots swept the nation and the pandemic’s stay-at-home orders upended daily life.

Now, the data reflects a net increase of 80,029 violent crimes in 2022 over 2021. Lott found that under the umbrella of violent crime, there were an additional 1,699 murders, 7,780 rapes, 33,459 robberies and 37,091 aggravated assaults that year. 

VIOLENT CRIMES HAVE INCREASED UNDER BIDEN-HARRIS ADMIN DESPITE DEMS’ DENIALS: EXPERT

“To give people an idea of the size of the change, when the 2022 data came out in September 2023, they initially reported that violent crime had fallen by 2.1% in 2022.… That’s the final data, supposedly, for 2022. The revision of that final data that came out last month, now claims that rather than the 2.1% drop, that there was actually a 4.5% increase in violent crime that occurred in 2022. That’s a 6.6 percentage point change there,” Lott told Fox News Digital. 

“It’s from a drop to an increase. And, you know, the bizarre thing to me is, for a year after the 2022 data was put out, we were having headlines, news articles after news articles saying ‘Violent crime is falling, people mistakenly or erroneously believe that it’s increasing.’ And, you know, and they were relying on this data. But you don’t see any corrections in the news. Saying, ‘Oops, the FBI data that we relied on was wrong, that rather than a drop, there was actually an increase that had occurred,’” he added. 

‘WEAK-ON-CRIME LIBERAL’: TRUMP CAMPAIGN HITS BACK AFTER HARRIS BLAMES HIM FOR ‘VIOLENT CRIME WAVE’

President Biden and the Harris campaign have touted that violent crimes had fallen under their leadership, with Biden calling the reported violent crime drops “historic” while citing the FBI’s most recent data. 

“This year, the homicide and violent crime rates have continued their rapid decline from their peaks during the last administration,” Biden said in an official White House statement late last month. “…. Communities across our country are safer now than when I took office.”

“Americans are safer today than when Vice President Harris and I took office. We can’t stop now,” Biden added in a separate White House statement in August touting crime data from an independent organization of police chiefs across the nation. 

The Trump campaign, when asked about the revised data, took a victory lap, saying, “President Trump was right…. AGAIN!”

“The federal government lied about Biden’s cognitive decline, lied about the job numbers, and now we learn they lied about crime numbers too,” Trump campaign spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt told Fox News Digital. “Kamala Harris must admit she’s wrong and address how she plans to bring down the rising crime crisis. Every mainstream media reporter who was quick to correct President Trump must cover this new revelation if they have any shred of integrity left.”

Trump has repeatedly said on the campaign trail that “crime in this country is through the roof” under the Biden-Harris administration, despite the previous figures promoted by the FBI showing violent crime was allegedly on a downward trend. 

When asked about the revision, the White House argued that following the passage of the American Rescue Plan in 2021 under the Biden-Harris administration, violent crime is “at a near 50 year low.” 

“Under the previous administration, our country saw the biggest increase in murder rates on record. President Biden and Vice President Harris immediately got to work to turn it around and passed the American Rescue Plan which led to the largest ever federal investment in public safety. As a result, violent crime is at a near 50 year low, and is continuing to decline this year according independent data from police chiefs in the nation’s largest cities,” White House spokesperson Robyn Patterson told Fox News Digital on Wednesday. 

An administration official added in a comment to Fox Digital that the “FBI often adjusts crime estimates as more data is reported.”

“During the prior administration, the FBI upwardly adjusted crime data during its last three years: in 2018, 2019, and 2020. These adjustments are standard practice,” the official continued before citing an article on the data this week. “Real Clear Investigations fails to mention that, in 2021, there was a sharp decline in the number of agencies participating in FBI data collection because the FBI temporarily disallowed an earlier collection method. The FBI switched back to its prior method in 2022.”

Lott explained he noticed the quiet update when the FBI released its 2023 crime data set last month, adding: “It was pretty easy to see that things had changed.”

“For 2022 and 2021 in particular, they had some changes for a few of the previous years, but they were very small. The changes for 2021 and 2022 were very large. You know, I looked through the press release that the FBI had put out, there was no mention of them having changed the data for earlier years. And surely no mention of the large change that had occurred. I looked through the Uniform Crime Report summary report that the FBI puts out, and there was no mention of the size of the change. There’s one footnote there that vaguely mentions that they had updated the data for 2022. No mention about updating it for 2021 or any other time,” he said, calling the discovery “shocking.” 

2ND AMENDMENT STEPS IN AFTER COPS STEP BACK IN WAKE OF DEFUND MOVEMENT IN CHICAGO

The data update is akin to when the Bureau of Labor Statistics overestimated the number of jobs created in the U.S. by 818,000 between March 2023 and March 2024, Lott said. 

Lott authored an article on the data for Real Clear Investigations this week, which argued the updates to 2022 stats open the door to questioning if the 2023 stats showing an estimated 3% drop in violent crimes compared to 2022 are legitimate. 

“Without the increase, the drop in violent crime in 2023 would have been less than half as large – only 1.6% instead of the reported drop of 3.5%,” Lott wrote.

While FBI data has shown alleged drops in violent crimes in recent years, other government data sets have shown crime has increased in the last few years. 

BIDEN-HARRIS ADMIN SAYS CRIME IS DOWN, BUT INDEPENDENT DATA SHOWS VIOLENT CRIME UP ACROSS 66 CITIES

Crimes such as rape or sexual assault, aggravated assault, and robbery increased from 2020 to 2023, the Department of Justice’s Bureau of Justice Statistics revealed last month as part of its National Crime Victimization Survey. Across the board, the survey found total instances of reported violent crimes increased from 5.6 per 1,000 individuals aged 12 and over in 2020, when Trump was still in office, to 8.7 per 1,000 in 2023. 

PUBLIC SAFETY GROUP FINDS FBI VIOLENT CRIME DATA IS HIGHER THAN INITIALLY REPORTED

Lott, who also served as a senior adviser for research and statistics at the DOJ’s Office of Justice Programs, authored an op-ed for Real Clear Politics last month and detailed that the DOJ survey found that total violent crimes are 55.4% higher in 2023 than in 2020, the end of Trump’s tenure, while rape crimes increased by 42%, robbery by 63%,and aggravated assault by 55%. The DOJ survey does not include surveys on murder, but that category is almost always reported to police departments, and subsequently to the FBI, he noted, and makes up about 1% of the U.S.’ total violent crimes.

Fox News Digital reached out to the FBI and Harris campaign regarding the 2022 data but did not immediately receive replies. 

Get the latest updates from the 2024 campaign trail, exclusive interviews and more at our Fox News Digital election hub.

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is reportedly requesting that a Georgia appeals court restore six of her original criminal counts against former President Trump and his co-defendants in her 2020 election case, after a judge tossed the charges earlier this year. 

Willis filed a brief to the Georgia Court of Appeals requesting it overturn Fulton County Judge Scott McAfee’s decision to dismiss charges against Trump and allies, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution first reported Wednesday.

GEORGIA JUDGE DISMISSES TWO CRIMINAL COUNTS AGAINST TRUMP IN FANI WILLIS’ 2020 ELECTION INTERFERENCE CASE

McAfee, in March, dismissed six of the charges against Trump, saying Willis failed to allege sufficient detail. 

Last month, McAfee also dismissed two other criminal counts against Trump, saying Willis and Georgia prosecutors had no authority to bring the charges, which related to the alleged filing of false documents in federal court. 

McAfee did, however, uphold the racketeering charge in the case, which was brought against all the defendants.

Lead Trump defense counsel in the case, Steve Sadow, told Fox News Digital that Willis’ brief is “simply incorrect on the law.” 

“The trial court’s dismissal order properly decided that the State failed to sufficiently plead the allegations in the dismissed counts under Georgia law,” Sadow said. 

The case was thrown into limbo when it was revealed Willis reportedly had an “improper affair” with Nathan Wade, a prosecutor she hired to help bring the case against Trump. Wade later stepped down.  

FANI WILLIS FACES NOTHING BUT SETBACKS IN CASE AGAINST TRUMP

In June, the Georgia Court of Appeals paused the proceedings until it hears the case to disqualify Willis, yet another major setback for Willis. 

The Georgia Court of Appeals said it would hear Trump’s argument to have Willis disqualified on Dec. 5, a month after the 2024 presidential election. 

Trump pleaded not guilty to all charges. 

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates. 

A Republican congressman released a new advertisement showing him shooting a Chinese spy balloon out of the sky.

Rep. Mike Flood, R-Neb., is running for a second full term in the House of Representatives, having first won a special election in 2022 to succeed indicted Rep. Jeff Fortenberry.

The 30-second video clip emphasizes Flood’s record as a China hawk by using comments from the congressman himself, while emphasizing China’s imminent threat with a Chinese flag-covered balloon floating across the screen.

TOP 5 MOMENTS FROM ONLY VP DEBATE BETWEEN VANCE AND WALZ BEFORE ELECTION

“China is our enemy. Plain and simple. The Chinese Communist Party hacks our computers, buys up land near military bases, and spies on our armed forces, even here in Nebraska,” Flood says in the ad.

“That’s why I’m fighting to keep Chinese technology off our cell towers, stop China from buying Nebraska farmland, and protect Americans from Chinese spying and cyberattacks.”

Toward the end of the video, Flood promises to do “whatever it takes” to defend Nebraska while cocking a pistol and blowing the balloon to smithereens. 

TRUMP IMPERSONATES ELON MUSK TALKING ABOUT ROCKETS: ‘I’M DOING A NEW STAINLESS STEEL HUB’

It’s a callback to when a suspected Chinese spy balloon entered U.S. airspace and subsequently floated across multiple states, at a level low enough to be seen with the naked eye, before being shot down off the coast of South Carolina after several days.

Republicans used the incident as evidence of their criticism that President Biden has not been tough enough on China, arguing that the surveillance device was sent by the Chinese military with little fear of U.S. reprisal.

TEXAS GOV. GREG ABBOTT’S DEBATE ADVICE FOR TRUMP: ‘LET HARRIS SPEAK’

Beijing has denied that the balloon was a spying tool.

It comes after new revelations of a swarm of unidentified drones over a sensitive military site in Virginia caused alarm. 

U.S. officials were stumped in December last year when the unidentified aircraft flew over Langley Air Force Base in Virginia for more than two weeks, the Wall Street Journal reported Saturday.

U.S. officials believe the Afghan national accused of plotting an Election Day terror attack was radicalized two years after coming to the U.S. on humanitarian parole as part of Operation Allies Welcome.

Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi initiated an extension of his lawful parole status in August 2023, Fox News has learned, and cleared another round of screening and vetting at that time, adjudicated through U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). 

AFGHAN NATIONAL ACCUSED IN TERROR PLOT WAS NOT VETTED FOR SIV STATUS, DESPITE PAST BIDEN ADMIN CLAIMS

He was previously vetted in September 2021 when he was paroled into the U.S. by the Department of Homeland Security as part of Operation Allies Welcome.  

At both junctures, officials say no derogatory information was missed – they believe none existed at that time. 

It wasn’t until August 2024 that derogatory information on Tawhedi was identified simultaneously by federal law enforcement partners and DHS’ external recurrent vetting systems. When Tawhedi popped up on the federal law enforcement radar, the recurrent vetting systems had also flagged him, and DHS was already communicating with the FBI at the local level. 

U.S. authorities acted quickly on this derogatory information, and also tipped off French authorities to a relative of Tawhedi – who they say was engaged in discussion about a similar planned attack in France. 

AFGHAN ISIS TERROR PLOT: BIDEN ADMIN AGENCIES POINT FINGERS AS LAWMAKERS DEMAND ANSWERS

This past weekend, French authorities arrested a 22-year-old Afghan national, a relative of Tawhedi, on suspicion of planning an ISIS-inspired attack in France. 

The FBI shared this statement with Fox News’ David Spunt, regarding the French arrest: “The recent arrests in France and by the FBI’s Oklahoma City field office demonstrate the importance of partnerships to detect and disrupt potential terrorist attacks. The coordination between the United States and French law enforcement contributed to these outcomes. The FBI’s top priority is preventing acts of terrorism, and we are committed to working with our partners both overseas and in the United States to uncover any plots and protect our communities from violence.”

FIRST ON FOX: Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita is appealing a federal judge’s decision to allow an inmate – incarcerated for murdering his 11-month-old stepchild – sex reassignment surgery following the inmate’s lawsuit against the state’s correctional facility.

“We were very clear that we disagreed with the judge’s decision in this case, and now we are officially appealing,” Rokita told Fox News Digital. “Prisoners like the convicted baby murderer in this case don’t have a constitutional right to gender transition surgeries, much less to have taxpayers foot the bill.”

“We will continue doing our duty to defend Indiana’s commonsense laws,” he said. 

INDIANA JUDGE RULES PRISON MUST PROVIDE TRANSGENDER SURGERY FOR INMATE WHO KILLED BABY

Fox News Digital first learned that Rokita filed the intent to appeal notice on Wednesday morning.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) sued the Indiana Department of Corrections last year on behalf of a transgender inmate, Jonathan C. Richardson, also known as Autumn Cordellionè, who was convicted of strangling his 11-month-old stepdaughter to death in 2001.

Indiana law, however, prohibits the Department of Corrections from using taxpayer dollars to fund sex reassignment surgeries for inmates. However, the ACLU argues in the lawsuit, filed on Aug. 28, 2023, that the law is a violation of the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition of “cruel and unusual punishment.”

ACLU SUES INDIANA OVER DENIAL OF SEX REASSIGNMENT SURGERY FOR INMATE WHO STRANGLED 11-MONTH-OLD TO DEATH

The surgery for Cordellioné, who is serving out a 55-year prison sentence for reckless homicide, “is a medical necessity,” according to the ACLU lawsuit.

Judge Richard Young agreed with the ACLU’s claims and ruled in favor of Cordellioné last month.

“Specifically, Ms. Cordellioné has shown that her gender dysphoria is a serious medical need, and that, despite other treatments Defendant has provided her to treat her gender dysphoria, she requires gender-affirming surgery to prevent a risk of serious bodily and psychological harm,” the ruling states.

In a separate lawsuit last year, Cordellioné filed a civil lawsuit against the prison chaplain for allegedly prohibiting him from wearing a hijab outside his immediate bed quarters, despite identifying as a Muslim woman. 

TRANS INMATE WHO KILLED BABY AND IDENTIFIES AS MUSLIM WOMAN SUES CHAPLAIN FOR ALLEGEDLY NOT ALLOWING HIJAB

According to court documents, Cordellioné strangled his then-wife’s 11-month-year old daughter to death while she was at work on Sept. 12, 2001. 

During Cordellioné’s initial interview with one of the detectives, he was calm and “unemotional” when recounting what happened, court documents from Indiana’s Court of Appeals show. 

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre insisted Wednesday that President Biden is “not at all” holding Vice President Kamala Harris back and has been “really clear about passing the torch” following his decision to drop out of the 2024 race. 

Jean-Pierre made the remark after Biden said last night that Harris is “going to cut her own path” if elected president, and just days after reports emerged of growing tension and miscommunication between the White House and the Harris campaign. 

“Kamala and I have specific plans to bring down the cost of housing, child care, elder care and more,” Biden said during a campaign event for Harris in Philadelphia.  

“Every president has to cut their own path. That’s what I did. I was loyal to Barack Obama, but I cut my own path as president. That’s what Kamala is going to do. She’s been loyal so far, but she’s going to cut her own path,” Biden added. 

HARRIS TO SIT DOWN WITH BRET BAIER FOR FIRST FOX NEWS INTERVIEW 

When asked Wednesday at the White House press briefing if Biden feels he has held Harris back, Jean-Pierre said, “No, not at all.” 

“I’m not going to speak to politics from here, but what I can say more broadly is that every president has the opportunity to cut their own path. And the president has been really clear about passing the torch,” Jean-Pierre said, “and seeing Vice President Harris as a leader from day one.” 

“He’s incredibly proud of her. He has supported her from day one,” she also said. “He has said many times the best decision that he made in 2020 was asking her to be his running mate.”

However, an Axios report alleged Sunday that there are growing tensions between the White House and the Harris campaign. 

HARRIS HOLDS SMALL NATIONAL LEAD AS TRUMP INCREASES HIS EDGE ON THE ECONOMY: POLL 

National political correspondent Alex Thompson reported that “many senior Biden aides remain wounded by the president being pushed out of his re-election bid and are still adjusting to being in a supporting role on the campaign trail.” 

Thompson wrote the main issue with some Harris campaign members is that White House aides “aren’t sufficiently coordinating Biden’s messaging and schedule to align with what’s best for the vice president’s campaign.” 

Thompson cited recent conflicts such as Biden holding an impromptu press conference on Friday while Harris was attending an event in Michigan.  

Another notable incident included Biden complimenting Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for handling recent hurricanes shortly after Harris criticized DeSantis for not taking her calls. Thompson wrote that a person familiar with the situation said Biden wasn’t briefed on Harris’ comments before praising DeSantis. 

Fox News’ Lindsay Kornick contributed to this report. 

Early in-person voting is preparing to kick off Thursday in North Carolina, one of seven battleground states hotly contested in the 2024 presidential election.

Some North Carolina communities are making last-minute adjustments to their 2024 election schedules in the fallout from Hurricane Helene this month.

In Buncombe County, one of the counties hit hardest by the storm, the board of elections approved new times and locations for early voting. Early in-person voting kicks off Thursday morning, with polls remaining open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. through Nov. 1.

“We’ve got a new early voting plan,” Buncombe Board of Elections Chair Jake Quinn said in a statement. “Please everybody, spread the word.”

Buncombe is also having to adjust polling locations, as some are no longer fit to serve as polling places or are more difficult to access. The county published a list of locations that are now operating for early voting.

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Buncombe County voted decisively for President Biden in the 2020 election, according to state records. Biden received 96,515 votes, compared to former President Trump’s 62,412, totaling a 60%-40% split.

VIDEO SHOWS HURRICANE MILTON-IMPACTED FAMILY, DOGS RESCUED FROM FLOODWATERS

Nearby Watauga County also released its own revised early voting schedule this month. The county’s board of elections says none of its polling places has changed, but they will now expand their timing to be open on weekends during early voting. Residents will be able to access polling places from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday-Saturday and 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. on Sunday.

“We are grateful to all the people that worked so hard to build our county’s infrastructure back so quickly. It is truly amazing to see people from all over the country pitching in to help strangers in need. That’s what America is all about. This helped minimize any disruptions to voters so that every voice can be heard. We also want to thank all the election officials who offered to work the new weekend shifts. We literally can’t do it without them,” the board said in a statement.

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Biden also took Watauga County in the 2020 election, receiving 53% of the vote to Trump’s 44%.

State election officials are scheduled to hold a press conference Thursday on other measures they are taking to ensure the election goes smoothly.

They say roughly 25 counties were heavily impacted by Helene, and those contain 76 polling locations. Karen Brinson Bell, executive director of the NC State Board of Elections and Corinne Duncan, the Buncombe County elections director will lead the press conference.

The majority of North Carolina voters in the 25 counties impacted by Helene are Republican, according to state voter registration records. Officials say 482,930 registered Republicans live in the area, compared to 294,106 Democrats. There are also 492,546 unaffiliated voters.

This is a guide to registration and early voting. For comprehensive and up-to-date information on voter eligibility, processes and deadlines, please go to Vote.gov and the election website for North Carolina.

North Carolina began absentee voting for registered voters in September. Applicants do not need to provide an excuse to receive a ballot. The state must receive a ballot application by Oct. 29, and that ballot must be delivered to county officials by Nov. 5.

Early in-person voting begins Oct. 17. Check the state’s website for more information. The last day to vote in-person is Nov. 2.

North Carolina residents can register to vote online or by mail through Oct. 11. They can also register in-person during early voting between Oct. 17 and Nov. 2.

Democrats in the two-county Lehigh Valley area of Pennsylvania said they are confident in their ground game ahead of what could be another narrow election result in the perennial bellwether region.

State Sen. Lisa Boscola, D-Bethlehem, a pragmatic Northampton County lawmaker who has served the region for decades, and Allentown Mayor Matt Tuerk, leader of Lehigh County’s largest city, spoke to Fox News Digital on Tuesday.

Former President Trump won Northampton County in 2016, and lost it in 2020. Lehigh County – typically bluer due to Allentown’s influence – hosts a reliably conservative voting bloc in its rural, Pennsylvania German exurbs.

Tuerk, whose “Band City USA” is also Pennsylvania’s third largest, said he’s heard directly from residents that they largely support Vice President Kamala Harris.

Speaking from a conference of global mayors in Mexico City, Tuerk said dignitaries are coming up to him with interest in Allentown and the way the national election may turn based on the result in his city.

POPULAR PA DEMOCRATIC MAYOR WARNS TRUMP IS ‘OUT-MESSAGING’ HARRIS: I GET MORE FROM STEPHEN COLBERT

“I happen to be from the swingiest district in the commonwealth… What I’m telling everybody is: Allentonians, broadly speaking, are supportive of Kamala Harris,” he said.

“I know this because I’m actually knocking on doors. I go out every Saturday and sometimes Sunday and canvass for the campaign and talk to not just Democrats, but independents and Republicans.”

Tuerk noted Allentown is now a majority-Latino city, and just like the patchwork of Pennsylvania Dutch, Polish, English and Syrian Americans in town, they, too, are not a “monolith.”

But, Latinos in Allentown are mostly concerned about the same things: commodity prices, housing and job opportunities.

“There’s a lot of people who are concerned about the rhetoric that former President Trump uses,” he said, adding that Republicans in the city often voice the same concerns as Democrats in that regard.

“[They’ll] tell me they just can’t vote for the guy [but] they’re not switching their party.”

“But they’re frustrated by the way that Donald Trump talks about our country. They’re frustrated by the way that he talks about people who are in need. So they’re looking for decency. And I think that’s been a pretty recurrent theme about the things that people are concerned with. But it’s primarily the economic issues and things related to housing.”

Allentown, known for hosting America’s oldest community band – the Allentown Band, predating the Boston Pops – was once home to Mack Trucks’ headquarters, and Max Hess’ famed department store on Hamilton Street from 1897 to 1995 – where people as far as the Midwest would flock for holiday shopping and its world-famous strawberry pie under the slogan “You’ll find the best of everything at Hess’.”

In 1982, Billy Joel famously sang about “living here in Allentown,” as Bethlehem Steel was “closing all the factories down” across the river in the Christmas City, and the area was beginning to stare down a long economic downturn.

Since that time, the area has gone through dramatic change – as smoke from “iron and coke; chromium steel” has been replaced by the bright lights of a casino and the “SteelStacks” entertainment complex built amid its hulking, defunct namesake.

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Not far from Boscola’s office, Harris-Walz signs were scattered along Church Street in Bethlehem’s 18th-century “Moravian” district, while Trump-Vance signs began poking out among their opponents’ placards along Nazareth Pike on the way out of town.

“We are a bellwether county and I feel like not a day goes by when a surrogate, a family member or a candidate themselves is not in the Lehigh Valley stumping for the election,” Boscola said.

“Every race from the presidential down through a local state House seat, the election is everywhere. The Democrats’ ground game is always solid. We have canvassers, phone banks and non-stop text messaging to get out the vote.”

Issues in her district, which includes Northampton County’s Slate Belt plus the entirety of Bethlehem – split between the two counties by Monocacy Creek – include property taxes, the economy, immigration and abortion, she said.

Businesses continue to struggle to find employees, Boscola said, and constituents also bring up the criminal element that is identified with the illegal immigration crisis.

The lawmaker, one of the longest-serving in the Valley, said political messaging about government aid for illegal immigrants is resonating among working-class residents.

On the abortion front, Boscola said she has heard from people who take both sides of the issue while not being “extreme on either side.”

“They believe that people should have choice, but have reservations about on-demand, third-term abortions. They are looking for balance,” she said.

Boscola added she has a bill before the state Senate that would allow registered Independents to cast votes in primaries. If passed, she predicted, Independents would promptly become the fastest-growing party in the area.

“The extremes on either side do not work in the Lehigh Valley,” she said, echoing moderate Easton Democratic Mayor Sal Panto’s remarks to Fox News Digital in a separate interview.

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“It boils down to an individual, not a ticket, per se. Look at our elected officials over the decades, like our mayors and county executives, they are moderates,” the senator said.

In Lehigh County, Allentown has had a spate of moderate-to-liberal Democratic mayors, including Tuerk, Ray O’Connell and Ed Pawlowski – the latter of whom is currently serving time in federal prison for a pay-to-play scheme.

At the turn of the century, Republican Bill Heydt led the city and was seen as just as popular as his Democratic contemporaries.

While Bethlehem Democratic Mayor J. William Reynolds ultimately did not respond to interview requests, that city last had a Republican mayor in the 1990s, when Kenneth Smith led the city through the collapse of Bethlehem Steel Corp.

The Lehigh Valley’s prior congressman, Republican Charlie Dent, was a moderate who notably eschewed support for Trump – earning him frequent criticism in return.

“Moderates win in the Lehigh Valley because that is who we are at our core,” Boscola said.

“About 20% of Northampton County’s electorate are Independents and party dogma does not persuade them.”

In both counties’ rural northern and suburban southern ends, however, Republicans often hold majorities on township boards.

Such countervailing dynamics demonstrate why races are often so tight in the Valley.

In response to Tuerk’s comments, Trump’s Pennsylvania campaign spokesman Kush Desai said Democrats “can delude themselves into believing that huge swaths of Republicans are voting for another four years of unlimited illegal immigration, rising prices, and war with Kamala Harris all they want, but the reality is that Pennsylvanians – whether they be Democrats, Republicans or independents – want a return to the peace, prosperity and stability of the Trump administration.”

Fox News Digital separately interviewed Lehigh Valley Republicans, whose ground game strategies and sentiments will be the subject of a separate piece.

The Lehigh and Northampton County Democratic Committees did not respond to interview requests.

Fox News Digital’s Matteo Cina contributed to this report.