CHARLOTTE, N.C. >> Former President Barack Obama is campaigning for Vice President Kamala Harris in North Carolina on Friday, bringing his star power to a state the Democratic Party has not won since his first presidential campaign in 2008.

The former president was scheduled to hold a rally in Charlotte, North Carolina’s biggest metropolitan area. It is also the seat of Mecklenburg County, which has been a heartbreaker for Democratic presidential candidates in recent cycles.

In 2020, Joe Biden lost North Carolina by just over 1 percentage point, his narrowest loss of the election. Democrats in the state pointed to lower turnout in Mecklenburg County as the cause.

Now, the county’s Democratic Party operation is better funded and more organized, state leaders say. And Obama is looming large — literally and figuratively — over the contest.

“His presence here will energize the base,” said Doug Wilson, a Democratic strategist based in Charlotte. Hearkening back to Obama’s 2008 victory, he added his visit was “a reminder of what is possible.”

As the presidential race enters its final days, more than 2 million people in North Carolina have cast ballots, outperforming turnout numbers from 2020, according to the State Board of Elections. But Democrats still have work to do in getting their voters to the polls. Turnout in Mecklenburg County has so far underperformed. More than 117,000 more voters had cast ballots in the county by this time four years ago. What’s more, Black voter turnout is lower now than it was in 2020 by almost 40% — a worrying sign for Democrats in the state.

But the party is still confident that it can make up the lag through voter engagement and big rallies like Obama’s. They are also likely to be aided by a galvanizing governor’s race between Josh Stein, the state’s Democratic attorney general, and Mark Robinson, its Republican lieutenant governor whose inflammatory remarks and personal scandals have been an anchor on his campaign.

In the Tar Heel state, Democrats see a chance to break a long streak of losses atop the ticket and derail former President Donald Trump’s path to victory. The party has grown increasingly bullish about the state, pointing to its changing demographics around Charlotte and the Research Triangle that includes Raleigh and Durham.

Obama has traversed multiple battleground states for Harris’ campaign in its final stretch, underlining his enduring popularity among Democratic voters.

Today, Harris will join former first lady Michelle Obama for a rally in Michigan.