Trump heads to Charlotte to protect endangered GOP House seats

President Trump on Friday will turn his attention to protecting the Republican majority in the House, making a stop in North Carolina to raise money for candidates running in districts the GOP needs to hold if they hope to preserve their majority.
The president will be on the ground in Charlotte for Rep. Ted Budd (R) and Pastor Mark Harris, who upset Rep. Robert Pittenger (R-N.C.) in a primary earlier this year.
Charlotte Observer: Whirlwind trip puts Trump in the middle of competitive House races.
Harris needs the help – he had less than $300,000 in his coffers at the end of June, compared to $1.8 million for his Democratic challenger Dan McCready, a Marine Corps veteran and business owner.
Trump won Harris’s district by 11 points in 2016 but the nonpartisan Cook Political Report has the race rated as a toss-up.
Budd, meanwhile, is the favorite to win reelection – Cook has his race rated as “leans Republican.”
But Budd’s Democratic challenger Kathy Manning has been a fundraising juggernaut, outraising Budd by nearly $1 million this cycle and sitting on nearly twice the cash, as of the end of June.
A July poll found Budd with a 5 point lead in the race.
Trump’s fundraising swing is also a way to thank a couple of allies. Budd is a member of the House Freedom Caucus, the conservative group that contains some of the president’s staunchest allies.
Harris is expected to join if he is elected and has said he’ll support Freedom Caucus founder Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) to be Speaker if Republicans are still in the majority.
The visit comes amid a crisis over North Carolina’s congressional maps. A panel of judges ruled this week that the Republican-drawn maps are unconstitutional, throwing the election into chaos with only 67 days until voters head to the polls.