Walz rallies voters at Duke University, tours Cameron Indoor Stadium

With 12 days to go until Election Day, both presidential campaigns are making a big push for North Carolina.

It's a state Democrats have been hoping to flip for the first time since 2008, and they believe young voters and college students are a key part of that equation.

On Thursday, cheered on by a sea of Blue Devils, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz was betting on a blue North Carolina.

On Thursday, cheered on by a sea of Blue Devils, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz was betting on a blue North Carolina.

"What's gonna win is each and every one of you encouraging somebody to their better angels," the Democratic vice presidential nominee told the crowd gathered at the Duke University student union.

With an early voting site on campus, Walz hoped hoping students would go straight from the rally to the polls.

Walz's speech hit some of the Democrats' main points, such as change and reproductive rights.

Walz also weighed in on recent comments made by former President Donald Trump's former chief of staff John Kelly.

"(Trump's) tendencies toward leaning toward dictatorship is un-American," Walz said. "it is absolutely horrific the things they're proposing, but here's what I say is you know what's great about that he is never going to be president again, he is never going to be president."

But before he left, Walz, a former high school assistant football coach, had to go where he felt right at home.

"It really does have a high school gym feel to it, that's great," he said entering Cameron Indoor Stadium.

He got a quick tour of the court and met Duke men's basketball head coach Jon Scheyer.

And while that photo op might help lock up Duke voters, the campaign is also making sure to be equal opportunity. Doug Emhoff appeared in Tar Heel country this week.

Ending with some basketball bipartisanship, Emhoff posted on X "UNC and Duke students will always be rivals - but they both agree on one thing: voting for Kamala"

After leaving from Raleigh-Durham International Airport, Walz headed for events in Greenville followed by Wilmington where he was set to appear with music artist James Taylor.

More than 2 million votes have been cast in North Carolina's Early Voting period, according to the state board of elections.

The ballots cast represents a turnout of about 26% of North Carolina's nearly 7.8 million registered voters.

The 2,015,754 ballots cast can be broken down into the following voting methods:

In-person early voting: 1,895,314
Absentee (civilian): 103,945
Absentee (overseas): 12,974
Absentee (military): 3,521

Another court hearing on North Carolina's Voter ID law is happening today.

The case, which started nearly six years ago challenged two constitutional amendments. One of those amendments include lowering the state income tax cap and the other challenges a state voter photo ID requirement.

Advocates argue the state's photo ID law discriminates against Black and Hispanic voters and dilutes their voting power.

Lawyers for the group say the law violates section two of the Voting Rights Act as well as the 14th and 15th amendments.

Republican state lawmakers say the ID requirement, which took effect last year, builds voter confidence in elections.

Today's hearing laid out the next steps in the case after closing arguments happened in March.

First Lady Jill Biden announced Wednesday she be will making two stops in North Carolina to campaign for Harris-Walz.

During her visit, Biden plans to highlight Vice President Harris and Governor Walz's vision for a New Way Forward and to encourage North Carolinians to vote early in-person.

She will stop in both Fayetteville and Cary on Friday, Oct. 25.

Event times have not been released.