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Tuesday, March 19, 2024

Lara Trump energizes local Republican women with visit, family stories

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Today’s rally for Republican presidential candidate Donald J. Trump will be another homecoming for the Wrightsville Beach native who is planning more visits back to North Carolina to help carry the state for the father-in-law she said is misrepresented in the media.

It’s the second homecoming in less than a week for Lara Trump, the wife of the candidate’s son Eric Trump, who now calls New York home. Her visit here last weekend helped energize a local group of Republican women, who are planning more events to inspire voters to Southeastern North Carolina to pull the lever for Trump in November.

One of those women, Holly Grange, will be leading the Pledge of Allegiance before Trump’s rally scheduled for 2 p.m. at University of North Carolina Wilmington’s Trask Auditorium. She believes Lara Trump’s stories, experience and personality can boost the candidate’s popularity in the area.

“She’s a very good surrogate for the Donald Trump campaign.  She can really help him here,” said Grange, who won the primary race for the state House district 20 in March and is unopposed in November’s general election. “She’s down to earth and tells heartwarming stories about the family.”

Lara Trump met a group of more than a dozen members of the Lower Cape Fear Republican Women’s Club on Saturday, where they planned future events and talked issues important to local women.

Lara Trump said an important reason for her visit was to share stories about her father-in-law Donald Trump that aren’t reflected in the media coverage.

“With the media bias that’s out there, it’s difficult for people to see the true person that he is,” she said of the presidential candidate. “It’s easy for me to come home and to talk to the people around here about the man I know.”

Several members of the club who met with Lara Trump said the stories had an impact, especially given the profile presented of Donald Trump in media coverage and through his business persona.

“The more we hear from the family, the more humanized he becomes,” Patti Smithson said. “Because of his business background, he appears tough, but Lara was able to convey stories about the family that you don’t hear.”

One of those stories was about a simple act of kindness that came unexpectedly for Lara Trump. The avid horseback rider then known as Lara Yunaska took a spill and broke both wrists just two weeks before her November 2014 wedding to Eric Trump. While recuperating, she got a surprise visit from her future father-in-law that lifted her spirits.

“It came unexpectedly, when no one was around. He went out of his way to make me feel thought about and cared for,” Lara Trump recalls. “It’s something I will never forget.”

Lara Trump’s weekend in North Carolina marked an expansion of her involvement in the campaign. While she had been to events with her husband, she hadn’t before made any appearances on her own. But in addition to the meeting with local Republican women, she attended a church service rally at Antioch Road to Glory International Ministries in Charlotte on Sunday.

“She’s proving herself very well,” said Brenda Barker of Lara Trump’s testimonials about candidate Donald Trump. “She’s very at-ease because you can tell she’s talking about something she believes in.”

Pat Kusek, a Republican candidate for the New Hanover County Board of Commissioners, said that the meeting with Lara Trump excited the women’s club, which includes members from New Hanover, Brunswick and Pender counties.

“The first question out of our mouths was ‘Is he really coming?’” Kusek said of the candidate’s rally. “We were all very excited. I want the opportunity to get as close to Donald Trump as I can.”

The trip back to North Carolina last weekend wasn’t all business for Lara Trump. She got an opportunity to visit her parents Robert and Linda Yunaska, who still live on Wrightsville Beach.

“It’s still my favorite place in the whole world,” Lara Trump said of Wrightsville Beach. “It takes moving away to New York, the greatest city in the world, to realize what a gem we have there. When I’m here, I take time to sit outside on the deck, relax and escape the busy pace of life. And think about how lucky I am to come from a place like Wrightsville Beach.”

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