Harris is traveling to North Carolina and plans to hold a campaign rally on Sunday in the hurricane-hit state

WASHINGTON (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris According to her campaign, she is meeting with black leaders in North Carolina on Saturday and will visit church in the state ahead of a rally.

The weekend trip marks her second visit to the embattled state after being hit by her Hurricane Helenewith Harris returning to campaign mode at a point many Democrats see as a potential boost in the November election.

The Democratic presidential candidate went to North Carolina last week to assess the destruction caused by Helene and promise help to the victims. She plans to go to church Sunday as part of the Souls to the Polls drive in Greenville, a city of about 90,000 people in the coastal plain of a state that narrowly supported Republicans Donald Trump in 2020.

Democrats expect North Carolina to go their way this year with its base of black and college-educated voters, as well as women concerned about losing Abortion protection. But the aftermath of Hurricane Helene has become a political flashpoint as former President Trump and his allies attack the Biden administration's response to the natural disaster.

On Saturday evening, Harris will meet with local Black elected officials, faith and community leaders at a Raleigh restaurant and work with volunteers preparing supplies for hurricane victims.

After Sunday's service, Harris plans to speak about the economy at a rally to drum up support before early voting begins in North Carolina starting Thursday.

When Hurricane Helene made landfall on September 26, about 230 people died and knocked out roads, power and cell phone networks. Just two weeks later, on Wednesday, Hurricane Milton made landfall in Florida, causing an estimated $50 billion in damage and causing several deaths.

Harris also visited Georgia after Helene's strike, attended virtual briefings on the relief effort and revamped her campaign schedule. But she also continued to travel to vote in the presidential election while she was spending time there Nevada and Arizona.

One of her key messages was that there should be no price gouging by companies seeking to take advantage of the shortages caused by the hurricanes – an issue she has made central to her campaign as a way to combat inflation.

“We will keep an eye on any company or individual that takes advantage of this crisis to inflate prices through illegal fraud or price gouging, whether at the gas pump, at the airport or at the hotel counter, and there will be consequences,” Harris said at Friday's briefing.

But Trump and his allies have falsely claimed that Federal Emergency Management Agency disaster aid went to immigrants rather than hurricane victims, while suggesting that people are not receiving the full financial assistance to which they are legally entitled.

At a recent rally in Reading, Pennsylvania, Trump said the response was worse than what the administration dealt with in 2005 Hurricane Katrinawhich killed nearly 1,400 people and caused $200 billion in damage.

“North Carolina has been hit very hard and this administration has not done a real job at all. “Terrible, terrible,” Trump said at the rally, adding that Harris was “on a fundraising comedy tour while people are stranded and drowning all over some of our greatest states.”

President Joe Biden has called Trump's falsehoods about the administration's response to the hurricanes “un-American” and told his predecessor to “live a life, man.”