President Joe Biden will visit North Carolina on Thursday, exactly one week after Vice President Kamala Harris visited the Tar Heel State. The twin visits likely signal that Democrats think the state is in play this year, hoping to flip it the same way they did neighboring Georgia four years ago.

“On Thursday, the president will talk about how we continue to build on [his agenda] and delivering for families, workers, and businesses across North Carolina,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said.

“Under the Biden administration, companies have announced $31 billion in private-sector clean energy and manufacturing investments in North Carolina alone,” she added during remarks Tuesday.

Based on 2020 results, Team Biden may like its chances of turning another Southern state blue. Former President Donald Trump won North Carolina by just 1.34% in 2020, his smallest winning margin in any state. It was considered a toss-up going in, and the result was not immediately known as the race was initially too close to call.

It also hasn’t been that long since North Carolina voted for a Democratic president. Unlike Georgia, which hadn’t gone blue since 1992, the Tar Heel State gave its Electoral College votes to Barack Obama in 2008 and boasts a Democratic governor today in the form of Roy Cooper.

“If you’re the Biden campaign, of course you’re competing in North Carolina, and of course events like this are being held because you see North Carolina as a competitive state in 2024,” said Steven Greene, a political science professor at North Carolina State University.

Biden will visit the Raleigh-Durham “Research Triangle” area, home of Duke and the University of North Carolina in addition to NC State, to revive his Bidenomics message and talk about infrastructure investments in the state and elsewhere.

Greene thinks the eventual Republican nominee likely has the edge at the moment but says Biden does stand a puncher’s chance at getting the win.

“I’d be surprised if the Democrats didn’t make a pretty big push here,” Greene said.

Harris visited last Thursday, accompanied by the mayor of Charlotte and Education Secretary Miguel Cardona, to speak about gun control laws and announce $285 million to hire and train mental health counselors in schools.

Douglas Wilson, former deputy executive director of the North Carolina Democratic Party, is seeing signs that his party is putting more and earlier resources into the state now compared to 2020. For example, he says a local leadership team has already been announced, whereas it took until the summer of 2020 for that to happen.

“I think we have a good shot,” he said. “If you look at 2020, the race was pretty close despite the pandemic and despite the fact that Democrats did not start knocking on doors until September. Fast forward four years, and [we] believe we have a ground game that could allow us to be competitive.”

While Greene said he expects abortion access will be a heavy theme of Democratic campaigning in the state, Wilson also thinks Biden should focus on investments in things like North Carolina’s historically black colleges and universities and rural broadband, noting that the state is 60% rural.

Trump is up on Biden by 9% in early polling, per RealClearPolitics, though the race is expected to tighten and the site lists North Carolina as a battleground state.

But not everyone thinks Republicans are in danger. Dan Bowling, who recently left Duke University after spending 20 years teaching courses there on labor unions, says North Carolina is “a lot redder than people think.”

“I’d be shocked if Biden spends a lot of money there,” he said.

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Bowling notes that North Carolina has attracted businesses, such as regional offices for Google and Microsoft, which will raise its overall wages and attract voters who are unlikely to support Trump. But he also notes that it’s a right-to-work state and says Biden had little to do with the moves.

“The greatest thing he’s done for the North Carolina economy is push all the high-tech workers out of blue states,” he said.