The state went for Democrat Barack Obama in 2008 and for Republican Mitt Romney in 2012. This year’s race has been a statistical tie for weeks between Trump, who has pushed a law-and-order platform, and Clinton, who has campaigned with the parents of black men shot by police. The contest remained a toss-up in the days leading up to Tuesday’s killing of Scott, according to a New York Times poll released today.

Democratic challengers were also polling even with or ahead of Republican incumbents Governor Pat McCrory and U.S. Senator Richard Burr, according to that poll and one released by Public Policy Polling on Wednesday.

Many voters — between 10 and 12 percent of the electorate — haven’t made up their minds on the presidential race, said Carter Wrenn, a Republican political consultant. “The undecideds have been staying undecided.”

The specter of racial violence overtook the state’s biggest metropolitan area, a business-oriented corporate capital of about 2.3 million that is home to Bank of America Corp. and where Wells Fargo & Co. has more than 20,000 workers.