Glance back at Sen. Hillary Clinton's schedule over the weekend, and six of her eight locations were small cities or distant Charlotte suburbs, like Gastonia and Mooresville.
Here's why: They are among a handful of crucial battleground zones that could go a long way in determining who wins North Carolina's presidential primary on Tuesday.
Sen. Barack Obama will do well in urban and heavily black counties. Clinton will do well in rural white counties, especially in the mountains. That means the state and its 115 delegates largely come down to two crucial territories. First are the counties surrounding the big urban counties, places that are part rural, part suburban, like Gaston and Union counties. Second are rural counties that include a small city, such as Wilson or Wayne out east.
The presidential campaigns are putting more focus on those areas with the race tightening over the past week.
Read the full story at Charlotte.com.