Clinton will join Sen. Kay Hagan at Broughton High School in Raleigh. The event is free and open to the public, and doors open at 2:45 p.m.
He joins a wave of prominent political names running through North Carolina during this election season — including Sen. Rand Paul, Gov. Chris Christie, Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz, Hillary Clinton and Mitt Romney.
Clinton holds a 64 percent approval rating according to a June Gallup poll, making him the most popular living president.
John Dinan, a political science professor at Wake Forest University, said in an email that gaining new supporters is not the goal of this rally.
“The intent at this point is generally not to persuade undecided voters, but to catch the attention of leaning Republican or leaning Democratic voters and motivate them to head to the polls in cases where they might not be thinking about the election or planning to vote,” he said.
Dinan said the presence of a former president turns the election into a high-profile event, meant to maximize excitement among supporters and flood the news media. The tactic, he said, is more about fighting voter apathy and convincing any voters sitting on the fence.
“Who are the big-name national Democrats, exactly?” said Steven Greene, an N.C. State University political science professor. “If you don’t want to bring in the President, which (Hagan) obviously doesn’t, there’s not the same kind of people with the same kind of name recognition and general positive feeling (as Clinton).”
The statistical analysis website FiveThirtyEight recently calculated that Hagan has a 61 percent chance of winning, as she has held a consistent 3 to 4 percentage point lead over Tillis for several months.