RALEIGH, North Carolina (Reuters) -U.S. President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris traveled to North Carolina on Tuesday to contrast their healthcare agenda with Republican policy aims as their reelection campaign seeks to flip the state for the first time since 2008.

The North Carolina trip marked the finale of Biden's tour of campaign battleground states following his State of the Union speech earlier this month.

Biden, a Democrat, used the tour to draw contrasts with Republicans and to raise millions of dollars as top Republican rival Donald Trump remains bogged down in costly criminal and civil legal challenges.

Biden's reelection campaign is eyeing North Carolina after Trump barely eked out a win there the last time the two went head-to-head in 2020. Barack Obama was the last Democrat to win the Southern state in 2008, but Democrats note that the margin of victory for Republicans has narrowed in recent elections.

Biden and Harris, who has led the White House charge to support abortion rights after the Supreme Court stuck down Roe v Wade in 2022, touted their healthcare achievements to a crowd of supporters in Raleigh and pledged to do more if reelected.

"While President Biden and I are fighting to expand access to affordable healthcare, there are extremists in our country trying to take away healthcare coverage, or make it more expensive," Harris said.