LUMBERTON — Two messages ran ramrod straight and hard as steel during the campaign rally Saturday at the Robeson County Fairgrounds: reelect President Donald Trump and obtain full federal recognition for the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina.

Each message energized the hundreds of people attending the rally. But one statement about recognition of the tribe drew perhaps the loudest cheers and the longest round of applause of the day.

“When I’m reelected I will sign the Lumbee Recognition Act,” Trump said.

The president was speaking about the legislation sent Sept. 30 to the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives by the House Natural Resources Committee.

Trump’s recognition message fit well with the rally’s theme: Fighting for the Forgotten Men and Women.

As for Lumbee recognition, it is time to right a wrong that has persisted for more than one hundred years, the president said. The people of North Carolina want to see the tribe get federal recognition.

Both messages dominated the short speeches given before Trump took the stage at 1:04 p.m.

The first speaker was Jarrod Lowery, one of the two District 5 representatives on the Lumbee Tribal Council. Lowery began by speaking about something he said he wouldn’t have believed would happen five years ago.

“Can you believe the president of the United States coming to Robeson County?” he asked the people in the audience.

Trump is the first sitting president to support federal recognition of the Lumbee Tribe, Lowery said.

“Trump sees Robeson County because we are working class Americans,” he said.

The president supports working-class Americans, Lowery said.

“I want all of you here to work with me to give Donald J. Trump four more years,” the Tribal Council member said.

Lowery was followed by U.S. Rep. Dan Bishop, R-N.C. 9. The congressman said House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, a Democrat from Maryland, told him the House would vote on the Lumbee Recognition Act by the end of the year.

“Thank you President Trump for finally righting a wrong. Thank you President Trump for backing recognition recognition of the Lumbee Tribe,” said U.S. Rep. Richard Hudson, who represents N.C. District 8.

U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue came to the stage and asked if the people at the rally were ready to “make America great again, again.”

The people cheered in the affirmative.

Then Perdue asked a question that fit with the rally’s theme.

“Are you all tired of being forgotten and taken for granted?” Perdue asked.

He was answered with cheers, applause and shouts of “Yes.”

Perdue praised Trump as a president who hasn’t forgotten them. He praised the members of the audience, calling them the type of people who will help rebuild America. He praised Trump for backing recognition for the Lumbee Tribe.

The Ag secretary urged the people to reelect Trump and warned this election presents a sharp choice.

“This is ‘T’ in the road,” Perdue said. “We’re either going left to socialism or right to make America great again.”

During his speech, Trump thanked Bishop, Hudson and others who have fought to get federal recognition for the Lumbee Tribe.

The words spoken at the rally were greeted enthusiastically by a crowd that included the young and the old. The rally was attended people representing every major racial group in the county. The audience members entered the fairgrounds on foot, using crutches, on walkers and riding scooters.

Some were from outside Robeson County.

Heather Ballard, 30, came from Concord with her husband, Bryan.

“It has been like my dream to see the president speak,” she said. “And it was too close to home not to come.”

She didn’t come to hear Trump say anything specific, Heather said. The fact that he was in Robeson County speaks to how important he considers small towns and rural America.

When asked if she believes Trump will win North Carolina on Election Day, she answered with an emphatic, “Yes I do.”

Trump will win because of all the lockdowns and the people watching America being torn apart, she said.

“We’re not going to let America go up in flames,” Heather said.

Sam Malthen, a 20-year-old Marine, and 17-year-old Will Lawson came from Apex.

“I love Trump,” Malthen said.

They both said it was a way to get out from under the pandemic-related lockdown, at least for a while.

“I wanted to be out with like-minded people,” Malthen said.

Both predicted a Trump victory.

He’s seeing a lot of similarities between this year and 2016, when Trump beat Hillary Clinton despite the national polls showing Clinton in the lead going into Election Day. The president will be helped by holding so many rallies, like the one in Lumberton.

“I may have to move if he doesn’t (win),” Lawson said with a smile.

St. Pauls resident Cathy Jackson missed her 46-year-old son’s birthday party and a grandson’s baseball game to come to the rally. But, the son shouldn’t be too mad at her because she bought him a .45 caliber handgun with Trump’s picture on it as a birthday gift, she said.

When asked if she believes Trump will carry Robeson County, Jackson said, “Trump’s going to carry the world.”

Fifteen-year-old Joseph Hardee, of Lumberton, nodded when asked if he thinks Trump will take Robeson County on Election Day. It was Hardee’s first rally, and he wanted to hear Trump say he’s going to beat former Vice President Joe Biden, the Democratic nominee for president.

And in a freewheeling speech that was classic Donald Trump, the president declared, that, with the people’s help, he will beat Biden.