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Republicans in North Carolina fear voters will be left with a “real sour aftertaste” as President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown roils the state.

“Is the price of doing this worth it?” asked P Edwin Peacock III, a moderate Republican in Charlotte. “I don’t see this cloud moving away [from] what will be in the voters’ minds.”

As Politico reports, “Some North Carolina Republicans are worried President Donald Trump’s aggressive immigration crackdown in the battleground state could backfire."

After focusing his immigration raids largely in blue states, the Trump administration recently turned to the Charlotte, NC area as “the first test for whether the White House’s strategy can hold up in a purple state,” Politico reports. And with next year’s North Carolina Senate race heating up, Republicans will likely face a key “tension at the center of the president’s immigration agenda.”

“The White House’s message, since January, has tied illegal immigration to violent crime in U.S. cities,” Politico reports. “But immigration officials are simultaneously under sustained pressure from the White House to increase arrests and deportation numbers, an effort that requires targeting immigrants well beyond violent criminal offenders — potentially treacherous territory for swing-state Republicans.”

Former Republican Gov. Pat McCrory fears the optics of recent raids in Charlotte “may hurt the GOP on an issue it has long dominated,” according to Politico.

“Republicans had the upper hand on immigration, as long as they were going after the criminals and the gangs, but I think they’re losing the upper hand on that issue because of the apparent disjointed implementation of arrest,” McCrory said. “From a PR and political standpoint, for the first time, immigration is maybe having a negative impact on my party.”

North Carolina-based GOP pollster Patrick Sebastian warned the “narrative” of U.S. officials deporting working immigrants who are not breaking other laws "has gotten more play over the past week, and that could be a problem for Republicans.”

As Politico reports, “One GOP strategist working on races in North Carolina, who was granted anonymity to speak candidly, said there’s a risk that the picture of a citizen being separated from their family, rather than the arrests of unauthorized immigrants with criminal records, will stick.”

“You don’t know what the enduring image is going to be in voters’ minds,” the anonymous pollster said.

Florida Republicans are experiencing a “rare rift” between themselves and President Donald Trump over his proposal to open up new offshore drilling sites in the Gulf of Mexico, the Hill reports.

According to the Hill, the Trump administration on Thursday proposed “to auction off the right to drill in an area that includes part of the Gulf that had been considered part of the Eastern Gulf of Mexico." The move “represents something of a reversal for Trump, who put forward a moratorium on drilling off Florida’s coasts during his first term in office."

In a statement to the Hill, Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis spokesperson Molly Best said the Florida governor “supports the 2020 Presidential Memorandum and urges the Department of Interior to reconsider and to conform to the 2020 Trump Administration policy.”

DeSantis’ statement comes after Sen. Ashley Moody (R-FL) on Thursday called the new maps “highly concerning.”

“The new maps released today by [Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum] and [the U.S. Department of the Interior] outlining potential new offshore oil drilling sites in the Gulf of America are highly concerning — and we will be engaging directly with the department on this issue,” Moody wrote on X, referring to the Gulf of Mexico by the president’s preferred language.

“Preserving our state’s natural beauty is deeply important to the millions who call the Sunshine State home, our visitors, and those whose livelihoods depend on tourism,” Moody added.

Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) likewise said the Florida coast “must remain off the table for oil drilling,” according to Spectrum News 13.

Florida Congressman Jimmy Patronis also asked the Trump administration to “reconsider the areas included in the drilling plans because of how he believes they could impact military operations,” Fox 10 News reports.

As the Hill reports, “It’s a rare rift between the state’s Republicans and Trump, who made the state his primary residence in 2019. While his Mar-a-Lago is situated on the state’s east coast on the Atlantic Ocean, drilling in the eastern gulf would be more likely to impact the state’s west coast.”