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COLUMBIA — Vice President Mike Pence will speak at a rally in Greenville on Tuesday, making a rare pre-election stop for a Republican in a state that has long been considered a safe GOP stronghold.

The “Make America Great Again Victory” rally, exactly one week out from Election Day, will be at 3:30 p.m. at Donaldson Airport and is sandwiched in between two separate stops for Pence in North Carolina, widely viewed as a crucial battleground state. The announcement came Saturday night from President Donald Trump’s reelection campaign.

Within a few hours of the Trump campaign announcing Pence’s South Carolina rally, several members of the vice president’s staff were reported to have tested positive for coronavirus. But White House chief of staff Mark Meadows said Sunday morning on CNN that Pence would maintain his public schedule.

“Essential personnel, whether it’s the vice president of the United States or anyone else, has to continue on,” Meadows said.

Pence helped kick-off U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham’s reelection campaign a year and a half ago with rallies in Myrtle Beach and Greenville, and his return to the state could be an effort to help South Carolina’s Republican incumbent close the deal in a race that has become much more competitive than initially expected.

Graham, who has represented the Palmetto State in the U.S. Senate since 2002, is facing the most threatening challenge of his political career from Democrat Jaime Harrison, who has raised a national record of more than $100 million in his bid to unseat the incumbent.

The rally could also serve as a celebration for Graham if he is able to solidify the confirmation of Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett. A full vote in the Senate is scheduled on Monday. After Trump chose Barrett late last month, Graham quickly scheduled hearings for the nominee with the Senate Judiciary Committee that he chairs.

Graham’s campaign spokesman T.W. Arrighi said the senator’s attendance is dependent on whether Barrett is confirmed in time or if Senate Democrats “decide to pull some shenanigans.”

“But he hopes to attend,” Arrighi said.

S.C. GOP chairman Drew McKissick said the party is proud to welcome Pence back to the state and looks forward to “re-electing him and President Trump for another four years.”

“It’s no secret the Trump Administration is friends with South Carolina,” McKissick said. “From Senator Lindsey Graham to Governor Henry McMaster, we have a solid relationship with the Trump White House.”

The last time either a president or vice president campaigned in South Carolina so close to an election was October 2002, a non-presidential midterm year, when Republican President George W. Bush spoke in Columbia in support of Graham during his first U.S. Senate campaign against Democrat Alex Sanders.