Kamala Harris is planning an aggressive blitz of battleground states next week once she names her vice presidential running mate, a sign that Democrats hope to widen the electoral map against former President Trump.
Fresh off a rousing speech to an overflow crowd of 10,000 in Atlanta, Harris says she will barnstorm across all six of the battleground states that President Biden narrowly won in 2020, plus North Carolina, which Trump took.
It’s a move to signal confidence that she has what it takes to match or even exceed Biden’s showing and forge an electoral college path to become the nation’s first Black woman president.
A raft of new polls show Harris has quickly ridden a wave of enthusiasm to transform the race against Trump into a legitimate dead heat with the potential to build more momentum leading up to the Democratic National Convention in August.
Some even show her taking the lead in most battleground states where Trump had led for months.
Harris is expected to pick her running mate no later than early next week in time to join her as she hopscotches across the nation’s swing states.
They’ll start in Philadelphia, then jump to the other Rust Belt states of Michigan and Wisconsin. Then it’s off to the Sun Belt, with rallies in North Carolina, Georgia, Arizona and Nevada.
Before Biden dropped out, Democrats were realistically eyeing a more narrow path to 270 electoral votes that involved clinging to the so-called blue wall states.
Harris is also going on the offensive against Trump on a range of issues, notably immigration and the southern border.
Faced with GOP attack ads blaming her for the migrant crisis, Harris is punching back by taking credit for a border compromise that Republicans shot down at Trump’s behest.
“Donald Trump has been talking a big game about securing our border, but he does not walk the walk,” Harris told the roaring crowd in Atlanta.
She also accused Trump of trying to avoid debating her because he may be afraid of her youth and dynamism, especially compared to Biden.
The Trump and Biden campaigns had agreed to hold two debates, including a second one on Sept. 10 on ABC News, but the former president is now looking to shift the clash to conservative-leaning Fox News.
“Well Donald, I do hope you’ll reconsider to meet me on the debate stage,” Harris told supporters. “Because as the saying goes: If you got something to say, say it to my face.”
Trump has surprisingly struggled to come up with effective lines of attack against Harris and appears to have been caught flat-footed by Biden’s decision to step down and hand the baton to his No. 2.
Trump’s running mate J.D. Vance continues to struggle on the national stage, with critics mocking him for “weird” beliefs about people who don’t have biological children.
Democrats hope whoever Harris picks as her running mate can fit into the traditional attack dog role of slamming Trump while avoiding discussion of their own record or past statements.
Insiders list Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro and Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona as the favorites, along with U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.
Kelly touted his border state bona fides on Wednesday in the latest of a string of Democratic veepstakes tryouts.
“[Trump] wanted to talk about this issue instead of actually fix it, and J.D. Vance and other Republicans, they ran away from it,” Kelly told MSNBC.
All are white men from Midwest or swing states, a profile that suggests Harris wants to balance her trailblazing ticket to appeal to moderates and independent voters. North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper and Michigan’s Gretchen Whitmer have said they don’t want to be considered for the spot.
