Kamala Harris headed to Georgia on Wednesday for a campaign bus tour through the mostly rural southern part of the crucial battleground state.
Returning to the stump for the first time since the successful Democratic National Convention energized supporters, Harris will barnstorm through predominantly Republican-leaning areas across the state ahead of a rally Thursday in the Democratic stronghold of Savannah.
It’s the first time a Democratic presidential campaign has made stops in the region since Bill Clinton in 1992. The swing represents the vice president’s effort to augment an expected big win in metro Atlanta by limiting her losses in traditionally GOP areas of the state, a strategy analysts predict Harris could also implement in neighboring North Carolina.
“Campaigning in this part of the Peach State is critical as it represents a diverse coalition of voters, including rural, suburban and urban Georgians — with a large proportion of Black voters and working-class families,” the Harris campaign said in a statement announcing the tour.
With 16 electoral votes, Georgia is a key prize for both camps, especially after Biden beat Trump by just 11,000 votes in 2020 with overwhelming support in Atlanta and among Black voters.
Vice presidential nominee Tim Walz joined Harris on the Southern swing after addressing union firefighters in Boston earlier Wednesday.
Even though Walz is not from the South, the Harris campaign believes he is an important messenger to rural voters nationwide because of his biography and folksy persona.
He grew up in a tiny Nebraska farm town and draws cheers from campaign crowds when he boasts of his prowess as a recreational hunter and his belief in small-town values like staying out of neighbors’ business.
The two candidates are scheduled to give a joint interview on CNN Thursday, fulfilling a promise Harris made to sit for an interview before the end of the month. Some Republicans criticized Harris for not doing the interview solo, a gibe Democrats have scoffed at.
Harris and former President Donald Trump are vying for the seven battleground states that will likely determine the winner of the November election.
Trump’s campaign believes Georgia is a must-win state in 2024, while Harris strategists see other paths to the 270 votes needed to win the Electoral College.
The swing states are broadly divided into two categories: the so-called blue wall states of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin and the Sun Belt battlegrounds of Georgia, North Carolina, Arizona and Nevada. All except North Carolina were won by Biden in 2020.
Harris plans to appear with President Biden in Detroit and Pittsburgh on Labor Day with the election just over 70 days away. The first mail-in ballots get sent to voters in just two weeks.
