Harris campaigns in swing state Georgia as some Democrats see new hope
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Supporters cheering during a campaign rally for US Vice-President Kamala Harris in Ambler, Pennsylvania, on July 29.
PHOTO: AFP
WASHINGTON – Vice-President Kamala Harris is making her first trip to Georgia as a presidential candidate on July 30, where she is expected to rally with rapper Megan Thee Stallion.
With less than 100 days left in one of the least predictable campaign seasons in recent history, Democrats are polling voters in swing states anew and redrawing their map to victory.
Some Democrats now see Georgia, which Democrats barely won in a hard-fought battle in 2020, as a possible victory again in 2024.
Ms Harris will hold a political event in Atlanta, the White House said, without providing more details. Megan Thee Stallion will join Ms Harris there, Billboard and Rolling Stone reported, citing a source.
Georgia Senator Jon Ossoff said on MSNBC over the weekend that Ms Harris’ entry into the race “has put Georgia in play” for Democrats and predicted she would win.
Rapper Megan Thee Stallion will join US Vice-President Kamala Harris at a political event in Atlanta, Billboard has reported.
PHOTO: AFP
Swing states like Georgia are fiercely contested because they can lean either to Republicans or Democrats and play a decisive role in presidential elections.
FiveThirtyEight, the poll aggregation site, shows Republican Donald Trump leading Ms Harris by between one and five percentage points in surveys taken after Ms Harris became the likely Democratic candidate.
President Joe Biden ended his re-election bid on July 21
Since then, Ms Harris’ election campaign has raised US$200 million (S$268 million)
A New York Times/Siena College national poll published on July 25 found Ms Harris has narrowed a sizable Trump lead; Trump had a two percentage-point lead in a Wall Street Journal poll published on July 26. A Reuters/Ipsos poll published on July 23 showed a two-point lead for Ms Harris.
Mr Biden’s campaign saw a narrowing path to victory with the “Sun Belt states”, including Georgia, Arizona and Nevada, unlikely wins. Georgia backed Mr Biden by 0.2 percentage point, just under 12,000 votes in 2020, and Trump by around five percentage points in 2016.
Mr Andy Beshear, the twice-elected Democratic governor of deep-red Kentucky, visited Georgia over the weekend to campaign for Ms Harris in the Republican stronghold of Forsyth County.
The Harris campaign is vetting him along with Senator Mark Kelly of Arizona and Governors Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania and Tim Walz of Minnesota as possible vice-presidential candidates. A decision is expected by Aug 7.
Ms Harris is leaning into her resume as a former district attorney and California attorney-general, seeking to draw a contrast with Trump who is the first former president to be convicted of felony crimes.
Trump and 14 co-defendants are accused of racketeering and other charges for their role in attempting to overturn Mr Biden’s narrow win in Georgia. REUTERS
