Harris, Walz to hit Blue Wall swing states in week-long push

WASHINGTON – Democratic Party presidential candidate Kamala Harris and running mate Tim Walz will spend the coming week criss-crossing Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, the trio of battleground states that are key to most of their paths to the White House.

The Democratic ticket is turning its attention to the Blue Wall battleground states for a round of campaigning in the relative calm before it ramps up get-out-the-vote activities in the final two weeks before Election Day on Nov 5.

Polls suggest the race is close in all three states, which former president Donald Trump won in 2016 and President Joe Biden took in 2020.

“It is a tight race. It is a margin-of-error race,” Ms Harris told reporters on Oct 12 as she prepared to travel to North Carolina. But, she added, “the choice is clear”.

Amid signs that her support among Black voters – especially men – is weaker than it has been for other recent Democratic presidential nominees, Ms Harris is in a four-day wave of outreach to them. 

She met Black elected, faith and community leaders at a barbecue restaurant in Raleigh, North Carolina, on the night of Oct 12. Ms Harris plans to spend the morning of Oct 13 at a church in Greenville, just as her campaign launched its Souls to the Polls push to encourage Black churchgoers to cast ballots. 

Ms Harris’

support among Black likely voters stood at 78 per cent

in a national New York Times/Siena College poll released on Oct 12, less than the roughly nine out of 10 who had voted for the past few Democratic nominees.

Her focus shifts to the Rust Belt at the start of the week with travel to Erie, Pennsylvania, for a stop with Black men and a rally. Ms Harris will spend Oct 15 in Detroit for a meeting with Black entrepreneurs and a town hall-style event led by Charlamagne Tha God, the co-host of The Breakfast Club, a syndicated radio show targeting a Black audience.

“I want local voices from Detroit and voices from all the battleground states to get the opportunity to ask Vice-President Kamala Harris some questions,” he said on Oct 11. “I know we got some pressing issues to talk about. The future of the nation is decided by who we elect.”

Trump, Harris’ Republican opponent who is seeking a second term as president, has scheduled a town hall on Oct 14 at Oaks, Pennsylvania, in the Philadelphia exurbs. He is due in Atlanta on Oct 15 for a campaign speech. Exurbs are prosperous areas farther away from the city than suburbs.

Ms Harris will return to Pennsylvania on Oct 16 and hit Wisconsin on Oct 17 – with stops in Milwaukee, La Crosse and Green Bay. She plans to be back in Michigan on Oct 18 to campaign in Grand Rapids, Lansing and Oakland County, and will kick off Detroit’s early-voting period on Oct 19.

Mr Walz, the vice-presidential nominee and Minnesota governor, will be in Wisconsin on Oct 14 to kick off a bus tour with fellow Democratic governors and in western Pennsylvania on Oct 15. Later in the week, he will travel outside the Blue Wall states for stops in two North Carolina cities. On Oct 19, he will visit Nebraska’s 2nd Congressional District. BLOOMBERG