WASHINGTON (AP) — The Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris and running companion Tim Walls He spent Sunday on a bus tour of southwestern Pennsylvania visiting small towns and rallying local campaign volunteers. Nominating convention of their party This week in Chicago.
Vice President Harris and Minnesota Governor Walls, joined by their wives Doug Emhoff and Gwen Walls, were the first to stop making phone calls to local volunteers at a campaign office in Rochester, Beaver County.
Speaking to a group of supporters and volunteers outside the campaign office, Harris spoke of strength and leadership. She appeared to show him a hidden note Donald TrumpA Republican presidential candidate known for his sultry style and projecting a strongman image, he said, “The real and true measure of a leader’s strength is based on who you raise rather than who they beat.” .
“He who beats others is a coward,” she shouted, drawing cheers and applause. “This is what strength looks like.”
In his remarks, Walls seemed to embrace the role of his former job coaching high school football, telling the volunteers: “Let’s leave it all on the field. Let’s get this thing done.”
Trump won the county in 2020. But Democrats are riding on renewed enthusiasm after President Joe Biden His re-election was dropped bid exactly four weeks ago and endorsed Harris as his replacement on the ticket.
As Harris’ motorcade left town, it was rolled by a group of about 50 Trump supporters who waited along the road with signs supporting the former president. A few Harris supporters stood nearby with their signs.
The deputy chief next stopped at a firehouse in Aliquippa, where he met firefighters, petted the station’s dog and handed out almond pastries to crews before heading to a nearby junior and senior high school.
Southwestern Pennsylvania is an important part of a key battleground state that has long attracted the attention of presidential candidates. Voted for Trump in 2016 and Biden in 2020. Both Harris and Trump are competing over who can put Pennsylvania in their column on November 5.
Most polls incl New York Times/Siena College And Fox NewsFind out Harris and Trump are in a tight race across the state.
Trump held a rally in Wilkes-Barre on Saturday In the northeastern part of the state, following his earlier rallies in Harrisburg and Butler in July, he narrowly escaped an assassination attempt.
The bus trip was Harris’ eighth trip to Pennsylvania, and his second this month. The Vice President chose to create her First joint appearance with Walls On the ticket in Philadelphia on August 6.
On Sunday, they arrived at Pittsburgh International Airport with their wives to greet supporters. The four held hands and raised their arms before cheering supporters holding campaign signs.
Then they boarded a bright blue bus emblazoned with the words “Harris Walls” in large white letters as they left to shake hands with voters in the Pittsburgh area.
In Rochester, Harris, Walls and their spouses spent a few minutes sitting at tables with volunteers and making phone calls for support.
Things to know about 2024 elections
“79 days to go, Hannah,” Harris said over the phone.
“We’re all in this together,” she said while making calls at another point.
Walls hung up the phone and gave the caller a thumbs up, saying, “He’s all over.” He made another call and asked the person on the line, “How are you? What do you hear from people?”
Christine Kantak, associate professor of political science at the University of Pittsburgh, said Pennsylvania “has traditionally been a very important state, but southwestern Pennsylvania has really been a battleground part of the battleground state.”
Allegheny County, which includes Pittsburgh, is a diverse county with urban, suburban and rural areas, and a lot of people there are undecided about how they will vote, he said.
“It makes sense to come here and ask for votes because the votes are available here,” Kantak said of Harris. “It’s not just about changing your platform. It’s about having the opportunity to speak to a truly undecided voter.
In the 2020 race, Biden won Allegheny County with 60% of the vote, while Trump won neighboring Beaver County, which includes Rochester, with 58% of the vote.
After Trump’s surprise victory in the state in 2016, Biden flipped Pennsylvania in 2020 — and, in doing so, won the White House — in part by boosting his vote in Pittsburgh, the state’s second-largest city. of Allegheny County.
Biden has enthusiastically reached out to the region’s blue-collar unions, announcing his 2020 presidential campaign at the Teamsters Hall in Pittsburgh saying, “I’m a union man.” As president, he opposed the takeover of Pittsburgh’s storied American Steel by a Japanese company, saying it “must remain an American company,” and enacted steep tariffs on Chinese steel.
Trump, who counts on a strong base of white, working-class voters, has not conceded that area. Districts around Pittsburgh have swung from Democratic to Republican, with Trump winning both of his previous runs in the recent presidential election.
Trump has also embraced protectionist trade policies and insists he is pro-labor. His vow to boost U.S. energy production and “drill, baby, drill” resonated in southwestern Pennsylvania blue-collar counties like Washington, where a natural gas drilling boom has helped make Pennsylvania the nation’s No. 2 producer behind Texas. Harris once wanted to ban fracking, the process of extracting oil and gas, and recently retracted his previous stance.
Dana Brown, director of Chatham University’s Pennsylvania Center for Women and Politics, said in an interview that Harris will use the bus tour to spin local media stories and reach out to voters in the state’s southwest region. A contract of speed on her back.”
“He’s going to get that free media attention,” Brown said. “I believe in their confidence … to pick up that momentum and focus on her and less on her opponent.”
Bus tours have become a staple of political campaigns because of the free media coverage they generate. Such trips get candidates out of their power suits and out of Washington so they can travel the country and score face-to-face with voters in small venues like diners and mom-and-pop shops.
Biden rolled across Iowa Eight days bus journey He called it “no malarkey” in December 2019.
During his 2012 re-election campaign, President Barack Obama toured small-town Ohio on his “Betting on America” bus tour.
“It’s always fun to be out in Washington, and it’s wonderful to meet people,” Obama said during a stop.
Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton traveled by bus while campaigning for a second term.
The Democratic National Convention begins Monday.
___
Price announced from New York. Associated Press writers Michael Rubingham in northeastern Pennsylvania and Lynley Sanders in Washington contributed to this report.
