Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris and running mate Tim Walz embarked on a bus tour in south-western Pennsylvania, hoping to ride a wave of enthusiasm for her candidacy to their party’s nominating convention in Chicago this week.
Vice President Harris and Walz, the governor of Minnesota, were joined by their spouses, Doug Emhoff and Gwen Walz, as they made their first stop on Sunday visiting local volunteers making phone calls at a campaign office in the borough of Rochester.
Harris and Walz sat down at tables and made a few calls, as did their spouses.
“79 days to go, Hannah,” Harris said while on the phone.
At another point while making calls, she said: “We’re all in this together”.
Walz hung up his phone and said of the caller: “He’s all in,” and gave a thumbs up.
He made another call and asked the person on the line, “How are you feeling? What are you hearing from folks?”
South-western Pennsylvania is a critical part of a key battleground state that has long commanded the attention of presidential candidates.
The state voted for Trump in 2016 and for Biden in 2020.
Both Harris and Trump are vying to see who can put Pennsylvania in their column on November 5.
Most polls, including the New York Times/Siena College poll and Fox News, find Harris and Trump locked in a tight race statewide.
Trump held a rally Saturday in Wilkes-Barre in the north-eastern part of the state, following his earlier rallies in July in Harrisburg and Butler, where he survived an assassination attempt.
The bus tour marks Harris’ eighth trip to Pennsylvania this year, and her second this month.
The vice president’s August 6 announcement that Walz would be her running mate came hours before their first joint appearance as a ticket later that day in Philadelphia.
They arrived with their spouses earlier Sunday at Pittsburgh International Airport and greeted supporters.
The foursome held hands and raised their arms together before cheering supporters who held campaign signs.
They then boarded a bright blue bus that says “Harris Walz” in big white letters as they set off to make stops in the Pittsburgh area to glad-hand with voters.
Allegheny County, which includes Pittsburgh, is a diverse county with urban, suburban and rural areas, and a lot of people who haven’t decided how they will vote, she said.
“It makes sense to come here and ask for votes because there are votes up for grabs here,” Kanthak said of Harris.
“It’s not just about turning out your base. It’s about having an opportunity to speak to truly undecided voters.”
In the 2020 race, Biden won Allegheny County with 60 per cent of the vote, while Trump won neighbouring Beaver County, which includes Rochester, with about 58 per cent of the vote.
After Trump’s surprise win in the state in 2016, Biden flipped Pennsylvania in 2020 — and, in so doing, won the White House — in part by running up his vote totals in heavily Democratic Pittsburgh, the state’s second-largest city and the county seat of Allegheny County.
Bus tours have become a staple of political campaigns partly because of the free media coverage they generate.
Such trips get the candidates out of their power suits and out of Washington so they can travel the country and score face time with voters in small venues like diners and mom-and-pop shops.
The Democratic National Convention opens Monday.
The Democratic National Convention opens Monday.