Harris seeks to win over Republicans uneasy about Trump with visits to Midwestern suburbs
Democrat Kamala Harris is out to win over suburban voters uneasy about Republican Donald Trump as she touches down in three Midwestern battleground states on Monday to hold moderated conversations with Republican Liz Cheney.
The vice president will make appearances in three suburban counties won by Republican Nikki Haley before she dropped out of the race for the GOP nomination: Chester County, Pennsylvania; Oakland County, Michigan; and Waukesha County, Wisconsin.
Mr Harris’ travel companion, Cheney, is a former GOP congresswoman from Wyoming and a fierce critic of Trump. Their conversations will be moderated by a conservative radio host and a GOP strategist.
With just over two weeks to go before the presidential election and the race a dead heat, the Democratic nominee is looking for support from every possible voter. Her campaign is hoping to persuade those who haven’t made up their minds, mobilize any Democrats considering sitting this one out, and pick off voters in areas where support for Trump may be fading.
A few votes here and there could add up to an overall win. In Waukesha County, for example, Haley won more than 9,000 primary votes even after she dropped out of the race. Overall, Wisconsin was decided for President Joe Biden in 2020 by just 20,000 votes. In-person early voting in the state starts Tuesday.
Ms Cheney and Ms Harris will be joined at the events by Charles Sykes, a conservative radio host and editor-in-chief of the website The Bulwark, and GOP strategist Sarah Longwell.
Ms Cheney has endorsed Ms Harris because of her concerns about Trump. She lost her House seat after she co-chaired a congressional committee that investigated the 6 January, 2021, Capitol riot. That’s when a violent mob of Trump supporters broke into the building and beat and bloodied law enforcement in a failed effort to stop the certification of Mr Biden’s 2020 presidential win.
Ms Cheney is not the only Republican to back Ms Harris. More than 100 former GOP officeholders and officials joined Ms Harris last week in Washington Crossing, Pennsylvania, not far from where Gen. George Washington led hundreds of troops across the Delaware River to a major victory in the Revolutionary War.
At a rally there, she told GOP voters the patriotic choice was to vote for the Democrats.
As the election draws near, the vice president has increasingly focused on Trump’s lies around the 2020 election and his role in the violent mob’s failed efforts. She says Trump is “unstable” and “unhinged” and would eviscerate democratic norms if given a second White House term.
Trump has been trying to minimize the violent 6 January confrontation as he campaigns, claiming it was “a day of love from the standpoint of the millions.”
