Kamala Harris and her vice presidential pick will hit seven battleground states next week starting next Tuesday, the Harris campaign announced.
Tuesday night the Democratic Party announced Harris was the only candidate to meet the threshold to replace Joe Biden. Harris will be named the party’s presidential nominee in a virtual meeting that starts Thursday and ends Monday.
DNC/Convention announce that VP Harris got 3,923 delegate signatures to qualify and get onto the ballot. No one else met the threshold.
Also – the virtual roll call will start Aug. 1 (Thursday morning) and end Aug. 5 (next Monday afternoon).
Delegates just received this text: pic.twitter.com/4ImJgugYpw
— aaron navarro (@aaronlarnavarro) July 31, 2024
Harris told reporters earlier in the day as she headed for a rally in Atlanta that she had not yet decided on a pick:
Here’s the video of @VP Harris departing Joint Base Andrews for Atlanta rally.
She was asked if she has chosen her VP and she said “not yet”.
: @ATLNewsFirst pic.twitter.com/bwuS3y1oxl
— best of kamala harris (@archivekamala) July 30, 2024
The Harris-veep pick campaign will kick off on Tuesday with a rally in Philadelphia, giving rise to speculation the nod will go to Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro which the campaign denied–for now.
Stops will then be held somewhere in “western Wisconsin”, Detroit, Raleigh, Savannah, Phoenix and Las Vegas. Politico reported on the campaign swing (excerpt):
Harris’ decision to kick off her tour in the biggest city in Pennsylvania is sure to set off speculation about her vice presidential pick. One of the top contenders being vetted by Harris’ team is Josh Shapiro, the governor of the swing state.
If Harris chooses Shapiro as her running mate, Philadelphia would make an obvious place to roll out the news, given that he hails from the area’s suburbs. But it’s also a diverse, vote-rich city that every presidential nominee must tend to thanks to the state’s 19 electoral votes, and it’s possible Harris’ plans don’t signal anything beyond that.
A Harris campaign aide cautioned against reading too much into the first city chosen for the tour.
…Harris is planning to interview potential vice presidential nominees in the upcoming days, said people familiar with the vetting process and granted anonymity to speak freely. Other names in the mix include Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg.
Reuters reporter Jeff Mason reported last week that Former Obama Attorney General Eric Holder is vetting potential vice presidential picks for Harris.
SCOOP: Former attorney general @EricHolder and his law firm will be handling vetting of running mates for @KamalaHarris, sources tell me and @JarrettRenshaw
— Jeff Mason (@jeffmason1) July 22, 2024
A Morning Consult poll of battleground states released Tuesday shows the race with President Trump tightening, but with questionable numbers (Harris up eleven in Michigan?)
#New General Election Poll
Arizona – Harris +2
Georgia – Tie
Michigan – Harris +11
Nevada – Harris +1
Wisconsin – Harris +2
Pennsylvania – Trump +4
North Carolina – Trump +2Morning Consult #C – 437 RV (Each) – 7/28 pic.twitter.com/cV719ua5w3
— Political Polls (@PpollingNumbers) July 30, 2024
At her Atlanta rally, perhaps forgetting how the Trump-Biden debate turned out after a cocky Biden demanded Trump “make my day” and debate him, Harris issued a ‘”say it to my face” debate challenge to Trump:
Trump and Vance “sure seem to have a lot to say about me. Don’t you find some of their stuff just to be plain weird…Donald, I do hope you’ll reconsider to meet me on the debate stage. Because as the saying goes if you’ve got something to say, say it to my face”
– Kamala Harris pic.twitter.com/3e2gbI0WyF
— Howard Mortman (@HowardMortman) July 31, 2024
