Kamala Harris and Joe Biden to hold first campaign event together

Kamala Harris flew to Detroit Monday morning as part of a two-day campaign that will culminate with her first campaign rally with the man she replaced on the ballot: Joe Biden.

The vice president boarded Air Force One with headphones on and her phone in hand as she prepared for a new mission with just nine weeks until Election Day.

She pressed the headset and did not respond to the questions asked by the waiting reporters.

Harris and Biden meet in Pittsburgh to mobilize union members in the crucial state.

The date and first meeting are telling: it takes place on Labor Day in a must-win state.

But their journey is overshadowed by the war in the Middle East.

Before Harris leaves for her destination, she will meet with Biden in the Situation Room on Monday with the US negotiating team on the hostage agreement. They will discuss efforts to free the remaining hostages.

Israel said Sunday morning it had recovered the bodies of six hostages, including Israeli-American Hersh Goldberg-Polin. The deaths sparked thousands of protests on the streets of Israel.

Harris has endorsed Biden’s efforts to arm Israel and broker a hostage deal and ceasefire. She has also raised concerns about the treatment of civilians in Gaza.

After reuniting in the White House, the duo goes on tour.

Both Michigan and Pennsylvania form the Democrats’ “blue wall,” a string of Midwestern states considered must-win to retain the White House. Biden won both states in the 2020 election, but Donald Trump won them in the 2016 election.

The two will be joined in Pittsburgh by Governor Josh Shapiro, Senator Bob Casey, Lt. Governor Austan Davis, Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey and Representatives Summer Lee, Madeleine Dean and Chris Deluzio.

Harris and her campaign have been cautious about where they deploy Biden. The president dropped out of the ticket in July when Democrats worried he would lose to Trump and drag them down with him.

But he could still be an effective surrogate among older voters, white men and in Pennsylvania, the state where he was born and which he considers his second home.

He’ll be going solo for the rest of the week: On Thursday, the president will be in Wisconsin (another “blue wall” state) to promote his administration’s investment in communities there. On Friday, he’ll head to Michigan to do the same.

Biden and Harris appeared together on Aug. 15 in Largo, Maryland, at an event touting the administration’s work to lower prescription drug prices. But the visit was an official White House visit, not a campaign stop.

They also stood together on stage after Biden spoke on the first day of the Democratic National Convention.

Labor Day traditionally marks the start of the fall election season, when millions of voters tune in to the race.

Harris and her surrogates are busy on Labor Day with a blitzkrieg: running mate Tim Walz and his wife Gwen Walz will be in Milwaukee, and Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff will be in Newport News, Virginia.

With less than three months to go until the election, Harris’ campaign manager Jen O’Malley Dillon claims Harris and Walz are the “clear underdogs” in the race.

“Donald Trump has a motivated base of support, with higher levels of support and popularity than he has had at any time since 2020,” she wrote in a campaign memo, adding that “the race will remain incredibly close, and the voters who will decide this election will have an extraordinary amount of work to do to convince them. But we have the candidate, the message, and the operation that will bring Americans together to chart a new path forward so we can defeat Donald Trump again.”

Both parties worry about complacency: that their voters will simply stay home on Election Day.

Unions are a key Democratic fixture and can help turn voters away. Biden became the first sitting president to join a picket line when he marched with striking auto workers in Michigan.

Harris is backed by the United Auto Workers union, which has a strong presence in Michigan, and the United Steelworkers, which has a dominant position in western Pennsylvania, including Pittsburgh.

The biggest labor representative missing from Harris’ campaign is the Teamsters, which have so far held off on endorsing either Harris or Trump.

According to Harris’ campaign, support for union membership has risen to its highest level in half a century under the administration.

The administration also expanded overtime protections for workers and helped create millions of union jobs through the Infrastructure Act and the Inflation Reduction Act.

Her visit to Pittsburgh marks Harris’ ninth trip to Pennsylvania this year, while her visit to Detroit marks her sixth visit to Michigan in 2024.

Harris’ Monday stop in Detroit focuses on an area of ​​the state that is one of the most important Democratic strongholds in the country. She will address union members.

She will be joined by Governor Gretchen Whitmer, Senator Debbie Stabenow, Lieutenant Governor Garlin Gilchrist, Representative Elissa Slotkin, Representative Debbie Dingell, AFT President Randi Weingarten, NEA President Becky Pringle and UAW International President Shawn Fain.

Turnout in the city is expected to be more than 50% of registered voters for the general election, the city clerk told the Associated Press.

Polls in Michigan and Pennsylvania show a neck-and-neck race between Harris and Trump.

Trump’s campaign had no publicly announced events for the Labor Day weekend.

The former president will participate in a FOX town hall hosted by Sean Hannity on Wednesday. Later this week, he will address the Fraternal Order of Police at their fall meeting in Charlotte, North Carolina. He will also hold a rally in Wisconsin.