The Latest: Harris and Walz to hold rally in Arizona, while Trump will visit Montana
Vice-Chairman Kamala Harris and her new running mate will hold a rally in Arizona as part of their tour of electoral battlegrounds, visiting a state where Harris passed over a prominent Democrat in favor of Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz. Arizona Senator Mark Kellya former astronaut and gun control advocate, was a leading candidate for running mate.
Meanwhile, former president Donald Trump visits Montana for a rally in support of Republican Senate candidate Tim Sheehy. The former president hopes to settle some unfinished business from 2018, when he campaigned repeatedly in Big Sky Country in a failed bid to oust incumbent Democratic Sen. Jon Tester.
Follow AP’s coverage of the 2024 election at: https://apnews.com/hub/election-2024.
Here’s the latest news:
For a short moment this weekthe fierce battle for swing voters in the swing state of Wisconsin, took place on the tarmac of the tiny Chippewa Valley Regional Airport.
Minutes after Vice President Kamala Harris landed with her new running mate Tim Walz for their first campaign stop in the state, Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance arrived. He walked across the ramp to check out Air Force Two, but just missed Harris.
The political meeting might be dismissed as a coincidence if it happened anywhere other than Wisconsin, one of the few states that not only determines the winner of the presidential election but can also determine the balance of power in Congress. But it sent a much louder signal that both parties understand the importance of a region that can tip the balance of power in more ways than one.
Vice-Chairman Kamala Harris and her new running mate will hold a rally in Arizona on Friday as part of their tour of electoral battlegrounds, visiting a state where Harris passed over a prominent Democrat in favor of Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz.
Arizona Senator Mark Kellya former astronaut and gun control advocate, was a leading candidate for running mate, having won two tough races in politically divided Arizona.
By skipping Kelly, Harris may also have lost a chance to win over people like Gonzalo Leyva, a 49-year-old landscaper from Phoenix. Leyva plans to vote for former President Donald Trump, a Republican, but says he would have supported a Harris-Kelly ticket.
“I like Kelly 100 times over,” said Leyva, a lifelong Democrat who became an independent early in Trump’s term. “I don’t think he’s as extreme as the others.”
With control of the Senate potentially at stake, Donald Trump is visiting Montana on Friday in hopes of ironing out some of the problems. unfinished business starting in 2018, when he campaigned repeatedly in Big Sky Country in an unsuccessful bid to oust incumbent Democratic Senator Jon Tester.
Tester has tried to convince voters that he supports Trump on many issues, a reflection of his successful strategy six years ago. While who worked in a non-presidential election year, it faces an even more critical test this fall with Tester’s opponent, former Navy SEAL Tim Sheehyattempting to pair the sitting president with Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris for a three-term term.
If Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, are elected this fall, not only would a woman of color lead the country for the first time, but a Native woman would also govern a state for the first time in U.S. history.
Peggy Flanagan, Minnesota’s lieutenant governor and a citizen of the White Earth Band of Ojibwe, is set to become the state’s next governor if Walz steps down to take the role of U.S. vice president. Her rise to power has been closely watched by indigenous people in Minnesota and across the country, who see her as a champion of policies that positively impact Native Americans.