WASHINGTON — With seven weeks to go before Election Day, the campaign machines of Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump have reached out to coveted voters in key battleground states, holding events and rallies aimed at Black and Gen Z voters, rural voters and conservative Christians.
The Trump campaign focused on Michigan on Tuesday as the former president prepared for an evening town hall in Flint — his first event since the second alleged attack attempt on Sunday about his life, this time at his golf course in Florida.
Trump’s vice presidential nominee, Sen. J.D. Vance, spoke Tuesday afternoon at a rally in a barn in Sparta, just north of Grand Rapids, where he once again spoke about the Haitian migrant population that lives in Springfield, Ohio. Hundreds of thousands of Haitians live legally in the U.S. under Temporary Protected Status.
Vance said the migrants “primarily from Hatia were transferred to Springfield,” mispronouncing the name of the Caribbean nation.
Trump and Vance continue to face stern issues observation for spreading lies that Haitian migrants in the city were eating domestic cats and dogs. Trump made the accusation during Tuesday’s ABC News show debate which attracted 67 million viewers.
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine on Monday ordered State police are set to search Springfield schools, which have been the target of multiple bomb threats since the city came into the national spotlight.
Campaigns seek media attention
On Tuesday, Vance answered several questions from local reporters in Michigan and said he did so to distinguish himself from Harris, whom he accused of being afraid of a “friendly American press corps.”
Vance made the comments less than an hour before Harris sat down for a public discussion with a three-person panel from the National Association of Black Journalists in Philadelphia. Trump’s interview with the association in July became public after he said Harris “accidentally turned black” during her political career.
Both campaigns sought media coverage.
Harris sat for one on one with the ABC affiliate in Philadelphia on Friday. That same day, Trump (*7*)hosted press conference at his club, Trump National Golf Course in Los Angeles.
Harris’ vice presidential running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, visited central Georgia on Tuesday, where he taped an interview with a local news anchor in Macon for WMAZ-TV and spoke with staff at one of the campaign’s field offices.
Harris-Walz’s Georgia operations include 28 offices and more than 200 employees, according to the campaign.
Fried chicken and tax breaks
According to reporters who accompanied him, Walz stopped at the popular H&H Soul Food restaurant in Macon, where he ordered a fried chicken biscuit with bacon jam and pimento cheese.
Walz used the opportunity at the restaurant to tout Harris’s program, which aims to simplify taxes for tiny businesses and allow a $50,000 deduction for startup costs.
He also attended campaign events in Atlanta before heading to a rally in Asheville, North Carolina, on Tuesday night.
Earlier Tuesday, Harris’ campaign released a statement in response to the ProPublica article. report about 28-year-old Amber Nicole Thurman, who died in Georgia because she was denied immediate medical attention under that state’s strict abortion ban.
“This young mother should be alive, raising her son and pursuing her dream of attending nursing school,” Harris said in a statement. “This is exactly what we feared when Roe was struck down.”
Asked earlier Tuesday about the ProPublica report, Vance said he “would like to know a little bit more” about Thurman’s death.
“I’ve never talked to a single pro-life person who didn’t believe in exemptions for this exact scenario,” Vance told a local Michigan reporter.
Six states have abortion bans that do not have health exemptions, According to to KFF Health News, a website tracking abortion laws.
On Monday evening, Vance he said The audience at the Georgia Faith and Freedom Victory Dinner in Atlanta said the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2021 decision to overturn Roe, which established federal abortion rights, was a “victory.”
“I stand here as the vice presidential candidate and say the Republican Party is proud to be the party of pro-life and pro-family,” Vance said, before promising that a second Trump presidency would spearhead investments in infertility treatment, prenatal care, maternal health and newborn spending.
Trump spent Monday night touting his recent cryptocurrency venture with his sons in an interview on the social media platform X. The Trump Family exposed on Monday, a cryptocurrency company called World Liberty Financial.
Young voters
Harris’ campaign noted National Voter Registration Day Tuesday with the so-called “all hands on deck” campaign aimed at reaching newborn voters.
The campaign aims to send celebrities, influencers, and organizers to college campuses, basketball tournaments, and “bracelet-making events” — an apparent reference to Swiftie’s friendship bracelets, which popped up after the pop star endorsed Harris last week.
Organizers envision an “intentional presence” at historically black colleges and universities, as well as institutions serving the Hispanic population.
Pop star Billie Eilish and her brother, songwriter Phineas O’Connell, endorsed the vice president on social media on Tuesday and urged their fans to visit the Democratic Party’s IWillVote.com platform.
Other celebrities who took part in the campaign to reach university students included actress Jane Fonda and renowned scientist Bill Nye.
East Coast Stops
Campaigning will continue at full speed on Wednesday, with candidates and their surrogates visiting the eastern regions of the US.
- Harris to speak at Congressional Hispanic Caucus Leadership Conference in Washington
- Trump to hold evening rally in Uniondale, N.Y.
- Vance will deliver a speech this afternoon in Raleigh, North Carolina.
- Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff to Speak at Campaign Events in New York
