Huddled at their campaign headquarters in Wilmington, Delaware, the day after the debate, Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign aides determined the event would likely do little to change the overall trajectory of the race.
Their earlier projections that the results in November will amount to a razor-thin margin — likely to be as close or closer than the results in 2020 — remain the same.
Instead, they have developed a plan for the coming days and weeks that will place Harris directly in front of battleground state voters, beginning Thursday in North Carolina and continuing Friday in Pennsylvania.
Those stops for the “New Way Forward” tour aren’t just to any battleground state. They’re the states where voting is already about to get underway.?And a campaign official tells CNN that’s no coincidence.
North Carolina, a purple state where Harris and running mate Tim Walz will make two stops Thursday, is racing to?reprint?and send out mail-in ballots after the state’s Supreme Court ruled Monday to exclude Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who has exited the race. About 161,000 people have already requested mail-in ballots, according to the NC Board of Elections. Trump won the state in 2020 by less than half that number of votes.
Next week, Harris will participate in a roundtable with rank-and-file members of the influential Teamsters union, which has been withholding an endorsement for the first time in decades. She will also participate in a Q&A session with members of the National Association of Black Journalists, with whom Trump?appeared in late July?and remarked that Harris “turned Black.”
The campaign is expecting to rake in millions in new funds, with a Harris-helmed fundraiser in Washington on Saturday, an Oprah-headlined virtual event next week and several other high-dollar events in the works, according to people familiar with them. That cash, the campaign has said, must be quickly?tabulated?and quickly deployed in states where voters are beginning to head to the ballot box.
In addition to rallies, Harris also plans more local media interviews in swing states and appearances that bring her into direct contact with voters.
Keep reading here about Harris’ campaign plans.
