Vice President Kamala Harris is joining forces again with Republican former congresswoman Liz Cheney, a prominent critic of Donald Trump, in a series of moderated conversations aimed at courting voters disillusioned by the former president’s influence over the Republican Party.
With the 2024 presidential election fast approaching, Harris is focusing her campaign efforts on winning over key Republican voters in three suburban battleground counties that were previously carried by Nikki Haley during the GOP primaries: Chester County, Pennsylvania; Oakland County, Michigan; and Waukesha County, Wisconsin.
Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin are vital bricks in Harris’ path to the White House; no Democrat has won a presidential election without Pennsylvania since 1948, and holding on to the three so-called Rust Belt states (along with Nebraska’s Democrat-leaning second district) will give the vice president exactly 270 Electoral College votes – the winning threshold.
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When Are the Events?
The first conversation will take place in Chester County in the early afternoon. The second will be held in Waukesha County in the afternoon, and the third will be hosted in Oakland County in the evening.
The conversations will be moderated by Charlie Sykes, a conservative radio host and editor-in-chief of The Bulwark, and GOP strategist Sarah Longwell.
Why Do These Moderated Conversations Matter?
Haley, who served as an ambassador to the United Nations in Trump’s administration, endorsed the Republican nominee after she withdrew her bid for the presidency, but her supporters haven’t necessarily followed suit.
According to Politico, some of Haley’s supporters are undecided; they do not support Trump and will not vote for him, and Haley herself had been critical of Trump before endorsing him. These undecided voters are critical for Harris, who may, like Cheney, have not voted for a Democrat before but are willing to in this election.
These events come shortly after over 100 former GOP officeholders and officials joined Harris to campaign in Pennsylvania.
“Harris’ appearances with Cheney aim to reassure voters, especially suburban ones, that she is not the extreme leftist that Trump and GOP strategists portray her as being,” said Iwan Morgan, Emeritus Professor of US history at the Institute of the Americas, University College London.
Morgan told Newsweek that Cheney “has clear differences of opinion with Harris on policy but has always emphasized that their unity over upholding constitutional government and the rule of law is far stronger than their differences.”
Morgan added that this reinforces Harris’ claim that she will be a president for “all Americans,” and “offer bipartisan validation for Harris’s claim that a second Trump term would pose a threat to American democracy.”
“Playing the bipartisan card has a long tradition in US presidential politics,” he said.
What Are the Issues To Look Out For?
Harris is likely to highlight the difference between herself as a candidate, and Trump.
An email shared with Newsweek by the Harris campaign said that: “Harris and Cheney plan to warn about the risk of a second Trump term for America and lay out the Vice President’s agenda for a New Way Forward for the American people that focuses on their needs, not the division and chaos of Donald Trump.”
As Harris is targeting swing voters, she will likely address the key issues for voters in the election, including the economy, immigration and reproductive rights.
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