WASHINGTON (AP) — With the end of her abbreviated presidential campaign in sight, Kamala Harris is trying to put the focus squarely on Donald Trump and his threat to democratic institutions, echoing the strategy used by Joe Biden before he ended his reelection bid.
It's a bet that fear of the former Republican president can rally Harris supporters and nudge undecided voters to her side in the final days. Harris' challenge will be connecting philosophical questions about American democracy with the everyday concerns of individual Americans.
The effort will be on full display Tuesday, when Harris delivers what her team describes as her closing argument from the Ellipse, the grassy space adjacent to the National Mall in Washington. It’s the same place where Trump stood when he urged his supporters to march on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in what became a bloody attempt to prevent the certification of Biden’s election victory.
By her choice of location, the vice president is drawing attention to Trump's quest for unchecked power, an issue that also animated Biden's aborted reelection campaign. Biden spoke frequently about the battle for democratic values — sometimes, according to his critics, to the detriment of economic concerns.
Since replacing Biden at the top of the ticket, Harris has tried to reassure voters that she will bring down the costs of groceries and housing. She's also put more distance between herself and Biden, promising “a new approach” if elected.
But Harris also increasingly talks about Trump as an existential threat, with his description of Jan. 6 as “a day of love” and the latest revelation that his former chief of staff believes he's a fascist. She's made an effort to reach out to Republicans who are uneasy about Trump, urging them to unite behind her candidacy to safeguard American ideals.
The speech for Tuesday's event is still being written, although there are glimpses of the message in her recent public remarks. On Thursday in Philadelphia, she described the election as “a very serious decision.”
“You have the choice of a Donald Trump, who will sit in the Oval Office stewing, plotting revenge, retribution, writing out his enemies list,” she said. “Or what I will be doing, which is responding to folks like the folks last night” — a reference to undecided voters who questioned Harris at a televised town hall on Wednesday — “with a to-do list.”
Karoline Leavitt, Trump’s national press secretary, said Harris’ message is a sign that she’s losing and “the walls are closing in.”
“That’s why Kamala is resorting to the attacks Democrats have been hurling at President Trump for years,” she said. “Unfortunately for Kamala, despite these old and tired lies, President Trump is still more popular today than he ever has been since 2016.”
Trump's favorability rating has been strikingly consistent for several years, although it dived to 36% in the wake of the Jan. 6 attack, according to Gallup polling. It was 46% last month.
Harris had a 44% favorability rating last month, an increase from 34% in June, the month before she replaced Biden as the Democratic candidate.
She campaigned in Georgia with former President Barack Obama and Bruce Springsteen on Thursday, and she's headed to Texas on Friday for an event with Beyonce focused on abortion rights.
Faiz Shakir, a political adviser to Sen. Bernie Sanders, said attacking Trump has been “a tried-and-true tactic” for years.
Biden demonstrated that days before the midterm elections with a speech at Union Station in Washington. Although he mentioned popular programs such as Medicare and Social Security, he focused more on fears that electing Republicans would embolden Trump and his antidemocratic efforts.
“I hope you will make the future of our democracy an important part of your decision to vote and how you vote,” Biden said.
Democrats performed better than expected in the midterms, and about 4 in 10 voters said the future of U.S. democracy was their primary consideration when voting, according to AP VoteCast. Among Democrats, it was about 6 in 10.
However, Shakir was skeptical that a similar approach was the best approach this year.
“They kind of have given up on, in my view, the argument of persuasion, that we want to tell people something new or different about Kamala Harris," he said. "Instead we want to remind you of the worst of Donald Trump.”
AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler said Harris should be doing “a little of both" by talking up her plans for the middle class and attacking Trump’s statements.
“We know what a second Trump term would look like — it would be attacking all of the things that we hold dear,” Shuler said.
The AFL-CIO president recalled a recent conversation on the Gordie Howe Bridge in Michigan, where a worker said he liked Trump’s idea of eliminating taxes on overtime pay. But Shuler responded that during Trump’s time in office, his administration tried to undermine access to overtime, which would make his promise worthless in terms of tax savings.
“That’s an easy pledge to make when he’s going to eliminate overtime,” Shuler said.
Associated Press Writer Josh Boak contributed to this report.
Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris Vice waves as she walks to board Air Force Two at Philadelphia International Airport in Philadelphia, Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024, en route to Atlanta. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris Vice waves as she boards Air Force Two at Philadelphia International Airport in Philadelphia, Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024, en route to Atlanta. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris speaks to reporters in Philadelphia, Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris speaks during a campaign rally on Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024, in Clarkston, Ga. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)
CLARKSTON, Ga. (AP) — Bruce Springsteen and Barack Obama lent their star power to Kamala Harris’ quest for the presidency on Thursday, as the vice president implored Georgia voters to consider the “brutally serious” consequences if Donald Trump wins a second term in the White House.
The use of Springsteen, an iconic performer whose career spans five decades, and former President Obama, still one of the biggest names in Democratic politics, highlights how Harris’ campaign is in an all-out sprint ahead of Election Day, leaning on some of the most noteworthy names in the party to both help her deliver her closing message and lambast her opponent, former President Donald Trump.
“I get why people are looking to shake things up, but what I cannot understand is why anybody would think that Donald Trump would shake things up in ways that are good for you,” Obama told the audience outside Atlanta.
Harris echoed that message in her speech, attacking Trump by comparing him to the “predators, fraudsters and repeat offenders” she prosecuted early in her career and arguing she is focused on Americans while her Republican opponent is focused on himself.
“I took them on and I won,” Harris said. "Well, Georgia, in 12 days, it’s Donald Trump’s turn. It’s his turn.”
“It’s either Donald Trump in there stewing over his enemies list, or me working for you, checking off my to-do list,” she added of the work either would both in the Oval Office. “You have the power to make that decision.”
“Someone who says we should terminate the Constitution of the United States of America should never again stand behind the seal of the president of the United States of America,” Harris said. “Never again.”
“The consequences of him being president again are brutally serious,” she added.
The lengthy event, which ran behind schedule, seemingly took a toll on attendees. While the vast majority of seats remained full, hundreds of people streamed out of the event early as Harris spoke after hours of programming.
The other speakers wasted no time attacking Trump.
Obama argued his successor was always “trying to sell you stuff,” was someone who only cares about "his ego, his money, his status,” and regularly gives lengthy speeches that are “just word salad."
“We do not need four years of a wannabe king, a wannabe dictator,” Obama said before touting Harris as someone “ready for the job.”
After arguing Trump is focused on himself, Obama said, “If you elect Kamala Harris ... she will be focused on you."
Springsteen, too, focused on Trump.
After a performance of “The Promised Land," a ballad off his 1978 album “Darkness on the Edge of Town,” Springsteen told the Georgia audience he was backing Harris because he wants “a president who reveres the constitution.”
“There is only one candidate in this election who holds those principles dear, Kamala Harris. She’s running to be the 47th president of the United States. Donald Trump is running to be an American tyrant," Springsteen added before playing "Land of Hope and Dreams” and “Dancing in the Dark.”
Harris' rally in Clarkston — an eastern Atlanta suburb — was at a high school football stadium where the audience reflected the suburb’s reputation as the “most diverse square mile in America.” The community has taken in waves of immigrants and refugees, and 40% of its population was foreign-born in 2020.
The DJ working the crowd before the event started called out not only to graduates of historically Black colleges and universities, but to West Indians. Among those in the snaking line to enter were people of Asian descent and women in hijabs.
Many attendees said they were trying to push their relatives and neighbors to the polls to vote for Harris, either through formal volunteer efforts or on their own. “I decided to go volunteer because I couldn’t keep my mouth shut,” said Beverly Payne, who lives in Cumming, a Republican suburban stronghold north of Atlanta.
Payne said she is still working on persuading her mother but has already swung one Georgia vote to Harris. “My 85-year-old father has gone Democratic for the first time in his life,” she said.
Actor Samuel L. Jackson, director Spike Lee and actor and filmmaker Tyler Perry also spoke at the start of the event.
“No matter what kind of shenanigans, skullduggery and subterfuge, the okie-doke, we’re not going back,” Lee proclaimed.
Harris' run of events with celebrities will continue Friday when she travels to Texas for a Houston rally with Beyoncé, according to three people familiar with the matter. The singer is a Houston native, and her 2016 song “Freedom” has become Harris’ campaign anthem.
While the Friday rally is in a red state that even the most optimistic Democrat knows the vice president is unlikely to turn blue in November, the event Thursday in Georgia highlights that state's prominent place in her possible path to defeating former President Donald Trump.
Democrats, led by then-former Vice President Joe Biden and Harris, won Georgia in 2020, becoming the first Democratic presidential campaign to win the Southern state since Bill Clinton in 1992. Harris’ campaign is hopeful she can keep the state blue in 2024.
Polls of likely voters in Georgia from NYT/Siena to Fox News to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution show a tight race between Trump and Harris.
Thursday's event is the first in the campaign’s “When We Vote We Win” concert series that aims to encourage Harris supporters to vote before Election Day.
Harris is not the only member of the Democratic campaign to lean on star power in the final days. Gov. Tim Walz, her running mate, has events in North Carolina on Thursday alongside singer-songwriter James Taylor.
Democrats are known for leaning on high-profile surrogates in the final days of presidential races.
Springsteen has long been a supporter of Democratic presidential campaigns. The artist backed Obama in 2008 and 2012, even endorsing the would-be president in the contentious 2008 Democratic primary. He backed former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in 2016, performing at a Philadelphia rally on the eve of Election Day, and endorsed Biden in 2020. The New Jersey artist endorsed Harris earlier this month, calling Trump the "most dangerous candidate for president in my lifetime.”
Beyoncé, too, backed Clinton in 2016, performing at an event in Cleveland alongside husband and rapper Jay Z just days before Election Day that year. And Taylor has become a staple at Democratic events and fundraisers.
But Clinton’s loss to Trump in 2016, despite the considerable star power behind her, serves as a warning for Democrats that energy provided by big-name artists like Springsteen and Beyoncé is often not enough to win an election.
Harris campaign advisers, though, see events like those in Georgia and Texas as major moments to mobilize voter enthusiasm and get out the vote before Election Day.
According to the Associated Press count, 2,025,645 people in Georgia have already voted early in-person, while an additional 134,336 mail-in ballots have been submitted in the 2024 general election.
Merica reported from Washington. Jeff Amy contributed to this report from Clarkston.
Spike Lee holds signs while on stage at a campaign rally supporting Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris, Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024, in Clarkston, Ga. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)
Bruce Springsteen performs at a campaign rally supporting Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris, Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024, in Clarkston, Ga. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)
Spike Lee holds signs while on stage at a campaign rally supporting Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris, Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024, in Clarkston, Ga. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)
Samuel L. Jackson speaks at a campaign rally supporting Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris, Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024, in Clarkston, Ga. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)
Spike Lee speaks at a campaign rally supporting Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris, Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024, in Clarkston, Ga. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)
Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris speaks to reporters in Philadelphia, Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris speaks to reporters in Philadelphia, Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
Former President Barack Obama speaks at a campaign rally supporting Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris, Tuesday, Oct. 22, 2024, in Detroit. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya)
Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris Vice waves as she boards Air Force Two at Philadelphia International Airport in Philadelphia, Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024, en route to Atlanta. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)
