Harris focuses on winning over disaffected Republicans as the election draws near

Source: NBC News

Oct. 19, 2024, 5:00 AM EDT


Vice President Kamala Harris is increasingly zeroing in on a group of voters her campaign believes could make a critical difference in several key battleground states: Republicans and Republican-leaning independents who can’t get themselves to support former President Donald Trump. On Wednesday, Harris held an event with many of her leading Republican surrogates in Bucks County, Pennsylvania — a crucial swing area of the key battleground state. In rural western Pennsylvania one day prior, her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, held an event at the farm of a former Trump voter.

Those events followed a much-hyped rally in Wisconsin where Harris appeared alongside former Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., during which Harris touted support from her and her father, former Vice President Dick Cheney, who left office with notably low approval ratings. On Saturday, the Harris campaign announced a battleground state tour of panels with the younger Cheney.

The Harris campaign — which believes these voters are being undercounted in polling — had them front of mind when scheduling an interview with Fox News on Wednesday, just before her event with Republican supporters. This voting bloc has also played a big role in the thinking behind her pitch of a bipartisan policy council in her White House and pledge to tap a Republican for her Cabinet, as well as her drift from the left-wing positions she pitched during the 2020 Democratic presidential primary.

“Unlike Donald Trump, who frankly, as we have seen, cares more about running on problems than fixing problems, I want to fix problems, which means working across the aisle,” Harris said Wednesday during her Bucks County rally. “It requires working across the aisle. It requires embracing good ideas from wherever they come.”

Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/harris-disaffected-republicans-election-rcna175679