VP Harris campaigns in swing state Pennsylvania en route to convention

US Vice-President Kamala Harris brought her presidential campaign to the critical state of Pennsylvania yesterday before heading on to Chicago, where the Democratic Party this week is due to nominate her to take on Donald Trump in the November 5 election.
Harris, her running mate Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and their spouses greeted a waiting crowd of supporters at the airport before boarding a pair of campaign buses emblazoned with “Harris Walz”.
Polls have shown Harris bringing fresh energy to the campaign and closing the gap with former president Trump both nationally and in many of the eight highly competitive states including Pennsylvania that will play a decisive role in picking Democratic President Joe Biden’s successor.
“I’ve been to every convention since I was able to vote, and I can say I’ve not felt this kind of energy and electricity at any convention other than the one for Barack Obama,” said Democratic Illinois Governor J B Pritzker on CNN’s State of the Union yesterday.
Obama in 2008 was elected as the historic first black president of the United States.
Harris, who is black and has Asian heritage, would be the first woman president if she wins in November.
Harris and Walz will make several stops during the day through Pennsylvania’s Allegheny and Beaver counties, areas that her campaign considers critical to winning the state.
The trip comes the day after a Trump speech in northeast Pennsylvania where he derided Harris as a “radical” and a “lunatic”, saying that he believed she would be easier to beat than Biden, 81, who dropped out last month under pressure from his own party after a disastrous debate against Trump (see accompanying report below).
Pennsylvania is one of three Rust Belt states, along with Wisconsin and Michigan, that helped power Republican Trump’s upset victory in the 2016 election.
Biden, who grew up in Scranton, Pennsylvania, flipped the trio back to the Democrats in 2020, and Harris aims to hold on to them.
After her Pennsylvania appearances, Harris will go on to Chicago for the kick-off of the Democratic National Convention (DNC) today.
Sources said on Saturday that she is likely to join Biden on stage at the convention as he passes the torch to her as the party’s nominee for president.
The ageing president is reportedly still frustrated by the way Democrats pushed him out after a catastrophic debate performance against Trump in June.
Biden will “make the case for Vice-President Kamala Harris” and “highlight the stakes of the election for all Americans”, the Harris campaign said.
Former presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama will also appear during the week, along with former secretary of state Hillary Clinton and former first lady Michelle Obama.
A Washington Post-ABC-Ipsos survey published yesterday showed Harris with a narrow lead over Trump among registered voters across the country, where one month ago it had Trump and Biden in a dead heat.
Security has been ramped up for the Chicago convention, with tens of thousands of protesters expected to rally every day against the Biden-Harris administration’s support for Israel’s war on Hamas in Gaza.
The demonstrations were expected continue through Thursday, with major gatherings scheduled today and on Wednesday in particular.
“We are ready,” Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson told ABC yesterday, adding that his police force is working with the Secret Service and other agencies to ensure a “safe, peaceful, yet vibrant” convention.
Illinois Governor Pritzker said the planned protests would be allowed as long as they remained peaceful.
“If there are troublemakers, they are going to get arrested and they are going to get convicted,” he told CNN.