Author: Nandita Bose and Trevor Hunnicutt
HOUSTON (Reuters) – Vice President Kamala Harris launched a presidential campaign blitz at the largest U.S. teachers union on Thursday, pledging to “fight for the future” as new polls showed she was narrowing her race to Republican rival Donald Trump ·Trump’s gap.
Harris is quickly emerging as President Joe Biden, 81, to become the Democratic nominee for president in the Nov. 5 election, transforming a stalled presidential race that polls show she is narrowing former President Trump’s lead. Advantage.
Harris, 59, spoke to the American Federation of Teachers in Houston, focusing on economic policy and workers’ rights, touting plans for affordable health care and child care and criticizing Republicans for blocking gun restrictions in the wake of school shootings .
“Our purpose is to fight for the future,” Harris told a crowd of about 3,500 people. “We are fighting for our most basic freedoms. I say to the leaders in this room: Come on.”
A series of polls taken since Biden ended his re-election campaign on Sunday, including a Reuters/Ipsos poll, show Harris and Trump heading into a head-to-head race on roughly equal footing, setting the stage for what’s to come. The groundwork for a close campaign was laid over three and a half months.
A New York Times/Siena College national poll released Thursday found Harris has narrowed Trump’s lead. Trump leads Harris 48% to 46% among registered voters, and 49% to 41% after Biden’s disastrous debate performance in early July led Democrats to call for him to resign as their candidate. .
While national surveys give important signals about U.S. support for political candidates, a handful of competing states often tip the balance in the U.S. Electoral College, which ultimately determines who wins the presidential election.
Harris also got good news on this front, with an Emerson College/Hill poll showing she has begun to close the gap with Trump in five key battleground states: Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Trump still leads Harris by a slim margin in every state except Wisconsin, according to polls of registered voters in those states.
Taken together, the polls show that while the 78-year-old Trump still maintains a slim lead, his approval ratings are not at the level that candidates hope to move away from the highly scripted, televised and costly events following last week’s Republican National Convention. campaign hopes that support will rise.
Trump on Wednesday night lashed out at Harris at her first rally since being elected to replace Biden, then continued his criticism online Thursday.
“We are not ready for a Marxist president and lying Kamala Harris is a radical left Marxist and worse!” Trump posted on his social media platform A message.
air debate
On Thursday, Trump’s campaign raised questions about the scheduled September 10 debate against Biden. Harris said she was ready to debate Trump that day, but the Trump campaign said in a statement that details could not be finalized until Democrats formally nominate a candidate, which could happen in the first week of August. .
“It would be inappropriate to set things up with Harris because Democrats could still change their minds,” said Trump campaign communications director Steven Cheung.
More than 40 former U.S. Department of Justice officials, mostly from Democratic administrations, signed a letter supporting Harris and saying Trump poses a threat to the rule of law in the United States.
“Former President Trump posed a serious risk to our country, our global alliances, and the future of democracy. As president, he routinely ignored the rule of law,” the letter read, a copy of which was seen by Reuters and published by Signed by former US President.
Former President Barack Obama has been in regular contact with Harris and plans to soon endorse her as the Democratic presidential nominee, a source familiar with Harris’ plans said Thursday.
The Harris campaign released its first video ad online Thursday. Harris serves as a voiceover in the ad, describing the campaign as a fight to protect Americans’ individual freedoms, set to Beyoncé’s song “Freedom.”
Harris also reached out to young voters by creating an account on TikTok, amassing more than 500,000 followers in a matter of hours.
The next highly anticipated development will be Harris’ choice of vice presidential nominee to counter Trump’s choice of Ohio Sen. J.D. (NASDAQ: ) Vance.
The list of contenders includes a who’s who of rising Democrats, including Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper and Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear, as well as Transportation Secretary Pete ·Buttigieg.
Harris’ rise, which has largely squeezed Trump out of the headlines, comes a week after the Republican National Convention and 12 days after he narrowly survived an assassination attempt that pierced his ear.
FBI Director Christopher Wray told a House panel on Wednesday that investigators were not sure whether Trump’s injuries were caused by a bullet or shrapnel. Trump said a bullet hit his ear.
Trump campaign spokesman Jason Miller called the suggestion that Trump was not hit by a bullet a “conspiracy” and added an expletive.
