Democrats say Vice President Harris is putting the key swing states of Georgia, Arizona and Nevada back into play after the party all but lost any hope of holding them with President Biden on the ticket.
Former President Trump was pulling away from Biden in many of those states, according to numerous polls, but Harris appears to be at least closing the gap according to the few polls released last week.
Georgia Sen. Jon Ossoff (D) predicted over the weekend that Harris would win her home state, while Harris campaign co-chair Jen O’Malley Dillon wrote in a memo that the campaign is focusing on Georgia, Carolina of the North, Arizona and Nevada.
“It will stretch the map and force Republicans to make adjustments to all their plans,” said Democratic strategist Antjuan Seawright.
Polls from The Hill and Emerson College released last week showed Harris closing the gap with Trump in several swing states. In Georgia, Harris was 2 points behind Trump, well within the poll’s 3.4-point margin of error. And in Arizona, she was 5 points behind the former president. The same poll shows Harris leading Biden by 5 points in Arizona and 4 points in Georgia.
Polls outside North Carolina and Nevada show a similar trend. A poll conducted by Redfield and Wilton Strategies showed Trump ahead of Harris by 3 points in North Carolina and by 2 points in Nevada. The same poll conducted earlier this month, before Biden withdrew, showed Trump leading Biden by 6 points in North Carolina and by 3 points in Nevada.
Democrats say the reason Harris closed the gap is the energy she brought to the top of the ticket. But they also point to its ability to galvanize and engage with several important electoral blocs in the rapidly diversifying Sun Belt, which includes the Southeast and Southwest regions of the country, and which is home to younger, more racially diverse voters.
“Frankly, I think she has an opportunity to perhaps surpass turnout in certain constituencies than Barack Obama was able to do in 2008,” Seawright said, referring to the population growth that has occurred in the region over the past 15 years.
“Her campaign represents something that Barack Obama didn’t have and the times we live in with the Republican Party being more extremist than ever,” he continued.
Campaign operatives say there is a clear difference in the energy felt on the ground since Biden dropped out, pointing to the weekend of Harris campaign action seen in states across the country.
In Arizona, which held its primary elections on Tuesday, the campaign involved more than 1,300 people at 65 events across the state.
“It’s been a little over a week, but it’s been our biggest week by far,” said Sean McEnerney, coordinating campaign manager for Harris’ Arizona campaign.
“These are people who have really liked Kamala Harris for a long time,” he continued, referring specifically to the state’s Latino population. “We’ve had the vice president visit a few times this year, and I think the vice president connects very well with Latinos in Arizona.”
The coordinated campaign has 12 offices throughout Arizona with more than 80 full-time employees. Additionally, there are plans to double the team.
The energy shift is also being felt in neighboring Nevada, which, like Arizona, is home to a hotly contested presidential and Senate race. Over the weekend in Nevada, the state Democratic Party said more than 1,200 new volunteers contacted 40,000 voters.
“People are showing up in record numbers to volunteer, to sign up for campaign events, to participate in campaign events, something that [weren’t] we saw a few months ago,” said a Democratic strategist, referring to Nevada.
Meanwhile, Ossoff, who won a 2021 Senate runoff election along with Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) who handed control of the upper chamber to Democrats, said the party’s new energy has made his state Christmas once again competitive.
“I think this is a real close race in Georgia,” Ossoff said on MSNBC over the weekend. “I hope she beats Georgia. It will take a huge effort, the kind of effort we called for here in Georgia to deliver the state to President Biden in November 2020 and to achieve these two historic victories in the 2021 Senate runoffs.”
Democrats say the energy felt in competitive Sun Belt states is even translating to more conservative states in the region, including Florida. Earlier this year, Biden’s campaign signaled that Florida was in play following developments over abortion access in the state, but Democrats quickly tamped down talk of putting the state in play as Biden faced questions about his fitness for office. .
“The energy that exists on the ground is not only contagious, but it is completely natural,” said Nikki Fried, chair of the Florida Democratic Party.
More than 10,000 new volunteers signed up to support Harris and Democrats in Florida. But Florida, which is considered a red-leaning state, will be difficult for Harris to win. The same Redfield and Wilton Strategies poll showed Trump leading Harris’ support 47% to 39% in the state.
Republicans reject the notion that Harris could ever make inroads in Florida and argue that the energy seen by Harris on the ground and in polls in the Sun Belt is “a sugar high.”
“I conceivably understand why they are targeting North Carolina and Georgia. They’re obviously playing a demographic game on that front,” said Republican strategist Ford O’Connell. “I still see it as a short-term boost for her.”
This story originally appeared on thehill.com read the full story
