ATLANTA (AP) - Former Vice President Joe Biden is putting off a campaign trip on behalf of Stacey Abrams, Georgia’s Democratic gubernatorial candidate.
Biden had planned to come Thursday to Georgia, but the Abrams campaign and Biden’s office say he will reschedule for October during the closing stretch of her battle with Republican Brian Kemp. A Biden aide cited a scheduling conflict.
Biden is ramping up his midterm campaign travel as he mulls whether to run for president in 2020.
Abrams would be the first black female governor in U.S. history. Biden already has endorsed her. President Donald Trump has backed Kemp, and Vice President Mike Pence is expected to be in Georgia soon on Kemp’s behalf.
The Democrats’ delay almost certainly will help Biden and Abrams avoid competition for attention, in Georgia and beyond.
The Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to hear Thursday from Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh and Christine Blasey Ford on her allegations that Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her when he was in high school.
Separately, the White House says President Donald Trump and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein will meet Thursday amid indications that Rosenstein’s job is in jeopardy. Rosenstein supervises the special counsel’s investigation into Trump’s 2016 campaign and its potential associations with Russia, but he’s come under fire after news reports that Rosenstein once had raised the idea of secretly recording Trump and of invoking the 25th Amendment to have the Cabinet remove the president from office.
Abrams’ campaign has been a national media juggernaut of its own as she tries both to make history and to establish Republican-run Georgia as a genuine political battleground ahead of the 2020 presidential election.
That’s made her a key draw for national Democrats. Former President Barack Obama and 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton have endorsed Abrams, as have Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, both potential 2020 candidates.
Other would-be Democratic presidential candidates - Sens. Kamala Harris of California and Cory Booker of New Jersey - have endorsed Abrams and come to Georgia to campaign for her.
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