Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump will hit the campaign trail hard in battleground states next week with less than three months left before Nov. 5’s Election Day.
Ms. Harris’ campaign announced Saturday that she and running mate Tim Walz will head to Georgia for a bus tour, while Mr. Trump plans to make stops in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania.
The campaigns’ sprint to the end comes as Ms. Harris and Mr. Trump are in a tight race amid the Democratic nominee’s momentum since taking over President Biden’s spot at the top of the ticket.
Despite her gains on the ground in polling over the past month, she’s not clearly ahead.
Trump pollster Tony Fabrizio said in a campaign memo Saturday that her momentum, or “honeymoon phase,” is bolstered in large part by positive media coverage, while Mr. Trump has received largely poor or negative coverage.
Mr. Fabrizio expected that in the days after the Democratic National Convention, which ended Thursday, the Harris-Walz campaign would get another bump in the polls, thanks to that media-fueled momentum, but didn’t expect it to last much longer.
“But even after all the fawning coverage of Harris and negative coverage of President Trump, we find this race fundamentally tied, particularly in the battleground states going into the DNC,” he said. “However, post-DNC we will likely see another small (albeit temporary) bounce for Harris in the public polls.”
The Harris-Walz campaign noted that the trip through southern Georgia, which will start Wednesday and culminate in a rally in Savannah on Thursday, will be the first time that Ms. Harris and Mr. Walz have campaigned together in the Peach State.
Ms. Harris’ momentum has seen the candidate whittle away at Mr. Trump’s support in the state, but he still holds a 1% lead, according to RealClearPolling’s aggregate.
Her visit with Mr. Walz is designed to help her gain a better foothold there. The Harris-Walz campaign noted that it has the largest “in-state operation of any Democratic presidential campaign cycle ever in Georgia,” which includes over 170 campaign staffers in 24 offices across the state.
Meanwhile, Mr. Trump plans to hit three swing states next week.
He’ll start Monday in Detroit with remarks at the National Guard Association of the United States. On Thursday he’ll hold a town hall in La Crosse, Wisconsin, then jet to Potterville, Michigan, for a speech on the economy, inflation and manufacturing, according to the Trump-Vance campaign. The next day Mr. Trump will hold a rally in Johnstown, Pennsylvania.
Polling averages showed that Ms. Harris had a 1% advantage over Mr. Trump in Wisconsin and Michigan, while the former president led by the same margin in Pennsylvania.
Mr. Trump’s campaign believes that Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s suspension of his campaign Friday and endorsement of Mr. Trump could give the GOP nominee a boost.
Democrats argue that Mr. Kennedy’s polling became so dismal that his exit has negligible impact.
• Alex Miller can be reached at amiller@washingtontimes.com.
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