Vice President Kamala Harris is set to hold a campaign event in Atlanta on Tuesday, her first public appearance in Georgia since President Joe Biden dropped out of the race and Democratic leaders swiftly made her the party’s de facto presidential nominee.
The details of the event will soon be released, according to an official familiar with the vice president’s schedule. It’s part of an aggressive slate of stops by Harris as she builds her case against former President Donald Trump in battleground states.
In her debut event on the presidential trail this week in Wisconsin, Harris drew the largest Democratic crowd so far this race, and her campaign celebrated collecting a record $100 million from more than 1 million donors in a day.
“The baton is in our hands,” she said to the crowd in West Allis. “We who believe in the sacred freedom to vote will make sure every American has the ability to cast their ballot and have it counted.”
Polls suggest a tightening race between Harris and Trump since Biden withdrew from the race on Sunday, including a Landmark Communications poll of 400 likely Georgia voters this week that showed the two rivals are deadlocked.
Democrats hope Harris changes the political landscape by injecting fresh energy into the handful of competitive states that could decide the November race. Harris’ Georgia campaign on Wednesday held its first event since she became the likely nominee featuring dozens of local Democrats.
“Trump and his MAGA Republican allies were disastrous for us here in Georgia,” state Sen. Jason Esteves of Atlanta said outside the state Capitol. “That’s why we will show up and show out in November to reject him at the ballot box and elect Democrats all across our county and state.”
Trump used his first rally since Harris cleared the field of potential Democratic rivals to frame her as “the ultraliberal driving force behind every single Biden catastrophe.”
“She’s worse than him. Because he’s a fake liberal. You know, he wasn’t that liberal. He was fake,” Trump said Wednesday in Charlotte, North Carolina. “She’s a real liberal.”
In an 11-minute address from the Oval Office, Biden said Wednesday that he ended his reelection bid and endorsed Harris because there is “a time and a place for new voices, fresh voices — yes, younger voices.”
“I revere this office,” Biden said, “but I love my country more.”
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