Harris returns to South Carolina to increase votes in midterm elections
COLUMBIA, South Carolina (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris visited two historically black colleges and universities in South Carolina to learn about the locations and demographics that are key to the Democrats’ chances of retaining Congress in the midterm elections. Focus on promoting voter registration.
Harris will travel to Orangeburg on Tuesday to speak at a convocation at South Carolina State University, the HBCU President Joe Biden addressed to alumni last year. She will also host a roundtable discussion with students from nearby Claflin College.
The trip to South Carolina will be his third trip to South Carolina as vice president and part of Harris’ increased travel schedule leading up to the midterm elections. She will speak on reproductive rights in Chicago on Friday and then head to Wisconsin on Thursday to speak at the Democratic Bar Association. Earlier this month, she traveled to Houston for the National Baptist Convention.
Harris’ visit is designed to prevent, or at least limit, under-representation among voters of color and the youth who are an important part of the Democratic coalition.
In South Carolina, where the first presidential election will be held in the South, black voters play a huge role in the Democratic voter base. During a visit to the state in June, Harris thanked the South Carolina Democratic Party. Harris turned his campaign around by endorsing Biden in the 2020 Southern primary, gaining momentum in subsequent elections and leading to the party’s nomination. .
Harris arrived in South Carolina shortly after Biden’s non-committal response when asked by CBS’ 60 Minutes show if he would run again in 2024.
“Like I said at the beginning, my intention is to run again,” the president said in an extensive interview aired on Sunday. Is that a hard decision? We don’t know yet.”
Biden said in an interview that announcing his intention to seek re-election would violate campaign finance laws and could complicate the Democratic National Committee’s spending before the midterm elections.
A White House official said Biden continues to lay the groundwork for a 2024 run. Allies, however, acknowledge that he can decide not to seek re-election at any time, before a formal announcement is expected in the first half of 2023.
Earlier this year, Biden pledged to recruit Harris as a running mate for his 2024 re-election campaign. It comes at a time when Republicans continue to travel state-to-state considering their own bid for the White House, including DeSantis.
Some South Carolina Republicans are testing the waters of 2024. Nikki Haley, who served six years as governor before joining the Trump administration as an ambassador to the United Nations, lives in the Charleston area and has visited other early voting states, as has Senator Tim Scott.
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Associated Press writers Chris Megelian and Zeke Miller (Washington) contributed to this report.
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Meg Kinnard can be reached on Twitter at http://twitter.com/MegKinnardAP.
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