By ZEKE MILLER
WASHINGTON— Vice President Kamala Harris will make her first visit to a battleground state on tuesday after receiving ample support from Democratic delegates to secure her party’s nomination to challenge Republican former President Donald Trump, two days after President Joe Biden dropped his re-election bid.
As the Democratic Party continues to coalesce around her, Harris will travel to Milwaukee, where she will hold her first campaign rally since launching her campaign on Sunday with Biden’s endorsement. Harris has raised more than $100 million as of Sunday afternoon and has received support from Democratic officials and political groups.
Tuesday’s visit was planned before Biden ended his campaign, but it took on new resonance as Harris prepared to take up her party’s mantle against Trump and appeared to exude calm and confidence afterward. weeks of confusion in the Democratic Party about Biden’s political future.
The visit comes a week later the Republican National Convention packed into the city and as Harris works to sharpen her message against the GOP nominee with just over 100 days until Election Day. Wisconsin is part of it the Democrats’ “blue wall.” of Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, which is critical to their 2024 plans.
The vice president on Monday gave a preview of the themes that will be prominent in her campaign against Trump a stop at her campaign headquarters in Wilmington, Delaware, where she contrasted her time as a prosecutor with Trump’s felony convictions – “I know Donald Trump’s type,” she said – casting herself as a defender of economic opportunity and access to abortion.
“These elections will offer a clear choice between two different visions. Donald Trump wants to take our country back to a time before many of us had full freedoms and equal rights,” she said in a statement in response to the number of AP delegates. “I believe in a future that strengthens our democracy, protects reproductive freedom and ensures that every person has the opportunity not just to get by, but to get ahead.”
“I am grateful to President Biden and everyone in the Democratic Party who have placed all their trust in me, and I look forward to presenting our case directly to the American people,” she added.
Monday night, Harris, that one too ran for president in 2020, had the support of well more than the 1,976 delegates she will need to win on a first ballot, according to the AP’s delegate count. No other candidate was mentioned by a representative contacted by the AP.
Yet the AP does not call Harris the new presumptive candidate. That’s because convention delegates are still free to vote for the candidate of their choice at the August convention, or if Democrats continue a virtual roll call prior to that meeting in Chicago.
The AP count is based on interviews with individual delegates, public statements from state parties, many of which have announced their delegations’ overwhelming support for Harris, and public statements and expressions of support from individual delegates.
Harris would be joined by key Wisconsin elected officials, including Gov. Tony Evers, Sen. Tammy Baldwin, Lt. Gov. Sara Rodriguez, Attorney General Josh Kaul, Secretary of State Sarah Godlewski and Wisconsin Democratic Party Chairman Ben Wikler. as state labor leaders.
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Follow the AP’s coverage of the 2024 elections https://apnews.com/hub/election-2024.
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