United States: Kamala Harris devoted the whole of Monday to a direct appeal to independents and Republicans in the three states that make up the Democrats’ electorally-colored ‘blue wall.’
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Around two weeks before the election, the vice president had a rally across Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin accompanied by former Congresswoman Liz Cheney, who has been a fierce critic of President Trump.
It is not shocking that Harris visited what constituted the most contentious and pursued campaign points in its final days, but it does not reduce the novelty of how she diverged from the conventional rallies.
The “town hall” debates with Cheney
As an alternative, she opted for what has become known as the “town hall” debates with Cheney, a series of conversations hosted by people who were chosen with the other side of the political divide.
There was what the republican pollster and publisher Sarah Longwell in Pennsylvania and the Republican conservative commentator Charlie Sykes in Wisconsin, BBC reported.
The third moderator was Maria Shriver, who was in Michigan, niece of JFK, and former first lady of California under Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Outreach to disaffected Republicans
The locations as suburban counties outside each of the state’s largest cities were also not random. Such is their abundance in the type of voters that are college-educated, white, and traditionally Republican but whose polls are shifting towards the democratic camp even as other polls, specifically the blue-collar kind, vote the other way.
As Craig Snyder, a Republican strategist supporting Harris in Pennsylvania, noted, the Democrats are making an outreach willfully to disaffected Republicans, but it’s not enough to merely hear from Democrats.
He said, “These voters want to hear from other Republicans,” and “They want to hear that they’re not alone.”
In the three states, that message was delivered by Liz Cheney – a congresswoman who co-headed the lower chamber’s committee to investigate the 6 January attack on the Capitol and was ousted in August 2022 by a Trump-endorsed contender, BBC reported.
Cheney said in Michigan, “You can vote [with] your conscience and not ever have to say a word to anybody,” “And there will be millions of Republicans who will do it.”
Harris was quick to add that Republicans she has encountered have shaken hands with Cheney and told her they are glad she is speaking out against the former president – even if they have not taken to social media to publicly declare this.
“From my vantage point, she is not alone,” Harris added.