US Vice President and Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris speaks during a campaign fundraising event at the Colonial Theater in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, on July 27, 2024. (Photo by Stephanie Scarbrough / POOL / AFP)
Washington: US presidential hopeful Kamala Harris rallies in Georgia on Tuesday, hoping to expand Democrats' battleground map against Donald Trump and appeal to young Black voters with an appearance by hip-hop star Megan Thee Stallion.
Vice President Harris's trip to Atlanta comes as reenergized Democrats regard the swing state as being in play again, after it looked beyond hope under President Joe Biden before his shock withdrawal from the 2024 election.
With the White House race now turned on its head, 59-year-old Harris Tuesday released her first television ad since replacing Biden, while the Trump camp released a dueling ad attacking her on the crucial election issue of immigration.
"We do view Georgia as very competitive," Harris campaign battleground states director Dan Kanninen said in a call with reporters on Monday.
"It's clear the vice president is energizing and mobilizing our base."
In a sign that the southern state will be bitterly fought over, Trump and his running mate J.D. Vance announced that they would hold their own rally in Atlanta on Saturday.
"Kamala Harris and her complicit cronies have made the great people of Georgia pay a hefty price for their woke policies," the Trump campaign said in a statement on Tuesday.
Harris took over a bleak electoral map from the faltering Biden, with Democrats' hopes entirely based on the three "rustbelt" post-industrial states of Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania.
But they are now looking hopefully again at other "sunbelt" states such as Georgia, Arizona and Nevada, all of which Democrats narrowly won in the 2020 election, her campaign said.
Adding some glitz for younger voters will be Megan Thee Stallion, the latest in a series of celebrity backers for Harris.
