Harris, Walz tour southern Georgia by bus, chasing rural votes in key state

SAVANNAH, Ga. — Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz traveled across southern Georgia on Wednesday, the pair’s second bus tour in two weeks and their first burst of campaigning since the Democratic National Convention ended last Thursday.

The tour, which is scheduled to end with a Harris rally in Savannah on Thursday, is the campaign’s latest effort to compete in Georgia, which has become a critical battleground in the month since President Joe Biden dropped out of the race.

“Campaigning in this part of the Peach State is critical as it represents a diverse coalition of voters, including rural, suburban, and urban Georgians — with a large proportion of Black voters and working class families,” the campaign said in a statement announcing the tour.

The bus tour features more intimate settings and smaller groups, following the template Harris and Walz set while traveling through western Pennsylvania on Aug. 18.

Shortly after Air Force Two landed in Georgia on Wednesday afternoon, Harris and Walz chatted with students at a school in Hinesville, which is near Savannah.

“We wanted to come by just to let you know that our country is counting on you. All of you,” Harris told the students. “You are leaders, by the very fact that you are here in this room.”

She added: “We’re so proud of you. Your generation, all that you guys stand for … is what is going to propel our country into the next era of what we can do and what we can be.”

Later, Harris and Walz stopped at a barbecue restaurant.

Harris’s 30-vehicle motorcade included CNN’s Dana Bash, according to the Savannah Morning News. On Thursday, Bash is scheduled to conduct Harris’s first interview since she became the Democratic nominee.

Republicans, including those tied to GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump, have criticized Harris for not holding a news conference or sitting down for an extended media interview since Biden stepped aside July 21, making his vice president the likely nominee. Instead, Harris has largely stuck to more scripted events, including rallies that have attracted enthusiastic crowds and energized many Democrats.

That raises the stakes for the CNN interview, which is scheduled to air at 9 p.m. Eastern time Thursday, and which Harris and Walz will do together.

Biden narrowly won Georgia in 2020, becoming the first Democrat to do so since Bill Clinton in 1992. But many Democrats had privately given up on the idea of carrying the state in November, with polls showing Trump with a considerable lead over Biden.

Those same polls have largely shifted in Democrats’ favor since Harris entered the race, and the party is investing more time and resources in Georgia as it attempts to block Trump’s potential pathways to 270 electoral votes. If the Harris-Walz ticket can capture Georgia — or North Carolina, a nearby state that has not given its electoral votes to a Democrat since Barack Obama in 2008 — it would greatly increase the Democrats’ chances of winning the White House and complicate Trump’s path.

Both Democrats and Republicans have focused on Georgia in recent weeks, with Trump and Harris each seeing its 16 electoral votes as crucial for most paths to victory.

Harris traveled to Atlanta last month for a rally that featured rappers Megan Thee Stallion and Quavo, drawing more than 10,000 people.

“I am very clear: The path to the White House runs right through this state,” Harris said at the event. “You all helped us win in 2020, and we’re going to do it again in 2024.”

Trump and his running mate, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, held a rally a few days later in the same venue, speaking to a near-capacity crowd.

During that rally, Trump unleashed a fusillade of strong personal attacks against Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, a popular Republican, resurfacing a bitter intraparty battle in the crucial state.

Trump called Kemp “Little Brian”; denounced him as “disloyal”; suggested the governor wanted Republicans to lose elections; and argued Georgia would have better crime and economic numbers if Kemp were no longer in charge.

Kemp responded on X that “my focus is on winning this November and saving our country from Kamala Harris and the Democrats — not engaging in petty personal insults, attacking fellow Republicans, or dwelling on the past. You should do the same, Mr. President, and leave my family out of it.”

Trump later issued a conciliatory statement in a social media post, thanking Kemp “for all of your help and support in Georgia.”

The tour through Georgia is the second bus trip that Harris and Walz have taken through a battleground state. They also traveled through western Pennsylvania shortly before appearing at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago last week.

During the Pennsylvania swing, Harris and Walz greeted supporters at an airport hangar, dropped in on a high school football practice, handed out baked goods to firefighters, met with volunteers and participated in a phone-banking session. The trip took them to Allegheny County, home to Pittsburgh and a large cache of Democratic voters, as well as Beaver County, a more Republican-leaning area that Trump carried in 2020.

“On the bus tour, the Vice President and Governor Walz will meet directly with voters in their communities, much like their western Pennsylvania bus tour which included stops at a local campaign field office and a high school football practice,” the campaign said ahead of the Georgia swing.

Vance visited southern Georgia last Thursday, calling the state “one of the most important” to the outcome of the election.

“Kamala Harris wants to take San Francisco liberalism nationwide, and I think we’re not going to let her,” the Republican vice-presidential candidate said as he met with local law enforcement at an event focused on crime and the border. “Georgia is not going to let her, and I think it starts right here in Valdosta.”