Aug. 18 (UPI) — One day before the start of the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, presidential hopeful Kamala Harris has hit the road on a campaign bus tour in Pennsylvania with her running mate Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota with fewer than 80 days until the election.
Pennsylvania is a critical swing state, and was won by former President Donald Trump in the 2016 election, and by President Joe Biden in 2020. Harris and Walz, along with their spouses, will make several stops in the western part of the state. This is the first time the four have appeared on the campaign trail together.
Pennsylvania has long been a battleground and this particular part of the state in the southwest has always been key.
In addition to Rochester, where they participated in a phone bank, the pair will also visit Alleghany and is expected to meet voters in small, community settings and retail locations, and possibly attend campaign kickoff events.
Harris and Walz visited at a campaign office, stopped off at a local fire station and then a high school in another town, along with a pilgrimage to a Sheetz convenience store, part of a storied Pennsylvania chain.
In the tandem’s stop in Beaver County, Walz harkened back to his days as a high school football coach while speaking to a crowd of assembled onlookers.
“There’s an old saying, ‘You don’t hope you’re gonna win. You prepare to win, and you give it the best you got,'” Walz said. “And you know, when that game’s over, you want to know you left it all on the field. And that’s all we’re asking. Let’s leave it all in the field.”
The bus also stopped at a Sheetz convenience store in rural Pennsylvania, where Gwen Walz, wife of the vice presidential candidate selected a bag of nacho cheese flavored Doritos.
“These are my go-to. The original, nacho cheese,” she told reporters at the convenience store, according to CNN.
At a campaign strop Saturday in Nebraska, the Walz’s stopped a Runza store and ordered hamburgers and other items that totaled more than $600, according to a store employee.
Following a day of rural barnstorming in Pennsylvania Sunday, Harris flew via Air Force Two to Chicago, where she is to meet with President Joe Biden, who is scheduled to be the keynote speaker on the opening night of Monday’s DNC.
The team is also scheduled to make an appearance in Milwaukee on Tuesday in the same arena where Republicans held their national convention in July.
“You’ve got a lot of work, Pennsylvania, that you’re carrying right now … and we’re going to get it done,” Harris said to attendees after taking part in the phone bank.
Trump made personal attacks on Harris’ looks in his Pennsylvania speech Saturday and said of Harris “This is communist. This is Marxist. This is fascist,” he said of Harris’ policy proposals, and referred to the Vice President as “comrade Kamala.” He has also referred to her as “crazy” and as having “the laugh of a crazy person.”
After participating in the phone bank in Rochester, Harris reacted to Trump’s personal attacks.
“Anybody who’s about beating down other people is a coward,” Harris emphatically told about 150 supporters outside the campaign’s Beaver County field office in Rochester.
Harris and Walz shook hands along a line of supporters before boarding the large, new blue and white bus and dubbed the tour “On the Road to Chicago.”
Trump spoke in the state Saturday and appeared to confuse Pennsylvania for North Carolina. He and running mate Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio is scheduled to be in Pennsylvania again Monday, planning to make separate campaign rally stops in York and Philadelphia.
The Midwest is Walz’s home turf. The vice presidential candidate spoke Saturday in his native Nebraska, touted his rural roots and called for support from working-class and moderate voters.
Polls are showing a tight race.
The Harris-Walz campaign bus is scheduled to arrive in Chicago just prior to the start of the DNC on Monday.
The former president has made few remarks about the DNC, but is said to be focusing for a debate with Harris, scheduled for Sept. 10. The Harris team has asked Democratic strategist Philippe Reines to portray Trump in her debate preparation, according to NBC News.
