Harris and Walz kick off bus tour of Georgia to build momentum in swing state

Good morning, US politics blog readers. There are seven swing states whose voters are expected to decide the November presidential election: Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, Nevada, North Carolina, Arizona and Georgia. It’s that last state which will be getting special attention from Kamala Harris and Tim Walz over the next two days, as they look to preserve inroads made by Joe Biden four years ago, when he became the first Democrat to win its electoral votes since 1992. The pair is kicking off a bus tour of the state’s southern counties on Wednesday that will culminate on Thursday with Harris holding a rally in Savannah.

Their campaign says that Harris and Walz are aiming to build off their momentum from last week’s convention, when they accepted the party’s nomination amid enthusiasm from Democrats. They’re also aiming to win a state that may be the toughest to hold in November – polls generally show Donald Trump with the advantage among Georgia voters, though the gap has grown narrower since Harris entered the race. We’ll see what the vice-president and Minnesota governor encounter as they traverse the state today.

Here’s what else is happening:

Trump earlier this week visited Arlington national cemetery, and his campaign staff had an altercation with an official who tried to prevent them from taking pictures in area where only employees are allowed to do so, NPR reports. The Trump campaign has rejected their description of events.
The Cook Political Report, the closely watched forecaster, now views North Carolina as a “toss up” in the presidential election. The state hasn’t voted for a Democratic candidate since 2008.
The Senate GOP campaign arm is buying ads for incumbent Ted Cruz, in a sign that polls of his re-election race against Democrat Colin Allred in the Republican bastion may be too close for comfort.

Key events

Kamala Harris will rally supporters tomorrow in Savannah, Georgia, at the conclusion of her bus tour through the state.

Based on this list, it does not appear that Donald Trump has ever held a rally in the coastal city, but he nonetheless knows where his supporters (or at least three of them) can be found – at Waffle House:

Trump campaign staff had ‘verbal and physical altercation’ with Arlington cemetery officials over taking pictures – report

Two staffers for Donald Trump’s campaign had a “verbal and physical altercation” with an official at Arlington national cemetery over filming and taking photos in a section reserved for recent US casualties of war, NPR reports.

The Trump campaign has denied the episode, which it blamed on an “unnamed individual” who was “clearly suffering from a mental health episode”. The national cemetery told NPR that it had filed a report over the incident.

Here’s more:

A source with knowledge of the incident said the cemetery official tried to prevent Trump staffers from filming and photographing in a section where recent US casualties are buried. The source said Arlington officials had made clear that only cemetery staff members would be authorized to take photographs or film in the area, known as Section 60.

When the cemetery official tried to prevent Trump campaign staff from entering Section 60, campaign staff verbally abused and pushed the official aside, according to the source.

Trump participated in an event to mark the third anniversary of a deadly attack on US troops in Afghanistan as US forces withdrew from the country; 13 US service members were killed in the attack. The Trump campaign has blamed President Biden and Vice President Harris, now the Democratic presidential nominee, for the chaotic withdrawal.

In a statement to NPR, Steven Cheung, the Trump campaign’s spokesman, strongly rejected the notion of a physical altercation, adding: ‘We are prepared to release footage if such defamatory claims are made.

‘The fact is that a private photographer was permitted on the premises and for whatever reason an unnamed individual, clearly suffering from a mental health episode, decided to physically block members of President Trump’s team during a very solemn ceremony,’ Cheung said in the statement.

The Trump campaign declined to make that footage immediately available.

In a statement to NPR, Arlington National Cemetery said it ‘can confirm there was an incident, and a report was filed.’

Why are Kamala Harris and Tim Walz heading to Georgia’s rural south?

Democrats have suffered in rural areas in recent election cycles nationwide, instead drawing support from cities and their suburbs.

But Politico reports that the Democrats’ swing through the Georgia hinterlands is part of a strategy – which they plan to replicate in other swing states – of trying to limit their losses in rural areas, while also turning out support in urban areas.

“You have to really stave down margins and go places even when you don’t think you can win it outright,” Harris-Walz principal deputy campaign manager Quentin Fulks told Politico. “You know you’re going to lose that county, but just showing up there can sometimes be the difference between 5 to 10 percentage points, or sometimes just putting an office there.”

Harris and Walz set for first joint interview with CNN on Thursday

Kamala Harris has not done a single sit-down interview since embarking on her presidential campaign, but that will change on Thursday at 9pm ET when CNN airs a joint interview with Tim Walz.

The network says the candidates will talk about their swing through Georgia, and we can expect the vice-president to also be asked for her thoughts on Joe Biden ending his bid for a second term and clearing the way for her to become the Democratic nominee.

It’s just one interview, though, and is unlikely to quiet the attacks from Donald Trump, his running mate JD Vance and other Republicans who claim that Harris and Walz can’t handle scrutiny from the press. We’ll see if the pair schedule more encounters with the media in the weeks to come.