Sens. Kamala Harris and Tim Walz are set to close out the first week of campaigning with a rally in Las Vegas on Saturday as Democrats look to further energize their base and garner support from undecided voters in battleground states like Nevada.
The rally, the fifth in five days for the vice president and Minnesota governor, comes as the two hope to continue building on a new wave of enthusiasm and engagement among some voters and organizers since Joe Biden dropped out of the presidential race amid growing concerns over his declining cognitive function and his persistent support for Israel’s war on Gaza.
A major new poll released Saturday by The New York Times and Siena College found Harris leading Trump by 4 points in three key states — Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin — reversing a downward trend for the Democratic Party as Biden’s popularity and performance have plummeted.
Also on Saturday, Lauren Hitt, a spokeswoman for the Harris-Waltz campaign, clarified to The Associated Press that Waltz “made false statements” in a 2018 video about “the weapons I carried in war.” Waltz’s recent rise has led many Republicans, including his running mate, Ohio Sen. J.D. Vance, to question his military record.
Some of the criticism has focused on comments made by Walz in a 2018 video circulated on social media by the Harris campaign in which he spoke out against gun violence and said, “We can be sure that the weapons of war that I carried in the war are the only place those weapons belong,” a suggestion that Walz portrayed himself as someone who has spent time in a combat zone.
Waltz served in the Army for 24 years in various National Guard units but never deployed to a combat zone.
“Governor Walz would never disrespect or belittle the service of Americans to this country. In fact, he thanks Senator Vance for putting his life on the line for our country. That’s the American way,” Hitt said.
“The Governor has misled people when making the case for why weapons of war should not be on our streets or in our classrooms. The Governor has handled weapons of war and strongly believes that only military personnel trained to carry those lethal weapons should touch them. Unlike Donald Trump and J.D. Vance, who put the gun lobby over children.”
Harris-Walz’s first battleground state tour, which includes stops in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan and Arizona, comes amid a series of new endorsements, including one on Friday by local chapters of the Culinary Union, which represents 60,000 workers at casino resorts, hotels and restaurants in Las Vegas and Reno.
Also on Friday, the United Latino Congress (LULAC), the historically politically neutral and oldest Latino civil rights organization, broke with tradition and endorsed the Democratic candidate, in what will likely be seen as a major coup.
“The politics of inciting hatred and scapegoating Latinos and immigrants must stop,” Lulac Adelante Pac President Domingo Garcia said in a statement. “Latinos understand how much this election means not only to our community, but to our democracy.”
An estimated 15,000 people braved 105-degree heat on Friday to attend an event for Harris and Walz in Glendale, Arizona, a record turnout her campaign said, in a state where Democrats need to go all out to win over the diverse coalition of voters that brought them victory in 2020.
The candidate was introduced by Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., a former vice presidential candidate, Navy veteran and former astronaut.
In her speech, Harris focused on immigration and abortion, issues of importance to the border state and nationally, and also spoke about the state’s Native American community, which played a key role in Biden’s 2020 victory.
“As president, I will always respect tribal sovereignty and I will always respect tribal rights to self-determination,” she told the enthusiastic, sweltering crowd. Arizona is home to 22 Native American tribes, making up just over 5 percent of the state’s population.
The vice president responded to pro-Palestinian protests by calling for a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of hostages, in contrast to his annoyed reaction to a similar disruption at a rally in Detroit earlier this week, and irritated some progressives who want to stop U.S. arms sales to Israel.
“The time is now. The president and I are working around the clock, every day, to get a ceasefire and bring the hostages home,” Harris said to cheers after pausing her speech.
Meanwhile, Trump visited Montana on Friday to spice up the Senate race, another state with a large and diverse Native American community but dominated by Republicans, with only two Democrats having voted for the Democratic candidate since 1952. Trump interrupted his typically rambling monologue to play two video collages of Harris, attempting to portray the former California attorney general as a left-wing extremist.
In a sign that Harris has shifted the momentum of the election, analysts at the Cook Political Report recently changed their views on the outcome of several battleground states, moving Arizona, Nevada and Georgia from “Republican leading” when Biden was the nominee to “close” with Harris leading.
