By Jeff Mason and Trevor Hunnicutt
GLENDALE, Arizona (Reuters) -U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris campaigned in a packed area in Arizona on Friday, hoping to place Republican candidate Donald Trump on the again foot within the West, whereas Trump held his personal rally in Montana to assist a Republican candidate for Senate.
The Democratic presidential candidate, lower than a month into her bid for the White Home, has been on a week-long tour after naming her operating mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, with a deal with constructing pleasure for her marketing campaign in seven states that might tip the Nov. 5 election.
That tour on Friday introduced her to the Phoenix space, the place she was visiting with volunteers at a marketing campaign workplace and chatting with voters.
Whereas touring, Harris gained the endorsement of LULAC Adelante, the political motion committee for the nation’s oldest Latino civil rights group. It was the group’s first-ever presidential endorsement.
In Glendale, a crowd estimated at greater than 15,000 greeted Harris, together with some pro-Palestinian demonstrators who interrupted the remarks. Harris has confronted anger from liberal voters who disagree together with her assist for Israel in its battle in Gaza in response to the Oct. 7 Hamas assault.
“The president and I are working around the clock every day to get that ceasefire deal done and bring the hostages home,” Harris mentioned, including: “So, I respect your voices, but we are here to now talk about the race in 2024.”
Earlier within the week when some protested throughout her rally in Michigan and interrupted her speech, she had mentioned: “If you want Donald Trump to win, then say that. Otherwise, I’m speaking.”
Additionally within the West, Trump held a rally in Bozeman, Montana, a state that Republicans have carried in each presidential race since 1996. He once more attacked Harris in private phrases – calling her “crazy,” “dumb” and “low IQ” – and criticized her for not doing interviews or main press conferences since she turned the Democratic candidate.
CROWD SIZE, ‘WEIRD’ ATTACKS
Trump on Thursday had mocked the scale of Harris’ marketing campaign crowds, though they’ve matched his of late.
He falsely in contrast the scale of the gathering on Jan. 6, 2021 – the day his supporters stormed the U.S. Capitol – to that who heard Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech in 1963 in Washington.
“It’s not as if anybody cares about crowd sizes or anything,” Walz quipped throughout a speech introducing Harris.
Whereas Montana just isn’t a battleground state within the presidential race, it is going to host a aggressive race that might determine which get together controls the U.S. Senate in 2025.
Republican Tim Sheehy, who can be dealing with Democratic Senator John Tester, spoke on the rally. Trump started his speech round an hour and a half later than deliberate, after his airplane was reportedly diverted to a special Montana airport because of a mechanical downside.
Earlier than taking the stage, Trump shared posts on Fact Social insisting that he was in a near-fatal helicopter trip with former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown, though Brown mentioned the incident by no means occurred and one other politician mentioned he had been on the same flight with Trump a long time earlier.
In a speech operating practically an hour and 45 minutes, Trump once more portrayed Democrats as left-wing extremists, dubbing the get together’s ticket “comrade Walz and comrade Harris.”
Trump additionally responded to a brand new Democratic assault line, popularized by Walz, that Republicans have been bizarre. “I think we’re the opposite of weird,” Trump mentioned. “They’re weird.”
When the group on the Democrats’ Arizona rally chanted, of Trump, “Lock him up,” Walz discouraged them. “No, better than that, beat the hell out of him at the ballot box.”
Harris, responding to the identical chant later, mentioned: “Yeah, the courts will deal with that. We gonna win in November. We’re gonna win in November. We’ll handle that, too.” The Harris marketing campaign didn’t instantly reply to a request to elaborate on the remark.
Professional-Trump crowds have usually chanted that his 2016 opponent, Hillary Clinton, needs to be locked up, and Trump known as for her to be behind bars.
Democrats hope to take two Western states which might be carefully divided between Democratic and Republican voters in November: Nevada and Arizona, each of which Democrat Joe Biden carried narrowly over Trump in 2020.
Each are practically one-third Latino, a demographic group of key focus for each events. Latest polls taken in each states level to an exceptionally shut race.
Harris was because of head to Las Vegas, Nevada, on Saturday. The highly effective Culinary Union Native 226, which represents on line casino and hospitality employees there, additionally endorsed her on Friday.
Trump confirmed new deal with one other aggressive state on Friday, Georgia.
His marketing campaign positioned $37.2 million in tv promoting, its largest such buy in a single day this election cycle, in response to AdImpact, a agency that tracks political promoting.
The adverts will air in seven battleground states. Trump’s marketing campaign is pouring essentially the most promoting cash into Georgia, spending $23.8 million within the Southern state, the place polls have tightened since Harris’ ascent.
Trump lamented that he had debated erstwhile Democratic candidate Biden in June. Biden’s disastrous efficiency on the debate led to Democratic requires him to drop his presidential bid, which Biden did final month.
“Why the hell did I debate him?” Trump mentioned.
