With one day to go until the start of the Democratic National Convention — and 79 days until Election Day — Vice President Kamala Harris and running mate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz embarked on a one-day bus tour of the crucial swing state of Pennsylvania.
Harris and Walz — joined by their spouses, second gentleman Doug Emhoff and Minnesota first lady Gwen Walz — debuted new tour buses, emblazoned with “Harris-Walz” and “A New Way Forward,” in Pittsburgh, shaking hands and taking selfies with supporters at an airport hangar.
They later headed to a campaign office in Rochester, Pa., located in Beaver County — which went for Republican candidate Donald Trump by roughly 18 points in 2020 — where they participated in a phone bank, speaking to voters in the key battleground state.
“How are you doing, Hannah?” Harris said to one caller. “I am well, I am well and I’m so glad you’ve been able to take some time on a Sunday to have a conversation with me. This election — it’s, I think, the most important of our lifetime.”
"We’re all in this together," Harris added. “Seventy-nine days to go, Hannah."
As Harris spoke to the voter, Walz appeared to be delighted by what he was hearing on the call, remarking: "She's sitting right across from me, I'll pass that on."
After hanging up, he expressed that the individual he spoke to was "a nice person," adding: "She's excited."
Outside the campaign office, Harris and Walz rallied supporters and discussed the stakes of the election. Both candidates discussed a return to civility and norms of what they, apparently, hope is not a bygone era.
“This campaign, for us, is really born out of love of country,” Harris told supporters, adding: “This campaign is about a recognition, that frankly, over the last several years there’s been this kind of perversion that is taking place, I think, which is to suggest that the measure of the strength of a leader is based on who you beat down.”
“What we know, is the real and true measure of the strength of a leader is based on who you lift up,” the vice president added, to cheers. “That’s what we see as strength. We know what strength looks like. That’s what strength looks like. Anybody who is about beating down other people is a coward. This is what strength looks like.”
“We, some of us who have less hair, are old enough, can remember when you could go to Thanksgiving, watch a Steelers game with your relatives and not complain about politics the whole time, not be on each others’ neck,” Walz said. “Because you shared a commitment to democracy, a commitment to personal freedom, a commitment to public education, a commitment to infrastructure.”
“We don’t call each other names, we don’t do it,” the Minnesota governor added. “And we don’t use the least fortunate amongst us as punchlines for a joke, because they’re our neighbors.”
“You’re getting the opportunity to see the best side of America, and for the younger people here, they maybe haven’t seen a campaign like this because of COVID, because of things that’s happening, this is a chance to bring out that joy, turn the page and look to the future,” Walz added. “This idea of going forward.”
They later traveled to a Sheetz gas station and convenience store, a Pennsylvania staple, where the vice president bought a bag of Doritos, a nod to a recent fundraising email Harris sent where she recounted eating an entire family-sized bag of the flavored tortilla chips when Trump was elected in 2016. They also traveled to a firehouse in Aliquippa, where the vice president gave the fire crew treats and met the firehouse dog, a four-month-old yellow Labrador.
In Alquippa, they attended the local high school's football practice, a team with a history of producing NFL players -- including Super Bowl winners Darrelle Revis and Ty Law -- and won the state championship last year. Walz, who was a coach on a state championship football team, was in his element as he addressed the team.
"Our politics has been pretty ugly, our politics has been pretty negative," he said. "What I fear most is that young people turn away from it rather than turning into it. Politics isn’t so much different than this. It’s about something bigger than themselves. It’s about setting a future goal and trying to reach it. It’s about doing it with dignity and hard work. It’s about doing it with humility, and when you lose, you walk across the field, you shake hands with the other team and know they played hard too. We’re all in it together to try and make it better."
"We're hear in this space to say it's not just a cliche, our future is with you, and we have a responsibility to deliver it to you in good shape," he told the student-athletes.
Harris later took questions from reporters outside a Primanti Bros. restaurant -- an iconic Pennsylvania sandwich spot -- and stressed that "we need to earn everyone’s vote."
"That means being on the road, being in communities where people are, where they live," Harris said in Moon Township, outside of Pittsburgh, adding: "I'm going to be out here, with Tim, with the second gentleman, with Mrs. Walz and we're going to be working on earning every vote between now and November."
When asked about recent polling showing her up over Trump, Harris reiterated that she "very much" considers her campaign to be the "underdog." She also took questions about her economic proposals, which she unveiled in North Carolina last week.
On the $6,000 expanded Child Tax Credit for the first year of a newborn's life, Harris said that "the return on investment in terms of what that will do and what it will pay for will be tremendous," hailing what the Biden administration's efforts with that tax credit did to reduce child poverty.
And on her housing proposals, like the up to $25,000 in payment assistance: "When we increase home ownership in America, what that means in terms of increasing the tax base, not to mention property tax base, what that does to fund schools, again return on investment."
"I think it's a mistake for any person who talks about public policy to not critically evaluate how you measure return on investment," she continued. "When you are strengthening neighborhoods, stengthening communities, and in particular the economy of those communities, and investing in a broad-based economy, everybody benefits and it pays for itself in that way."
The Pennsylvania tour highlights the stakes of the race, with both candidates aggressively targeting the Keystone State and its 19 electoral votes. The oft-reliable "blue wall" state flipped red for Trump in 2016 before Joe Biden, a Scranton native, won it back in 2020.
Trump held a rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday, where he went back and forth between hammering Harris' economic policies and lobbing personal insults, including twice declaring he was better looking than the vice president.