By James Oliphant and Trevor Hunnicutt
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Donald Trump has so far watched from the sidelines as Vice President Kamala Harris galvanized and re-energized Democrats by stepping in as their likely presidential nominee. On Wednesday, Trump gets back in the game.
Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, will hold his first campaign rally since Harris emerged as his near-certain Democratic foe in the 2024 election. The former president will appear at an event in Charlotte, North Carolina, a state that will be an important battleground in the Nov. 5 election.
The Trump campaign has insisted that it is prepared for Harris’ candidacy, arguing that she serves as a proxy for President Joe Biden on the economic and immigration policies that contributed to his sinking popularity with voters.
A Reuters-Ipsos poll released on Tuesday showed the newly re-jiggered race to be in a statistical dead heat.
The poll, taken in the two days since Biden decided to stand down from reelection, showed Harris with a two-percentage-point lead over Trump, 44% to 42%. Other recent national polls have shown Trump with an advantage.
Biden, who came back to Washington after isolating at his home in Delaware with COVID, will address the nation from the Oval Office on Wednesday night to explain his reasons for dropping out of the race on Sunday after intense pressure from his party.
A person familiar with the matter said the legacy-defining speech was still being crafted on Tuesday night when Biden returned to the White House after his convalescence in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, where he ended his reelection bid with a letter posted to social media.
On Tuesday, Trump took the unusual step of speaking to reporters on a conference call to underscore his campaign’s line of attack on the border, saying Harris was partially responsible for a record flow of migrants.
Biden put Harris in charge of working with countries in Central America to help stem the tide of migration, but she was not made responsible for border security.
“She’s a radical left person, and this country doesn’t want a radical left person to destroy it,” Trump said on the call. “She wants open borders. She wants things that nobody wants.”
Harris has not called for the removal of border controls.
HARRIS ADDRESSES BLACK SORORITY
Harris on Wednesday will head to Indianapolis to speak at an event hosted by the Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, which was founded at Howard University, the historically Black college that Harris attended. She hopes to tap sororities’ multi-generational network of Black women to deliver strong voter turnout for Democrats in November.
Harris held an energetic first rally as the likely nominee on Tuesday in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, which hosted the Republican National Convention last week. She assailed Trump and said he would take the nation “backward.”
“Do we want to live in a country of freedom, compassion and rule of law, or a country of chaos, fear and hate?” she asked the crowd.
Harris ticked through a list of liberal priorities, saying that if elected she would act to expand abortion access, make it easier for workers to join unions and address gun violence, drawing a sharp contrast with Trump.
Democrats will formally nominate their new ticket at next month’s convention in Chicago after an Aug. 7 virtual vote. Roy Cooper, North Carolina’s Democratic governor, is considered to be on the short list to serve as Harris’ running mate.
Harris and her campaign have worked at a breakneck pace to consolidate support among Democrats in Congress and delegates across the country. Candidates who could have been potential rivals for the nomination have fallen in line and endorsed her.
Trump, coming off a triumphant week in which his party unified around his presidential bid after a failed assassination attempt two weekends ago, has had to watch as Biden’s sudden departure from the race dramatically shifted the narrative and sparked a surge of attention toward Harris at his expense.
The Harris campaign said it has raised over $100 million since Sunday.
(Reporting by James Oliphant and Trevor Hunnicutt; Editing by Mary Milliken and Cynthia Osterman)
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