Kamala Harris arrived in Chicago on Sunday ahead of her stunning performance at the Democratic National Convention, perhaps the most defining moment yet in her short but surprising re-election campaign against Donald Trump.
The US vice president has infused new energy into the party after a stunning month in which he replaced President Joe Biden as the top candidate and erased Republican rival Trump’s lead in the polls.
On the way to Chicago, Harris stopped in the crucial battleground state of Pennsylvania — which Trump won in 2016 and Biden in 2020 — and embarked on a daylong bus tour to keep up momentum.
Along with fellow candidate Tim Walz and their respective spouses, they left Pittsburgh on a bus emblazoned with their names and headed to a number of rust belt cities to woo blue-collar voters.
But Harris insisted Trump was still the favorite to win and that she would campaign hard with just 79 days left before the Nov. 5 election.
“I see us as very vulnerable, we have a lot of work to do to get the vote of the American people,” Harris told reporters in Pennsylvania.
“That’s why we’re on this bus trip today.”
‘Fighting for the future’
Her rapid rise has unnerved Trump, the 78-year-old former president and convicted felon, who is resorting to his favorite tactic of personal insults against America’s first female, Black and South Asian vice president.
A day earlier, at a rally in Pennsylvania, Trump attacked Harris, calling her “crazy” and claiming he was “a lot better looking” than the 59-year-old Harris.
Harris’s keynote convention speech on Thursday will now be a crucial opportunity to tell her story to voters who are still trying to get used to the new name at the top of the Democratic ticket.
She is expected to cast the election as a “fight for the future” against a second Trump term, promising an optimistic outlook for Americans struggling with high prices.
Harris will also join Biden on stage Monday when he addresses the convention — a speech Biden was expected to deliver just weeks ago as the Democratic nominee.
The aging president is reportedly still upset that the Democrats shut him out, saying he believes he could still have defeated Trump.
But Biden is expected to focus on carrying the torch and addressing the threat Trump poses to democracy as he seeks to cement his legacy by helping Harris win.
‘Gaza massacre’
Harris’s rapid lead has given Democrats renewed hope, whereas just a few weeks ago Biden’s poor debate performance had led many to think the election was already lost.
A Washington Post-ABC-Ipsos poll published Sunday shows Harris has a slight lead over Trump among registered voters nationwide, up from a month ago when Trump and Biden were neck and neck.
But the shadow of protests against the Biden-Harris administration’s support for Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza looms over the conference.
Security has been beefed up for the four-day meeting as thousands of people are expected to descend on the city each day to protest, with the biggest protests scheduled for Monday and Wednesday.
Hundreds of protesters gathered in downtown Chicago on Sunday, carrying signs that read “Feminists and LGBTQ+ people stand for a free Palestine.”
“This march was supposed to be for reproductive rights, then the Gaza massacre broke out. So here we are,” said David Finkel, 76, of Michigan, adding that he was also in Chicago for the infamous 1968 protests at the Democratic convention.
Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker said planned protests would be allowed provided they remain peaceful.
“If there is a rioter, he will be arrested and held accountable,” he told CNN.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
