The Harris and Trump campaigns made dueling appearances today in the same Upper Midwest cities, providing a split screen that emphasized the importance of the region in this year’s election.
Vice President Kamala Harris and her newly selected running mate, Tim Walz, held a packed rally this afternoon in Eau Claire, Wis., where they issued a full-throated appeal to rural America, promoting her economic policies and his Midwestern bona fides. Tonight, Harris and Walz will host another campaign event in Michigan.
At the same time, Senator JD Vance of Ohio, Donald Trump’s Midwestern man and running mate, held campaign events of his own in Eau Claire and Michigan. The rival campaigns even passed by each other at an airport.
Harris picked Walz, the Minnesota governor, in part because she believed that his identity — a football coach and gun owner who speaks like a Midwesterner — would appeal to voters in states like Wisconsin and Michigan. “He sort of embodies the Midwest,” Ernesto Londoño, my colleague based in Minnesota, said. “She clearly thinks that that’s going to bring the kind of moderate, white working-class voters that the campaign needs.”
When we asked undecided voters how they felt about the Democratic ticket, several were still unsure. But Walz’s extraordinarily ordinary life has helped energize Harris’s base and generated tens of millions in donations.
Here’s what else to know:
Trump has embraced new, sometimes novel tax cuts in an attempt to shore up support with major constituencies.
In a Missouri House primary, Wesley Bell defeated Cori Bush, a prominent progressive incumbent.
When a conspiracy theory about President Biden was proved wrong, those pushing it doubled-down or moved on.
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