SAVANNAH, Ga. — She's been riding a wave of energy and momentum since replacing President Biden atop the Democrats' 2024 presidential ticket nearly six weeks ago, but Vice President Harris is urging caution in her battle against former President Trump.
"This is going to be a tight race until the very end," Harris told supporters on Thursday at a packed arena in this historic coastal city in Georgia, one of seven crucial battleground states that will likely determine the outcome of the presidential election.
Harris, speaking after a slew of polls released over the past 24 hours indicated a margin-of-error race in the key swing states and new national surveys suggested Harris with the edge, told the crowd at Savannah's Enmarket Arena "let's not pay too much attention to the polls because we are running as the underdog."
"We have some hard work ahead of us. But we like hard work. Hard work is good work," Harris said to cheers. "And with your help, we are going to win this November."
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For much of this year, polls suggested a close contest between President Biden and Trump as they faced off in a rematch of their 2020 showdown. But Trump opened up a small but significant lead in the weeks after the president's disastrous performance against his predecessor in their late-June debate showdown in Atlanta.
But Harris has enjoyed a surge, both in polling and in fundraising, since replacing Biden after her boss in a blockbuster announcement ended his re-election campaign on July 21.
Harris' rally in Savannah came at the end of a two-day swing through parts of southeastern Georgia with her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz. And she arrived at the arena about two hours after sitting for her first network interview since becoming the Democrats' standard-bearer.
Georgia had long been a reliably red state in White House elections until Biden narrowly edged Trump in 2020 to become the first Democrat in nearly three decades to capture the state.
And in runoff elections two months later, the Democrats flipped both of the state's GOP-held Senate seats.
But fast-forward to this summer, as Biden was facing a rising chorus of calls from within his own party to end his 2024 bid, Trump built a lead in Georgia.
Harris' trip this week sends a signal that Democrats feel the state is once again in play.
"Georgia, for the past two election cycles, voters in this very state … have delivered," Harris told the crowd.
"You did that, and so now we are asking you to do it again," she said. "Let’s do it again."
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Georgia's popular two-term conservative governor agrees that his state's very competitive.
"Certainly this is a battleground state," Gov. Brian Kemp said during a Fox News Digital interview on Tuesday.
"I’ve been saying for a long time that the road to the White House is going to run through Georgia. And there’s no path for former President Trump to win, or any Republican … to get to 270 without Georgia," Kemp said.
But Kemp, who on Thursday headlined a fundraiser in Atlanta for Trump, added that Georgia "should be one that we win if we have all the mechanics that we need. And I’m working hard to help provide those in a lot of ways and turn the Republican vote out and make sure that we win this state in November."
The vice president, in her rally, reiterated her themes of preserving democracy, increasing access to affordable health care and child care, and protecting abortion access.
But Harris was interrupted twice during her rally by demonstrators protesting the Biden-Harris administration's stance in support of Israel in its deadly war with Hamas in Gaza.
Both protesters were removed as the crowd cheered and chanted, "Kamala, Kamala."
Harris paused her speech, saying that people "have a right" to be heard. And then she addressed the conflict in the Mideast, saying "the president and I are working around the clock. … We’ve got to get a hostage deal and get a cease-fire done now."
