Texas is not a usual stop for a Democratic presidential candidate, yet 11 days out from the election, that’s where Kamala Harris could be found.
The vice-president held a campaign rally in the traditionally Republican state on Friday, appearing alongside Beyoncé and the Senate candidate Colin Allred. But it is not just Democrats who are venturing into uncharted territory – on Sunday Donald Trump will appear at Madison Square Garden, in the deep blue New York.
Both candidates will be visiting key swing states including Michigan and Pennsylvania in the coming days, but these extra-curricular visits give them a chance to tap into key messages, in moments the Harris and Trump campaigns will be eagerly capturing and distributing online.
In an election which will essentially be decided by voters in seven or fewer states, it’s also a chance to demonstrate inclusiveness, said Shannon Bow O’Brien, a politics professor at the University of Texas at Austin.
“One of things people criticize the Democrats for, and I think rightly so, is they frequently treat the interior of the country like flyover country, and they routinely ignore these types of places,” O’Brien said.
“I think maybe also going down here, is signaling that she’s gonna pay attention to these areas too.”
For Harris, the visit to Texas was an opportunity for her to drive home the right to abortion, which she has made one of the key issues of her campaign. Trump has bragged about being responsible for the overturning of Roe v Wade, which guaranteed the right to abortion in the US.
The vice-president’s campaign launched a series of new abortion-related ads this week, telling the story of a Texas woman who contracted a life-threatening infection when was denied proper medical care after miscarrying at 16 weeks pregnant.
“Texas is symbolically really important, because abortion for Harris is a strong issue, and Texas has been the origin of a number of really heartbreaking stories about the consequences of an abortion ban. And any meaningful challenges to the ban in front of the supreme court have come from women out of Texas,” said Mona Kleinberg, a professor of political communication at the City University of New York.
