As Democrats prepare for their national convention next week in Chicago, presidential nominee Kamala Harris and running mate Tim Walz will kick off a bus tour Sunday in Pittsburgh.
The Harris campaign has released few details about the event or the tour itself, but it says it will make multiple stops in Pennsylvania throughout the day. Those will include visits to canvassing kick-offs and other retail events that will set the stage for Harris and Walz formally accepting their party's nomination in Chicago later next week.
Harris announced that Walz was her pick in a boisterous Philadelphia rally just over a week ago. The candidates will be accompanied by their spouses on the bus tour, marking the first time the two couples have made a joint campaign appearance.
The news is further proof, if any were necessary, of Pennsylvania's crucial role in the 2024 election. It comes shortly after a social media appearance with X/Twitter CEO Elon Musk in which Republican presidential candidate and former President Donald Trump renewed a pledge to return sometime in October to Butler County, where a rally last month was cut short by an assassination attempt. Trump's running mate, U.S. Sen. JD Vance of Ohio, is scheduled to visit the region Thursday.
Harris has been a frequent visit to the state since before she became the party's nominee: Including official visits made in her capacity as vice president, the bus tour will mark her eighth visit to Pennsylvania this year. And Harris clearly hopes to continue building the momentum that has energized Democrats since she replaced President Joe Biden as the party's nominee earlier this summer.
What had been shaping up as a long, slow death march for Democrats has been reset by that move. Polls now suggest that the Democratic ticket, which had been lagging Trump in Pennsylvania and other battleground states, has now at least drawn even with him or staked out a small lead. The Harris campaign says that since she took the reins, some 43,000 Pennsylvanians have signed up to volunteer for the effort.
