Kamala Harris Faces Challenges in Key Battleground States
As Vice President Kamala Harris strives to secure the votes of Americans disillusioned with the Democratic Party, she encounters significant hurdles across crucial battleground states. From the working-class neighborhoods of Nevada to the vibrant Arab American communities in Michigan, the path ahead is fraught with challenges. However, no state has proven to be as perplexing for Democrats this year as Arizona.
Once a Republican bastion, Arizona shifted its allegiance during President Biden’s victory in 2020, making it a complex political landscape for Democrats. The party is particularly concerned about rising anxieties surrounding the influx of migrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border. Recent polling has indicated that former President Donald J. Trump is leading Ms. Harris by a few percentage points in the state, even as her approval ratings have seen improvements in other critical areas.
On Friday, Ms. Harris is set to address a crowd in a Phoenix suburb alongside her newly appointed running mate, Governor Tim Walz of Minnesota. This event marks a renewed effort to engage voters in Sun Belt states and to retain Arizona’s 11 electoral votes for the Democratic Party. Nevertheless, she is facing an uphill battle as Republicans are keen to portray her as a key architect of the ongoing border crisis. Supporters of Ms. Harris argue that the enthusiasm she brings to the campaign could also resonate with moderate swing voters.
“She seems to have captured some of that lightning in a bottle that the Obama campaign had,” remarked John Giles, the Republican mayor of Mesa, located east of Phoenix, who endorsed Ms. Harris last month. However, he added a note of caution: “She absolutely has to run like she’s behind in Arizona, because I think she is.”
In Arizona, immigration remains a pivotal issue. Voters will soon decide whether to classify unlawful border crossings from Mexico as a state crime. Despite a nationwide decline in border apprehensions this year, numbers have surged in Arizona. Border officials in the region south of Tucson have recorded nearly 430,000 apprehensions and other encounters since October, out of approximately 1.4 million across the entire southwestern border. This figure represents an increase from around 235,000 during the same timeframe the previous year.
Mr. Trump and his allies have relentlessly criticized Ms. Harris on immigration, seizing on her earlier remarks that “an undocumented immigrant is not a criminal” to depict her as lenient on border security. They have labeled her as the “border czar,” although it is essential to note that President Biden assigned her the role of addressing the “root causes” of migration from Central America, rather than managing issues directly at the southern border.
