Election 2024 Latest: Harris ad focuses on housing; former Democratic congresswoman endorses Trump
Aug 27, 2024, 5:36 AM | Updated: 4:36 pm
This combination of photos taken at campaign rallies in Atlanta shows Vice President Kamala Harris on July 30, 2024, left, and Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump on Aug. 3. (AP Photo)
Credit: ASSOCIATED PRESS
(AP Photo)
Vice President Kamala Harris has a new advertising push to draw attention to her plan to build 3 million new homes over four years, a move designed to contain inflationary pressures that also draws a sharp contrast to Republican Donald Trump’s approach.
Meanwhile, former Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard has endorsed Trumps presidential bid, furthering her shift away from the party she sought to represent four years ago and linking herself to the GOP nominee’s critiques of Harris and the chaotic Afghanistan War withdrawal.
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Here’s the Latest:
More than 200 staffers for four previous Republican presidential nominees have endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris’ bid, cautioning that the notion of a second term for GOP nominee Donald Trump “is simply untenable” and “will hurt real, everyday people.”
In a letter first published in USA Today, 238 alumni of the campaigns of former Presidents George H.W. and George W. Bush, the late Sen. John McCain and Sen. Mitt Romney call on their fellow “moderate Republicans and conservative independents” to join them in backing the Democratic nominee and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, over Trump.
The appeal signals the importance of voters in the middle of the two major parties, with just more than two months until Election Day. In their letter, the former staffers note the significance of a handful of key battlegrounds to Biden’s slim margin of victory in 2020, marking the importance of Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin “and beyond” in this year’s results.
In a similar letter, many of the same signatories issued a letter in 2020 supporting Biden’s candidacy over Trump.
“Of course, we have plenty of honest, ideological disagreements with Vice President Harris and Gov. Walz,” the Republicans wrote. “That’s to be expected. The alternative, however, is simply untenable.”
Trump’s campaign did not immediately return a message seeking comment.
Former Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard and independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. have joined Donald Trump’s presidential transition team.
Kennedy and Gabbard both recently endorsed the former president and the Republican’s campaign on Tuesday confirmed their addition to the team planning for a future Trump administration.
“We look forward to having their powerful voices on the team was we work to restore America’s greatness,” said Brian Hughes, a senior advisor to the campaign.
Kennedy last year ran as a Democrat challenging Biden for the nomination. He then ran switched to become an independent candidate. Last week he suspended his bid and endorsed Trump.
Gabbard, who ran as a Democratic presidential candidate in 2020, endorsed Trump on Monday and appeared with him at a campaign stop. She’s scheduled to hold a town hall with him Thursday in Wisconsin.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has collected enough signatures to be on the Maryland ballot as a presidential candidate despite suspending his campaign, state election officials said Tuesday.
Kennedy suspended his independent presidential campaign Friday and endorsed former President Donald Trump, the Republican nominee for president.
Although Kennedy has said he would try to remove his name from the ballot in battleground states, he has made clear that he was not formally ending his bid and said his supporters could continue to back him in the majority of states where they are unlikely to sway the outcome.
Kennedy has said his internal polls had shown that his presence in the race would hurt Trump and help Democratic nominee Kamala Harris, though recent public polls do not provide a clear indication that he is having an outsize effect on support for either major-party candidate.
Vote.org re-launched its campaign Tuesday that urges companies of all sizes to guarantee paid time off for their employees to vote on or before Election Day.
The ElectionDay.org initiative, which was first created in 2020, intends to challenge companies during this year’s election cycle to create voter-friendly work policies. The goal is to help workers avoid work scheduling conflicts, which in past elections, has primarily kept them from the polls. Participants in this campaign also get access to Vote.org’s online registration tools and additional materials to promote civic engagement at their companies.
Kayak, OpenTable, Snap Inc., and United Talent Agency (UTA) are some of the companies that have already joined the campaign this year.
“Work-related barriers should never prevent someone from making their voice heard at the polls,” said Vote.org CEO Andrea Hailey. “By joining ElectionDay.org, companies can stand for the rights of their employees while proudly demonstrating their commitment to our democracy. It’s also important to recognize that a thriving business environment goes hand-in-hand with a healthy democracy, which is all the more reason for companies to take steps to actively promote voting this election season.”
Vice President Kamala Harris has a new advertising push to draw attention to her plan to build 3 million new homes over four years, a move designed to contain inflationary pressures that also draws a sharp contrast to Republican Donald Trump’s approach.
Harris, the Democratic nominee for president, highlights her plan in a new minute-long ad that uses her personal experience, growing up in rental housing while her mother had saved for a decade before she could buy a home. The ad targets voters in the swing states including Arizona and Nevada. Campaign surrogates are also holding 20 events this week focused on housing issues.
In addition to increasing home construction, Harris is proposing the government provide as much as $25,000 in assistance to first-time buyers. That message could carry weight at this moment as housing costs have kept upward pressure on the consumer price index.
The state and national Democratic parties have sued to block two recent rules adopted by Georgia’s State Election Board that could be used by county officials who want to refuse to certify an election, potentially causing delays in finalizing the state’s results.
The lawsuit, filed Monday before a state judge in Atlanta, argues the rules violate a state law that makes certification a mandatory duty. The suit asks the judge to find the rules are invalid because the State Election Board, now dominated by allies of former President Donald Trump, is exceeding its legal authority.
The actions of the board alarm Democrats and voting rights activists, playing out against Georgia’s background of partisan struggle over voting procedures that predates even the 2020 presidential election. It’s a battle in yet another state over what had long been an administrative afterthought, state and local boards certifying results.
