WASHINGTON – Vice President Kamala Harris is enlisting some of her most high-profile surrogates in the closing days of the campaign, hoping those names will help energize her supporters to vote early in the 2024 election.
On Thursday, Harris will headline a Georgia rally that will include a performance from Bruce Springsteen, whose career spans over five decades, and an appearance by former President Barack Obama, still one of the biggest names in Democratic politics.
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On Friday, Harris travels to Texas for a Houston rally with Beyoncé, according to three people familiar with the matter. Beyoncé is a native of the Texas city and one of the world's best-known artists. Her 2016 song “Freedom” has become Harris’ campaign anthem.
While the Friday rally is in a red state that even the most optimistic Democrat knows the vice president is unlikely to turn blue in November, her event on Thursday in Georgia highlights the state’s prominent place in her possible path to defeating former President Donald Trump.
Democrats, led by then-former Vice President Joe Biden and Harris, won Georgia in 2020, becoming the first Democratic presidential campaign to win the Southern state since Bill Clinton in 1992. Harris’ campaign is hopeful she can keep the state blue in 2024.
Polls of likely voters in Georgia from NYT/Siena to Fox News to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution show a tight race between Trump and Harris.
Thursday's event is the first in the campaign’s “When We Vote We Win” concert series that aims to encourage Harris supporters to vote before Election Day.
Harris said she's "very honored” to have Obama’s support and called Springsteen an “American icon.” Actor and filmmaker Tyler Perry and DJ Mix Master David will also headline the event.
Harris is not the only member of the Democratic campaign to lean on star power in the final days. Gov. Tim Walz, Harris’ running mate, will have events in North Carolina on Thursday alongside singer-songwriter James Taylor.
Democrats are known for leaning on high-profile surrogates in the final days of presidential races.
Springsteen has long been a supporter of Democratic presidential campaigns. The artist backed Obama in 2008 and 2012, even endorsing the would-be president in the contentious 2008 Democratic primary. He backed former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in 2016, performing at a Philadelphia rally on the eve of Election Day, and endorsed Biden in 2020. The New Jersey artist endorsed Harris earlier this month, calling Trump the "most dangerous candidate for president in my lifetime.”
Beyoncé, too, backed Clinton in 2016, performing at an event in Cleveland alongside husband and rapper Jay Z just days before Election Day that year. And Taylor has become a staple at Democratic events and fundraisers.
But Clinton’s loss to Trump in 2016, despite the considerable star power behind her, serves as a warning for Democrats that energy provided by big-name artists like Springsteen and Beyoncé is often not enough to win an election.
Harris campaign advisers, though, see events like those in Georgia and Texas as major moments to mobilize voter enthusiasm and get out the vote before Election Day.
According to the Associated Press count, 2,025,645 people in Georgia have already voted early in-person, while an additional 134,336 mail-in ballots have been submitted in the 2024 general election.