As Harris campaigns in Georgia, voters share how she shifted the mood of the election

Vice President Kamala Harris is hitting the campaign trail in the battleground Georgia, her first visit since locking up the votes for the nomination. She plans to visit several swing states in the coming weeks ahead of the Democratic convention. Laura Barrón-López reports from Atlanta.

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Geoff Bennett: Vice President Kamala Harris is hitting the campaign trail in the battleground state of Georgia today, her first visit since gaining commitments for the necessary delegate votes to win the nomination. And she plans to visit several swing states in the coming weeks ahead of the Chicago Democratic Convention.

Our Laura Barron-Lopez joins us now on the ground in Atlanta. So, Laura, some 10,000 people, at least 10,000 people have registered for that rally tonight where you are. I know you have been talking to folks as they make their way into that stadium. What have they been telling you? How are they feeling?

Laura Barron-Lopez : Well, people have been lined up out here, Geoff, since before 10:00 a.m. at this venue in Atlanta. And a lot of the voters are incredibly excited.

For some of them, it’s the first time that they have come to a big political rally. And I also sat down with three Black women voters earlier today to talk to them about the election cycle. And those voters, I asked them how they feel about all of the big changes that have occurred in this election just in the last week.

Prior to President Biden dropping out of the race, how would you describe how you felt about the election in one word?

Woman: I hate to say it, but I mean, I really felt this sense of doom and dread.

Rachel Mitchum Elahee, Georgia Voter: Nervous.

Woman: I felt scared.

Laura Barron-Lopez : And how do you feel now?

Woman: Rejuvenated.

Rachel Mitchum Elahee: Hopeful.

Woman: Optimistic.

Laura Barron-Lopez : And that mood matches what we have been hearing from voters here waiting to see Harris, which is that they feel much better now about Democrats’ chances in the presidential race than they did before.

Geoff Bennett: So, Laura, the vice president’s speech tonight, as I understand it, is expected to have a sharp focus on reproductive rights. How important of an issue is that for the voters with whom you spoke earlier?

Laura Barron-Lopez : Well, it’s an incredibly important issue, Geoff.

And Vice President Harris has been the face of the White House’s messaging on abortion since the fall of Roe v. Wade. The vice president herself went in March to an abortion clinic. She was the first vice president or president sitting in that office that had ever visited an abortion clinic at the time.

And one of the voters that I spoke to today, Rachel Mitchum Elahee, said that she thinks that Harris will be a much better messenger on abortion rights than President Biden.

Rachel Mitchum Elahee: And if the president of the United States is a woman who is speaking for women’s rights and women’s reproductive rights, I think that that will sway some people more than — even if President Biden was saying the same thing, I think President Harris — President Harris saying the same thing will have a different impact.

Laura Barron-Lopez : Rachel, as well as the other Black women voters that I spoke to, said that abortion is still one of their top issues and that they think that it’s really salient for voters here in Georgia.

Geoff Bennett: Well, V.P. Harris has been the likely Democratic nominee for a little more than a week now. How is her campaign strategy taking shape, Laura?

Laura Barron-Lopez : Well, Vice President Harris, as well as former President Donald Trump, are out with new ad buys today, Geoff, trying to both define Kamala Harris.

And Kamala Harris’ campaign launched a $50 million ad buy, and that $50 million ad buy is trying to define the vice president, essentially looking back to her time as prosecutor, as attorney general in California, and they also are attempting to attack Donald Trump in that ad that is going to be playing across battleground states, specifically going at him on his attacks on the Affordable Care Act, Geoff.

And the Harris campaign essentially says that they believe that now they have more than one pathway to 270 electoral votes. And so that’s ultimately — they’re focusing on states like Georgia, as well as the Sun Belt, much more than just the blue wall states.

Geoff Bennett: Lastly, Laura, we’re expecting the vice president to name her running mate in a matter of days. How is the vetting process shaping up?

Laura Barron-Lopez : So, Vice President Harris, Geoff, was asked on her way here if she had picked her running mate yet, and she said not yet

But that decision is going to be coming very soon, because, by August 7, Kamala Harris will be likely named the Democratic nominee. And so she has to pick her vice president by roughly August 6. And the people that sources close to the campaign tell me she’s still considering include Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, as well as Arizona Senator Mark Kelly.

And that decision is going to be coming very soon, Geoff, because sources close to the campaign tell me that, as early as next week, Harris is going to be out on the campaign trail with whoever she picks as her running mate.

Geoff Bennett: Laura Barron-Lopez reporting tonight from a Kamala Harris rally in Atlanta, Georgia.

Laura, thanks so much.

Laura Barron-Lopez : Thank you.