Harris brings back Chuck Taylors as she makes 2024 campaign her own

MOON, Pennsylvania — A wave of changes have followed in Vice President Kamala Harris’ wake as she became the Democratic Party’s presidential nominee.

Black female artists such as Beyoncé and Lauryn Hill have replaced Biden campaign walk-on songs on event playlists. Harris ditched her plane on Sunday in Pittsburgh in favor of a western Pennsylvania bus tour.

And in a move that was reminiscent of Harris’ first presidential bid, she showed up to the trip wearing Chuck Taylors.

The Converse kicks had been a Harris staple when she competed for the Democratic nomination five years ago. While she was running for vice president, Harris wore them regularly. Yet, they had largely disappeared from view after she ascended to the second most powerful position in the country.

But as she began a campaign swing that runs through Milwaukee and Chicago, her signature footwear made their return. It was the latest example of Harris reasserting herself in the campaign she inherited from President Joe Biden in ways that are big and small.

Although she has largely stuck to Biden’s policies — doubling down last week on several of his economic plans — she and running mate Tim Walz, the Minnesota governor, have been finding ways to make the campaign their own.

Harris, Walz campaign across western Pennsylvania

They arrived on Sunday at an airport hanger, where they greeted a cheering crowd. The pair proceeded to visit a phone bank, a fire house, a football practice and a local restaurant. And the Pennsylvania gas station Sheetz.

At their campaign office in Rochester, Pennsylvania, Harris, Walz and their spouses surprised voters with calls on volunteers’ cell phones.

They spoke afterward in front of a homemade “Pennsylvania for Harris Walz sign” on an off-white canvas with an outline of the state surrounding it.

“The vast majority of us have so much more in common than what separates us," Harris told a tent of 73 volunteers. "That's what this campaign is about.”

It was the first time that Harris and Walz had campaigned together with their spouses since the day Harris announced the former teacher and congressman as her running mate. In between campaign stops, they rode the freshly wrapped blue-and-white bus bearing their names, and the two families got to know one another.

To a group of firefighters they visited, Harris delivered two burnt almond tortes from Prantl’s Bakery. At a Sheetz here in the township of Moon, Harris stopped to get Doritos, which she said was her go-to snack.

While the bus was in the town of Aliquippa, they stopped by a high school football practice.

At the ready-made opportunity for Walz, the former football coach told players politics is not so different from sports: everyone is in the game together. Harris talked to them about leadership and told the players they were role models for their peers.

"It's not easy being a role model," she said. "Welcome to the role model club."

Second visit to must-win state

It was Harris’ second visit to Pennsylvania in as many weeks. Pennsylvania has 19 electoral votes and is considered a must-win state in the 2024 presidential election for both party’s candidates.

Pennsylvania Sen. Bob Casey, who is up for reelection this fall, joined the first part of her tour. Gov. Josh Shapiro was not present. He attended an event with Harris and Walz in early August after she picked the Minnesota governor to run with her but skipped the events on the eve of Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

Harris is in a dead heat with Trump in the state, ahead by two percentage points among registered voters in a New York Times/Siena College poll released in mid-August.

“I feel like we need to earn everyone's vote, and that means being on the road, being in communities where people are, where they live,” Harris said on Sunday of the state.

Harris is less than a month into her candidacy, the first few weeks of which she spent consolidating Democratic support. She’s added new hires and outlined the beginnings of an economic agenda on Friday. She said she will have more to say on her plans soon.

In the expedited campaign, she has less than three months to convince voters to choose her. Still, a survey released by CBS News showed Harris up by three points over Trump nationally on Sunday.

“I very much consider us the underdog,” she told reporters on Sunday evening. “We have a lot of work to do to earn the vote of the American people.”

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Harris brings back Chuck Taylors as she makes 2024 campaign her own