Kamala Harris and Tim Walz are campaigning in Arizona as they look to solidify their presence in the Sun Belt.
GLENDALE, Arizona: Vice President Kamala Harris and her new running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, have drawn thousands of supporters to their rallies as the new Democratic nominee tours key battleground states.
As Beyoncé's “Freedom” blasted throughout the arena, Harris walked onto the stage to cheers and shouts from the crowd of more than 15,000.
“As exciting as this is, we can't lose sight of the fact that we are clearly running as underdogs,” Harris said. “We are underdogs. We are outnumbered, but we have a lot of work to do.”
The rally was held in a state represented by U.S. Senator Mark Kelly, a Democrat, whom Harris did not pick as her running mate. The former astronaut and gun control advocate was a strong contender for the job, having won two close races in the politically divided state of Arizona.
By passing up Kelly, Harris may have missed an opportunity to attract people like Gonzalo Leyva, a 49-year-old landscaper from Phoenix who said he planned to vote for former President Donald Trump, a Republican, but would have supported Harris-Kelly.
“I like Kelly 100 times better,” said Leyva, a lifelong Democrat who became an independent early in Trump’s term. “I don’t think he’s as extreme as some of the others.”
In Arizona, every vote will count. The state is no stranger to nail-biting races, including one in which President Joe Biden beat Trump by 11,000 votes in 2020. Both parties are gearing up for a similarly close finish this year.
“These last few months will feel like years, and it’s going to be hard to see who wins by a wide margin,” said Constantine Querard, a Republican strategist in the state.
Harris acknowledged how competitive the race will be as she toured the North Phoenix campaign office with Walz Friday afternoon and thanked volunteers who were making signs with phrases like “This mama votes for Kamala” and “Kamala and Coach.” (Walz was a high school football coach.)
“It's going to be a lot of work,” Harris told the volunteers who won in November.
Democrats are confident Harris will be a strong presence in the state even if Kelly is not nominated. The senator is expected to be a strong advocate for Harris, and there is already talk of a Cabinet position or other important role for the vice president if he ascends to the Oval Office. Kelly is expected to attend the Arizona rally.
“Not picking Kelly hasn’t put a damper on the support for Harris,” said Stacy Pierson, a Phoenix-based Democratic strategist. She said she’s seen enthusiasm for the new ticket, similar to the huge crowds that greeted Harris and Walz at previous stops on their tour, including the home of another running mate, Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro.
DJ Quinlan, another Arizona Democratic strategist, agreed. “There’s a lot of enthusiasm on the ground. It feels very much like 2008,” he said, referring to former President Barack Obama’s first run, which electrified Democratic voters.
Arizona is a magnet for Midwesterners looking to escape the cold, so many observers say Waltz could still do well there. Scott Snyder, who moved to Phoenix from Detroit three years ago, said he didn't know much about Kelly's background or his political stance, but he said Harris made the right choice.
“He's a lot like my dad,” said Snyder, an electrical engineer. “You see the picture of him as a high school football coach. That resonates with me. You see him duck hunting. It's the same thing. It's pretty common where I live in Michigan.”
Arizona was a reliably Republican stronghold until Trump's aggressive approach to politics spread nationwide.
After Trump won Arizona in 2016, he quickly began feuding with the state’s political icon, the late Republican Senator John McCain. This led to a steady exodus of educated and moderate Republicans from the GOP, shifting to the Democrats in the top races.
In 2018, Democrats won the Senate race in the state, foreshadowing Kelly’s 2020 victory and Biden’s. In 2022, Kelly won again, and Democrats won the top three statewide races for governor, attorney general, and secretary of state, defeating the Republican nominees who lost the 2020 presidential election on Trump’s style and lies about fraud.
Chuck Coughlin, a Republican strategist and former McCain staffer, said voters who predicted Democrats would win the last few elections remain lukewarm at best toward Trump.
“Trump is doing nothing to engage that segment of the electorate,” he said.
The campaign is already taking place on familiar territory in Arizona: the border with Mexico. Trump and his allies have lambasted Biden for his handling of the influx of immigrants throughout his presidency, and are turning their attacks on Harris.
“It’s very easy for us to turn our gaze toward her,” said Dave Smith, chairman of the Pima County Republican Party.
Kari Lake, who is running against Democratic Rep. Ruben Gallego for a Senate seat in Arizona, released an ad late last week that lambasted Gallego for supporting Biden and Harris’ “radical border agenda,” repeatedly showing clips of the vice president laughing.
On Thursday, Lake told reporters that Harris was less popular in Arizona than Biden. “They like Kamala Harris less,” Lake said. “They know she didn’t do anything on the border.”
Meanwhile, Harris is targeting the state's fast-growing Latino population with her own ads highlighting how Harris, the daughter of immigrants from India and Jamaica, rose to the highest office in American politics.
Harris's background and relative youth brought Arizona and other Sun Belt states back into the race, which has been confined to just three “blue wall” states: Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.
Despite its young population, Arizona is also known for its large retirement communities, and Pearson argued that Biden's age of 81 puts him at a disadvantage in the state.
“The retired colleagues are the first to say, ‘This is not OK,’” Pearson said of Biden’s age. “With Harris and Walz in the lead, I’m much more optimistic.”
