(NewsNation) — Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz are headed to Arizona for a campaign rally on Friday as immigration remains a top issue in the 2024 presidential race.
Republicans have been attacking Harris on the border and while she has spoken about it, so far her campaign has focused more on messaging than specific policy proposals.
One example is an event in Michigan on Thursday with auto workers, where Harris placed a big focus on unity and lifting people up to bolster whole communities.
“We were a community of people who looked out for each other, raised by a community of folks who understood that the true measure of the strength of a leader is not based on who you beat down. It’s based on who you lift up,” she said.
The vice president has focused on similar messages on the campaign trail this week but in Arizona, a battleground state, the focus may shift to the border. Former President Donald Trump previously held a lead in the state, but that is changing.
In a Decision Desk HQ average of polls, Trump’s lead has dwindled to a 2% margin between Harris and Trump. That is within the margin of error for many polls that we’ve seen up to this point.
In Arizona, every vote will be critical. The state is no stranger to nail-biter races, including in 2020 when President Joe Biden bested Trump by fewer than 11,000 votes. Both parties are bracing for a similar photo finish this year.
Each battleground state is different when it comes to strategy, with Harris focusing heavily on the Midwest in recent days.
In Arizona, she may attempt to woo what are colloquially called McCain Republicans. They are Republicans who may have liked the old guard of the Republican Party, the Jeff Flakes, the John McCains, the George Bushes of the world who are not very satisfied with the current direction of the party and the MAGA movement.
There has been movement taking place this week in Arizona, for example, signs from Republicans for Harris. She also picked up an endorsement from the mayor of Mesa, who is a registered Republican.
“I think the time has come for us, as Arizona Republicans, to admit the obvious and to start saying the quiet part out loud, which is that our party’s nominee is not qualified for office and that we need to vote for the adult in the room and that is Kamala Harris,” Mayor John Giles said.
So that is one major focusing Arizona, an attempt to peel away Republican voters who may have voted red in 2008 and 2012 and maybe even 2016. This was a state Democrats were able to put into their column in 2020 and following a strong showing in the 2022 midterms, they’re hoping to build off that momentum.
Harris is expected to keep crisscrossing the country to visit battleground states with Nevada next on the list, where she will hold an event in Las Vegas on Saturday.
The Associated Press contributed to this article.
