Harris wants to campaign with Usher; Trump announces rally in Pennsylvania

Former President Barack Obama will travel to Charlotte, North Carolina, for a campaign rally next Friday, according to a Harris campaign official.

North Carolina has not been ahead in a presidential race since 2008, when Obama was elected to his first term. During his campaign stop, he will encourage voters to vote early or return their mail-in ballots, the official said.

Obama is making stops in a number of swing states in the final phase of his campaign, including his first joint appearance with Harris next Thursday in Georgia. He campaigned in Arizona yesterday and is stopping in Nevada today. He is also expected to visit Michigan and Wisconsin next week.

Former NFL players Antonio Brown and Le’Veon Bell will attend Trump’s rally in Pennsylvania today. According to the campaign, Brown will also give a speech during the event.

Brown was previously arrested for allegedly failing to pay child support. He also had a warrant out for his arrest on domestic battery charges, but it was later dropped.

A former coach sued Brown in 2019 over alleged sexual assault. Brown denied the allegations and eventually reached a settlement with his accuser.

At a rally in Detroit, Harris encouraged attendees to vote early, alluding to the fact that voters in North Carolina and Georgia set new records earlier this week for the number of voters who voted early.

“So who is the capital of record production?” Harris asked the crowd with a laugh.

“We’re going to break some records here in Detroit today. We will do this because we know what is at stake and we know the power of the people,” she added.

In digital ads on Snapchat and Instagram, the Harris campaign is using dating game-style videos to persuade young people to make a plan to vote.

In an ad posted near several college campuses in Arizona, women hold balloons while questioning a man about his job, his salary, his height and whether he works out. Then a woman asks, “Are you planning to vote?”

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The Harris campaign said today that the vice president’s husband, Doug Emhoff, will travel to North Carolina on Tuesday to campaign, participate in hurricane relief efforts and speak at a voting event.

Before a campaign rally in Detroit, Harris told reporters that she had spent more time on the campaign trail responding to Trump because he was “more and more unstable and unhinged, and it requires that response.”

“I think the American people see it … and I think the American people deserve better than someone who actually appears to be unstable,” the vice president added.

NBC News has reached out to the Trump campaign for comment.

During a press call in Detroit, Harris said she was encouraged by record early voting turnout in North Carolina and Georgia.

“In fact, today in Michigan I’m going to challenge people here to do the same,” Harris said.

Asked if she was worried that Republicans would lean toward early voting this year, Harris dismissed that fear, telling reporters: “I don’t have enough data yet to tell you who is voting for who and /or as they tend to, but I think that’s true.” It’s great that people are voting and being active. What we should all want in our democracy is for people to understand that it is their civic duty, but also that they can make a difference.”

The former president will be back in the Keystone State on Saturday, where he is scheduled to appear at a campaign rally tonight in Latrobe, just outside Pittsburgh.

The vice president will begin her campaign today in Detroit, where she is scheduled to appear at an early afternoon event alongside the city’s Grammy winner Lizzo.

But the celebrity cameos don’t end there. After the event in Detroit, Harris is scheduled to fly to Atlanta for a campaign rally with rapper and singer Usher.

Vice President Kamala Harris is increasingly targeting a group of voters she believes could make a crucial difference in several key battleground states: Republicans and Republican-leaning independents who can’t bring themselves to support former President Donald Trump.

On Wednesday, Harris hosted an event with many of her top Republican surrogates in Bucks County, Pennsylvania – a key swing area in the key battleground state. A day earlier, her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, held an event at the farm of a former Trump voter in rural western Pennsylvania.

Those events followed a high-profile rally in Wisconsin at which Harris appeared alongside former Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., and at which Harris touted the support of her and her father, former Vice President Dick Cheney, who left office with remarkably low approval ratings. On Saturday, the Harris campaign announced a panel tour with the younger Cheney.

The Harris campaign — which believes these voters are being undercounted in polls — had her in mind when it scheduled an interview with Fox News on Wednesday, shortly before its event with Republican supporters.

Read the full story here.

Mesa Mayor John Giles, a Republican who supports Kamala Harris for president, is upset about the disconnect between Arizona’s presidential race and what happens further down the ballot.

Polls show Republican Senate candidate Kari Lake, Donald Trump’s typical supporter, losing a significant portion of the former president’s voters to her Democratic rival, Rep. Ruben Gallego.

Read the full story here.

James Carville was recently on the Upper East Side of Manhattan when he was repeatedly stopped by anxious New Yorkers begging the famous Cajun politician for advice on the outcome of the November election.

He had nothing for her.

“They firmly believed that I had secret knowledge,” the veteran Democratic strategist said. “It’s the hardest thing in the world to tell someone who thinks you’re all-powerful that you really aren’t.”

Read the full story here.