Kamala Harris caps Georgia bus tour with Savannah rally

SAVANNAH, Ga. — Vice President Kamala Harris on Thursday worked to shore up Democratic support in Georgia by visiting a part of the battleground state that’s not frequented by politicians nearly as much as the more heavily populated metro Atlanta area.

“For the past two election cycles, voters in this very state, you who are here have delivered,” Harris said. “You sent two extraordinary senators to Washington, D.C.”

She said Georgians mobilized to put a Democrat in the Oval Office four years ago, and she’s hoping for a repeat.

“You showed up, you knocked on doors, you registered folks to vote, and you made it happen,” Harris said. “You did that. And so now we are asking you to do it again.”

The rally comes after Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, completed a two-day bus tour of southeastern Georgia. During a stop at a Savannah cafe on Thursday, Harris said that next week she plans to roll out a tax credit proposal for new startups and small businesses.

“This is one of my singular priorities, is to invest and grow our small businesses,” she said.

Shortly before the rally, Harris was joined by Walz for a joint interview with CNN that’s scheduled to air Thursday at 9 p.m. ET. It’s the vice president’s first sit-down interview since she launched her White House bid in late July.

The crowd at Savannah’s Enmarket Arena began filing into the venue more than three hours before Harris was set to speak, braving a torrential downpour while waiting in long lines to pass through security. Inside the arena, energetic supporters held signs reading “Freedom” and “A New Way Forward,” dancing to songs from CJ the DJ, a local radio host, as blue and white lights beamed across the audience.

A Harris-Walz campaign official said 7,500 people were in attendance. The official said that’s the maximum capacity for the venue.

Harris was interrupted twice by protesters, and the audience cheered as they were led out. One protester was pro-Palestinian, but it was unclear what the other protester was saying.

“I am speaking now,” Harris said as the first protester was escorted out, adding that she and President Joe Biden are working “around the clock” to secure a hostage deal.

Walz was not onstage for the Savannah rally. He’s in North Carolina for two campaign events.

Biden’s razor-thin 2020 victory in Georgia came down to fewer than 12,000 votes. One of the heaviest blue regions of the state is the metro Atlanta area, where Biden performed better than 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton in almost every county.

But Democratic leaders in Savannah say the Harris campaign is helping expand party support in the state’s southeast.

“Atlanta has always gotten the juice, has always gotten the love, but us here in southeast Georgia, we really matter,” said Aaron “Adot” Whitely, chair of the Democratic Party in Chatham County, where Savannah is located.

Biden narrowly improved Democrats’ margins in two blue southeastern counties in 2020, winning Chatham with 58.6% of the vote.

Savannah Mayor Van Johnson, who has long been vocal about the need for Democrats to more seriously engage with cities beyond Atlanta, said he feels that the Harris campaign has answered his call by opening seven field offices in southern Georgia.

“The fallacy often is that Georgia is Atlanta, and Atlanta is Georgia,” Johnson said. “Each city, each county, has its own distinct flavor and its own distinct history, and so it would be a fool’s errand to think that you can fly in and out of Atlanta and that you’ve covered Georgia.”

Jonae Wartel, senior adviser to the Harris campaign in Georgia, emphasized that Democrats learned the importance of having a statewide strategy from their successful 2021 Senate runoff races, when she served as runoff director for Georgia Democrats.

Sens. Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff won their Georgia races nearly four years ago, giving Democrats a majority in the Senate. Warnock kept his seat in 2022, beating his Republican opponent.

“I think it’s really important to not see Georgians as a single type of voter, but more a broad coalition,” Wartel said. “So taking her to parts of Georgia that are outside of metro Atlanta is incredibly important.”

The campaign saw a boost in volunteer efforts when Harris announced her campaign, with more than 35,000 people joining volunteer efforts in Georgia, according to Porsha White, the Harris campaign’s Georgia state director, in a news release.

Amy Morton, CEO of the Democratic consulting firm Southern Majority, said that Harris rising to the top of the ticket also became a “game changer” for down-ballot races.

Oftentimes, Democrats in swing districts try to distance themselves from the presidential nominee, Morton said.

“That is flipped in this situation,” she said. “I already have Republican opponents in these districts who are sprinting away from Trump.”