Harris returns to South Carolina to boost voting in midterms

By MEG KINNARD
Associated Press

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris is visiting two historically Black colleges in South Carolina to push for voter registration as she focuses on places and demographics that will be key to Democrats’ chances to hold on to Congress in midterm elections.

Harris is traveling to Orangeburg on Tuesday to speak at a convocation at South Carolina State University, an HBCU where President Joe Biden addressed graduates last year. She’ll also hold a roundtable discussion with students at nearby Claflin University.

The South Carolina trip, her third to the state as vice president, is part of Harris’ increased travel schedule ahead of the midterms. She talked reproductive rights in Chicago on Friday, and she’s heading to Wisconsin on Thursday to speak at the Democratic Attorneys General Conference. Earlier this month, she traveled to Houston for the National Baptist Convention.

Harris’ trips are designed to prevent, or at least limit, any drop-off in turnout among voters of color and young people, important parts of the Democratic coalition.

In South Carolina, which holds the first presidential balloting in the South, Black voters play an outsize role in the Democratic voting electorate. During a June visit to the state, Harris expressed appreciation for South Carolina Democrats, whose key support for Biden in the first-in-the-South primary in 2020 helped turn around his campaign and build momentum in later contests that led to the party’s nomination.

Harris’ arrival in South Carolina follows shortly after Biden’s noncommittal response to CBS’ “60 Minutes” when asked if he would run again in 2024.

“My intention, as I said to begin with, is that I would run again,” the president said during a wide-ranging interview that aired Sunday. “But it’s just an intention. But is it a firm decision that I run again? That remains to be seen.”

Biden noted in the interview that declaring his intention to seek reelection would put him afoul of campaign finance laws, which could have complicated spending by the Democratic National Committee ahead of the midterms.

White House officials said Biden is continuing to lay the groundwork for a 2024 run. Allies, though, acknowledge that he could always decide against seeking reelection before a formal announcement, which is expected in the first half of 2023.

Earlier this year, Biden committed to tapping Harris as his running mate for the 2024 reelection campaign. Her visit comes as Republicans considering White House bids of their own — including former Vice President Mike Pence, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis — continue to crisscross the state.

Some native South Carolina Republicans have also been testing the 2024 waters. Nikki Haley, who served the state for six years as governor before joining the Trump administration as U.N. ambassador, lives in the Charleston area and has been visiting other early voting states, as has U.S. Sen. Tim Scott.

___

Associated Press writers Chris Megerian and Zeke Miller in Washington contributed to this report.

___

Meg Kinnard can be reached on Twitter at http://twitter.com/MegKinnardAP.