Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Barack Obama attend an event to mark the 2010 passage of the Affordable Care Act in the East Room of the White House on April 5, 2022, in Washington, DC. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Vice President Kamala Harris will make her first campaign appearances with Barack Obama and Michelle Obama, two of the most popular figures in the Democratic Party, at get-out-the-vote events this month in Georgia and Michigan.
It will be the former first lady’s first time hitting the trail for Harris.
Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, is set to appear with Obama in Georgia on Oct. 24 and with Mrs. Obama in Michigan on Oct. 26, according to a Harris campaign senior official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss events before they are officially announced.
The official did not disclose the cities where Harris will join the Obamas.
The former president recently campaigned for Harris in Pittsburgh and has appearances scheduled Friday and Saturday in Arizona and Nevada, respectively, and next week in Wisconsin and Michigan.
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Harris, Trump, and the gender gap
While polls show the race for the White House in a dead heat, there is a wide gap between male and female voters when it comes to their choice for president. Both candidates are working to close the gender gap just weeks from Election Day.
So far in Georgia, where early voting opened this Tuesday, just shy of 900,000 people have voted early statewide - more than 12% of all eligible voters.
The Obamas endorsed Harris in July and spoke at the Democratic National Convention in August in Chicago. They remain prodigious fundraising draws and popular surrogates at large campaign events for Democratic candidates.
The event in Georgia will be the second time Harris will be in the state in a week. The vice president has scheduled a campaign rally in Atlanta on Saturday to encourage Georgians to continue to cast their votes early. New Birth Missionary Baptist Church says that Harris will worship at the church's Sunday service the day after the rally.
It was previously announced that Mrs. Obama will headline a rally in Atlanta on Oct. 29, three days after joining Harris in Michigan.
The rally, which will feature celebrities and civic leaders, is being hosted by When We All Vote, a nonpartisan civic engagement organization that the former first lady founded in 2018 to reach out to people who are less likely to become involved in politics and elections.
Among the group’s celebrity co-chairs are NBA players Stephen Curry and Chris Paul; musical artists Jennifer Lopez and Janelle Monáe; beauty influencer Bretman Rock; and actors Tom Hanks, Selena Gomez, Lin-Manuel Miranda and Kerry Washington.
The friendship between Harris and the Obamas goes back 20 years, when the former president and current vice president met during his campaign for the U.S. Senate. She was an early supporter of his 2008 presidential campaign and went door-knocking for him in Iowa before the caucuses.