(Bloomberg) -- Vice President Kamala Harris urged a church congregation in the Atlanta area to reject candidates who spread hate and divisiveness, seeking to mobilize Black voters in the final stretch before the Nov. 5 election.
“What we do see are some people trying to deepen division upon us, spread hate, sow fear, and cause chaos,” Harris told the predominantly Black congregation Sunday at New Birth Baptist Church in Stonecrest, Georgia, without directly naming her election opponent, former President Donald Trump.
This election “must be about so much more than personalities. It must be about looking inward,” she said.
The Democratic presidential nominee’s prospects in the state hinge partly on her ability to turn out Georgia’s sizable Black electorate, who account for a third of eligible voters in the state, according to a Pew Research Center analysis — one of the highest shares in the country.
Trump has ramped up his outreach to Black voters this cycle, seeking to peel away support from a key Democratic bloc in the hopes of tipping the balance in swing states such as Georgia.
Democrats have expressed alarm that Harris, who is seeking to be the first Black woman US president in history, is under-performing with Black men.
“There is a natural skepticism that I think a lot of Black voters have, and not necessarily about the Vice President and not about the Democratic party. It’s about the pace of progress in America,” Maryland Governor Wes Moore said on Fox News Sunday.
Moore cited Harris’ rollout of policy positions around wages and wealth last week — targeting a black male audience — as important for making her case with the cohort.
Governors of three so-called Blue Wall states seen as key to a Democratic victory — Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin — said on ABC’s This Week that get-out-the-vote efforts will be key in the final stretch.
“I agree it’s going to be close, but you cannot roll up your sleeves if you’re wringing your hands,” Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer said, adding that “we’re not going to make any assumptions” about who will win.
And former President Barack Obama, who will join Harris this week to campaign in Georgia, recognized voter angst in Las Vegas remarks Saturday, in a bid to appeal to voters in another key battleground state.
“I get why people are looking to shake things up,” he said. “What I cannot understand is why anybody would think that Donald Trump will shake things up in a way that is good for you, because there’s absolutely no evidence that this man thinks about anybody but himself.”
Harris looked to drum up voter enthusiasm in Atlanta to counter Trump’s strength in rural counties in the state and is urging supporters to take advantage of early in-person or mail-in voting to cast their ballots.
President Joe Biden became the first Democratic presidential candidate to win Georgia in nearly three decades in 2020, defeating Trump by less than a quarter of a percentage point — a loss the Republican former president alleged without proof was part of a conspiracy to keep him out of the White House.
More than 1.3 million ballots have been cast in Georgia, according to state data.
The secretary of state’s office said Georgia voters “turned out in record numbers” on the first day of early voting last Tuesday. Democratic National Committee Chairman Jaime Harrison, on Friday, described the levels as “historic.”
The RealClearPolitics average of polls shows a razor-tight race in the state with Trump leading Harris by 1.8 percentage points.
Another flash point in Georgia has been the devastation left by Hurricane Helene, which tore a path of destruction across several southeastern states last month.
Trump criticized the Biden administration’s response including promoting unfounded claims about the amount of assistance the storm’s victims were receiving, leading the president and Harris to accuse him of spreading misinformation.
In her church remarks on Sunday, Harris drew on Biblical references to praise what she said she’s witnessed with communities coming together after the storm.
“We have seen the good Samaritans walking among us,” she told the congregation. “Let us not be weary in moments like this.”
The storm has also raised concerns about the impact on early voting. Harrison said the party has invested “millions of dollars” in a voter protection program, including offering an online and text hotline to assist Americans with questions on how to vote.
Earlier Sunday, Biden and Harris released separate statements expressing condolences and pledging resources for another incident in Georgia — the collapse of a ferry dock walkway on Sapelo Island.
--With assistance from Alicia Diaz and Tony Czuczka.
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