Harris works to gain ground in red states

Harris focused this week on expanding her potential paths to victory in November — targeting North Carolina, where Barack Obama was the last Democratic presidential candidate to win in 2008 — the first post-debate poll suggested a small but potentially promising post-debate bounce.

Harris highlighted those themes as she tried to reach the many blue-collar voters who have favored Republicans in recent years, with her visits to Johnstown and Wilkes-Barre, a former coal town with a heavy union presence in Pennsylvania’s Luzerne County.

With early voting slated to begin within days, Harris has toggled this week between events aimed at activating her core supporters — including Black voters in Charlotte and Greensboro — and a push to drive up her margins in tougher territory for Democrats such as Pennsylvania’s Luzerne County and Johnstown, a tiny blue dot in western Pennsylvania surrounded by redder areas that have favored Trump in recent elections. Both in Johnstown and Wilkes-Barre — the most populous city in Luzerne County — she criticized the “people trying to divide us as a nation, trying to make people feel small and feel alone.”